The importance of time management in game development

Quite a few books have been written and songs sung that need to be engaged in what is interesting, turning a hobby into a source of income and a main occupation. And everywhere is described the starting point (boring life, uninteresting environment) and the final (change of life for the better, feeling of happiness, etc.). But nowhere is it written how many rakes (and, most importantly, how many times) you need to step in to get from point "A" to point "B".

We have also tried to turn a hobby into a professional occupation. A start was made in 2013, when I and another 4 classmates decided to start developing games. About 6 months we spent on learning how to work with graphics, programming nuances and more. Already in the process of self-study, the idea of ​​creating a game that turned out to be so ambitious that it would take months or even years would have occurred. And resources ... great resources that we don't have. Therefore, we decided that it was worth starting with a simpler and more likely to implement option - an indie game with a lot of endings. Following the principle of cost minimization, we rented an “office” on the outskirts of our small city. Savings made it possible to gain work experience “at any cost” and “under any circumstances”: in order to start work on a project in an atmosphere that, to put it mildly, was not adapted for this (since the office was located at the site used by creative people for inspiration). Thus, in search of a catalyst for the development of the project, we came across several barriers.



First rake
• Inefficient time management and lack of a structured work plan: teamwork in the office began to yield more results than remote, but the lack of schedule, clear separation of duties and tasks, tactical work plan and strategy turned the game creation process into performing chaotic actions, the results of which are difficult was predict.
• Incorrectly selected and organized workspace. As I have already said, we rented an office in a place intended for creative searches, therefore, at the very beginning of working on a project, the shortcomings of personal concentration and self-discipline increased due to the large number of distracting factors.
• Lack of experience. This was our first serious project that we wanted to bring to consumers. However, not everything that was planned and planned was done on time, as there were not enough skills to develop and organize the workflow.
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Bottom line : one part of the game + uncorrected bugs.

Subjective metrics:
- 450 man-hours spent (metric that combines all the time spent by each team member)
- 50 models made
- drawn 9 sprites
- made 17 animations
~ 35 scripts written

Having worked for a month in this mode, we realized that in this way we could not successfully complete the project. We began to look for opportunities for development and learned about the conduct of the notorious Hackday (48-hour programming marathon) in Saransk and decided to take part in it. Being confident in the absence of chances to win, we began preparing for the hackathon with developing an idea that we can realize in 48 hours. As a result, despite the lack of experience, they stopped at the option of creating a mobile game.



Professional slang not always understood by us, limited time and space, the existence of certain rules (“no code before the event”) complicated and, at the same time, spurred us on. And after 48 hours we had a working prototype - the game " Clicker Bands ". Having presented the results of the work to HackDay experts, we won the nomination “Startup”.
The victory in the hackathon, as well as the opportunity to work in the co-working of one of the organizers, allowed us to finalize the game.

And now, when the product is ready, we analyzed the factors that made it possible to perform a large amount of work in a short time, and came to the conclusion that the right time management was the most effective.
• According to the First Parkinson Act, published in 1955, work fills in all the time allotted to it. The hackathon was given the shortest possible time in which we were able to meet. Roughly speaking, the earlier the deadline, the less time for procrastination.
• Checkpoint. Every day, project managers gathered at the site at a certain time and told about the results of the teams' work, and also developed plans for further actions. Such “planning meetings” entered our schedule after the hackathon and allowed us to plan and structure the work.

In addition to improving their time management skills, another factor can be identified that allowed the project to be completed - the competitive nature of the event. Competition increased motivation, and also allowed to identify problem areas of the project and use its strengths.

Moreover, collective self-analysis revealed the advantages of participation in the hackathon and their impact on the project implementation.
• Motivation. The victory in HackDay allowed to believe in yourself and gave strength to bring the work to the end.
• Dating. The participation in the event was also useful due to the availability of the educational part and consultations from leading employees of Russian IT companies that we received both on Hackday and after it.
• Support. Thanks to the victory, we received from one of the organizers a free place in coworking.
• Coffee maker. We not only realized our plans, but also received a coffee maker as a gift.

Thanks to these factors, we ended the game and posted it in the Play Market.

Again, subjective metrics :
- 1050 man-hours
- drawn 169 sprites
- 95 animations done
~ 76 scripts written

But this is not the end. This is the beginning of a large-scale project commercialization work.