How do you schedule game development milestones?

Milestones serve as checkpoints throughout development. They break down the grand vision of your game into achievable goals. This provides a roadmap for your team, fosters accountability, and helps manage expectations. By hitting milestones, you can celebrate progress, identify areas needing more focus, and adjust your development timeline as needed.

Your game is your product and any great product requires planning. Here are the benefits I saw from scheduling my work: - helps you stay on track and reduces procrastination - helps you see the entire picture, not just the next step - help you keep track on your progress and every milestone reached will boost your drive to the next step

Firstly, it provides a clear roadmap for the project, outlining specific tasks, deadlines, and goals to be achieved within defined timeframes. This helps to keep the development process organized and on track, allowing teams to monitor progress and identify any potential issues or delays early on. Additionally, scheduling milestones enables effective project management, allowing stakeholders to allocate resources, prioritize tasks, and make informed decisions based on the project's progress.

I believe that one thing that is missing in the paragraph is the concept of accountability. Milestone are generally created and defined by the developer. They might be amended by the publisher, but it is done on the original content of the dev. It is a tacit contract in between the team who create the milestone with its production folks and the person who pay for the game (even if paid internally).

Scheduling milestones has several advantages. They force you to think about scope. Problems. People. Ordering of things. It's an invaluable tool for professional teams. But even in solo projects, it helps you learn about yourself and your limitations. At its core, creating milestones is about prediction of outcome and capacity. As you succeed and fail to create proper milestones for yourself, you'll learn more about how efficient you are. Where you thrive and where you struggle. It keeps you accountable and makes you better for it.

Um exemplo prático disso seria um jogo sobre ecologia, onde o jogador precisa cuidar de uma floresta. Um marco SMART poderia ser: "Implementar o sistema de plantio de árvores até o final da semana". Já o marco narrativo SMART relacionado seria: "Após plantar 10 árvores, o jogador aprende sobre a importância da fotossíntese para o ecossistema". Isso conecta o desenvolvimento do jogo com o aprendizado e cria uma experiência mais significativa para o jogador.

First step to properly defining a milestone is knowing exactly what you want to achieve. Often goals start as abstract ideas. A direction. In order to properly define a milestone, that direction must become a target. Once that is defined, the likelihood of it being an achievable goal should become more clear. If its already possible, great! Go for it. If its not, and the date can be moved. Well, consider moving the date. And if its not and the date cannot be moved, then you need to rethink your goals and find something that is achievable.

Effective milestones are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Clearly define what needs to be accomplished at each stage. Don't just say "Level Design." Instead, say "Complete level design for the first three levels."

another missing concept here, which is also very important, is to make sure that the milestone never exists on its own. This implies that there should always be a production storytelling in the milestone plan, that makes relevant the content of any milestones, in regards to the previous milestone, and the milestone that comes after it.

Start by identifying key deliverables, such as completing game mechanics, designing levels, or implementing features. Next, establish realistic deadlines for each milestone based on the project's scope, timeline, and resources available. Consider factors like dependencies between tasks, potential risks, and the team's capacity when setting milestones. Additionally, prioritize milestones based on their importance to the overall project timeline and goals. By defining clear and achievable milestones, you can effectively track progress, stay focused.

Accurately estimating time for milestones is an art. Divide large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. This makes it easier to estimate the time needed for each part.

Begin by breaking down the project into smaller tasks or components, such as coding, artwork creation, and testing. Then, assign time estimates to each task based on factors like complexity, resources needed, and team expertise. Consider historical data from previous projects or industry benchmarks to inform your estimates. It's essential to involve team members in the estimation process to gather diverse perspectives and insights.

Proper time estimation is an art and you could spend your whole career improving that capability. At its core, its about knowing tasks, their scope and difficulties. As well as people and what they can do. You usually ask them, adding an extra layer of time based on your experience and past results you've had with both those people and that kind of task. Always leave time for the unexpected. Things will happen. And in the unlikely scenario where they don't, you can always use the a little bit extra time to polish.

Você pode ainda complementar com um exemplo prático, como: "Em um projeto recente, subestimamos o tempo necessário para implementar um sistema de escolhas do jogador que impactasse o final do jogo. A complexidade da narrativa e as diferentes ramificações da história exigiram um esforço adicional de programação e testes, o que acabou atrasando o cronograma inicial. A lição aprendida foi a necessidade de uma análise mais profunda da narrativa no momento da estimativa de tempo, considerando suas particularidades e impacto no desenvolvimento."

Start by identifying the core features and functionalities that are essential for the game's minimum viable product (MVP) or initial release. These should be prioritized as early milestones to establish a solid foundation for the game. Next, consider factors such as user experience, market trends, and project dependencies when prioritizing additional milestones.

The two ways of thinking that are the most common when prioritizing milestones are: Either going for what's the most essential first in order to create an MVP and have something that resembles what you want to create asap. Or go for what's the most uncertain first, trying to check if a concept works in order to know if the project is worth pursuing in the first place. The MVP method is the most common throughout the industry. But the second method also has a lot of value. Specially for solo devs or indie studios who are trying to create something really new/different.

If you're in an office space, the most effective method I've seen is a poster on the wall or written on a whiteboard for everyone to see. The specifics of each milestone may change from department to department (the bigger the team, the more common this is), but usually there's still a date or timeline that is shared by everyone. For the more in depth version, usually a combination of spreadsheets and slides do the trick. Spreadsheets cover everything and are usually for management and leads. Slides are the TL;DR version for the rest of the team. With the dates, goals, things to keep an eye on and usually some sort of morale boost / motivation.

The best practice here is that milestones and milestone schedules should be something very fluid at the beginning of the project, and as the team progresses through the development, become more and more final. Ideally, you want the milestone to be completly lock down by the end of your preproduction, as there should be close to no unknown of your project. pass this time... change could potentially happens at Alpha and Beta, based on the discovery and findings of the team at those milestones.

To schedule game development milestones, start by defining the overall project scope and breaking it down into smaller, manageable tasks. Prioritize these tasks based on their importance and dependencies. Estimate the time required for each task, considering potential challenges and buffer time for unexpected delays. Set specific, achievable goals for each milestone, and assign deadlines to keep the project on track. Regularly review and adjust the schedule as needed to accommodate any changes. Communicate clearly with your team to ensure everyone is aligned and accountable for their responsibilities, fostering a collaborative and efficient workflow.