The Stupidly Simple way I plan my Game Development

[@TJTheProgrammer]

I think a lot of solo devs get stuck trying to structure their work as if it were a medium-large company rather than what works for them to actually get work done. Simple == Progress!

[@Aarimous]

100%, a lot of the jira-like tools that we learn from our jobs are very useless for small teams. At best they are a way to organize the work of a large team and at worst they are a tool to mico-manage employees.

[@TJTheProgrammer]

@@Aarimous That's totally spot on! Some of the tools, like Trello, are nice if you're trying to manage multiple projects all at the same time, but at the end of the day it's still a to-do list that doesn't need all kinds of metrics for a manager to say if you're being productive or not

[@PHeMoX]

@@Aarimous Jira doesn't work so well for larger teams either. It's a bit old school with all of its list structures and the comments system. A lot of companies work with it, but it could be a lot better and effective. In terms of some prioritizing and documenting some history of development, it is fine. But it's pretty time intensive to keep it super up to date and easy to get lost in micro-management indeed. To be honest, as a one-man developer myself I would never waste my time with putting too much into any of the note taking software. No need for even Trello, Notion or any other app really. In the end, all you need is a very small list. It's better to keep that extremely lean and mean. The reason is because you'll end up wasting a lot of time writing things down vs building stuff to try and scrape. Having said that, most one-person companies have to do some sort of hour registration for the tax department, so you _could_ technically combine stuff in just a scheduler of sorts.

[@bloggermusic1722]

Love these quick tips, I feel like just making a to do list and crossing it off or moving it over is the best way to get momentum going. Hope you're enjoying the snow, I'm jealous 😂

[@Aarimous]

Thanks for watching! If you'd like to support me further please go wishlist Hexagod: store.steampowered.com/app/3059390/Hexagod/

[@KhaosNyx]

Liking the island update. Excited to see the next round of changes. Really looking forward to the rogue-like elements, probably my favorite genre of games. Keep up the good work Aarimous!

[@Aarimous]

Thank you! I am also excited to see if I can thread the needle of a minimalistic roguelike village builder.

[@shawnwignall3094]

Finally another Minnesota gamedev!! Let’s go!!

[@Aarimous]

Always nice to met a fellow Minnesotan! Safe travels out there today!

[@foldupgames]

I swear we were separated at gamedev birth! I love it. Having a punch list in a word-type document is also what I do.

[@Aarimous]

Glad to hear we are of a similar mindset!

[@mischiefmotorsgame]

As a solo dev myself, and an Agile Coach in my "real" (😢) life, i keep things as lean as I can. My code is in git so I keep my kanban board in github. I go back to the essence of scrum which is an objective based framework (which companies tend to forget and make it a jira ticket machine). What that means is I have a vision of where I want my Product to be at in 3 Months (example: integrate multiplayer). And every week, i set myself a much smaller objective to reach that bigger goal (based on the time I'll actually have each week). For example: make splitscreen work. That objective is then translated into a to do list of things I need to do. In the first few months the objectives are much more exploratory and get more focused as I figure out what my game is going to be. Its worked well so far (until life took over but setbacks happen when youre not full time sooo it is what it is...)

[@JoeTheis]

Love the video and topic! I find that the urge to spend a lot of time in planning tools (trello, notion, jira, whatever) is actually procrastination in disguise, at least for a solo dev. Especially if you find yourself setting up complex systems with lots of templates, automation, and fancy bells and whistles. It *feels like* work, but it's an illusion. That said, they aren't totally useless and there is some value in planning. Working on the wrong thing for too long can be very expensive. It can just be tricky to figure out when the diminishing returns on planning time kick in. For myself, i think an easy tell is how *messy* and *tearse* the doc/plan/tickets etc are. The nicer/more verbose they are, especially if they have lots of nice formatting, the more i know I've just been procrastinating.

[@Aarimous]

True, there is a limit to the analysis where you have to just go make the dang game. Thanks for sharing :)

[@endgamedevs]

My program is a piece of paper and a pen. I like pen and paper. I have small notebook where I write down ideas. Good luck with your games.

[@gapbite]

Solo I use obsidian with kanban plugin. Working with others I love using Asana.

[@Kio_Kurashi]

Imagine planning out solo game development. :p