Game Planning Software: How to Plan a Game Development Project

Game planning software, one of the less glamorous aspects of game development, is frequently what distinguishes successful projects from unsuccessful ones.

Whether you’ve just finished your biggest game development project or are attempting something new for the first time, it’s easy to get carried away when you have a wonderful new idea for a game. You’re brimming with excitement and itching to start producing. It is likely that developers who are reading this want to launch Unreal or Unity and begin putting together a prototype. If you’re a skilled designer, concept art might already be on your thoughts.

Let’s delve deeper into the requirements for putting up a successful game development project and the tools that may be used to your advantage. In this article, 95news.com will discuss game planning software: how to plan a game development project.

Game Planning Software: How to plan a game development project

Selecting the right game planner software – Game planning software

Whether you work alone as a game designer or as part of a huge multidisciplinary team, you need a system to manage your time and resources. Things will inevitably fall between the cracks without a methodical strategy, which could lead to the failure of the overall development project.

Using one of the various project management tools and documentation solutions available will help you stay on track. If you’re working on a simple, small-scale game development project, a mix of Google Docs and Sheets might be sufficient. For more difficult tasks, however, more sophisticated technology are required.

Initial planning – Game planning software

After selecting your game planner application, it’s time to begin planning your game.

Keep in mind that no plan you come up with should be considered absolute truth.You must account for the fact that game creation is a very fluid process in your plan. A game development plan frequently changes as new requirements or activities are discovered, as tasks are finished or put off, and as new information about the project comes to light.

The first stage in preparing any game is creating a game design document, which will serve as your game’s blueprint throughout the development process.

Start with the game’s basic concept and answer the following questions:

• What is the core idea behind the game? How can it be summarized in a compelling game pitch?
• What type of video game is it? Will it be 2D or 3D?
• What are some essential characteristics that it must have?
• Who are its characters? What time and place did the story occur in?
• Who is our target audience?
• Which platforms will be supported?

Though it doesn’t often seem that way, coming up with concepts and solutions for these essential issues is one of the most challenging parts of the game development process. This information will serve as the cornerstone of your entire project.

Proofing your game concept – Game planning software

The next step is proof of concept. Now it’s up to you to evaluate if the ideas you’ve developed are practical. You can accomplish that by responding to the following questions:

• What is our budget? How much are we anticipating the game’s development to cost?
• Do we possess the technological capacity to construct it?
• Which gaming engine and other game development software will we use?
• Who will be on our team? Who will be responsible for what?
• What is our estimated development timeframe?
• How will we monetize the game?

If you’re a part of a sizable game development firm and hoping to have your game produced by a publisher, thoroughly validating your game concept becomes a crucial stage that needs to be done early on. Before you can proceed, your publisher will require a thorough description of what to expect from you.

However, since they don’t have to answer to a publisher, independent game developers typically have more freedom during this time. Even if you are using crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, a thorough proof of concept may still be necessary.

Creating a task backlog – Game planning software

The next step is to determine your game’s requirements. The next step is to list supporting features for each criterion separately. The roles for each department, such as programming, art, animation, level design, sounds, etc., will then need to be further separated for each feature.

The player’s perspective on needs can be captured through the writing of user stories. A common user story is conveyed as a quick sentence using informal, everyday language, like this:

• I want to open the main menu as a player so I may begin a new game.

   

• I want to be able to modify/update my playing experience as a player by changing the available options.

   

• I want to be able to continue playing where I left off by saving my progress.

Put together a production schedule – Game planning software

You must give a priority to each task after compiling a list of all the ones that need to be completed. It is best to begin by creating a high-level blueprint of the entire manufacturing strategy.

A number of good diagramming tools, like Miro, LucidChart, Diagrams.net, Gliffy, and others, can be used to represent your development history. If you are using Nuclino as your game planner, you can quickly and easily add an interactive preview of your roadmap onto a page.

No matter how carefully you planned your game’s requirements and scope in the beginning, keep in mind that they may change repeatedly as it is being made. Be open-minded and mindful that the final product may be very different from your initial notion. Make sure your game development strategy and game design document evolve along with your project.