How to Prune an Indie Game Backlog Without Losing Good Ideas
Prune an indie game backlog with a four-state review that separates committed work, evidence gaps, later ideas, and items you can safely archive.
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Practical notes for shipping playable games.
Practical notes on setting playable goals, managing blocked work and sharing playable versions with a small game development team.
Steam Playtest vs Demo vs Early Access: A Decision Guide
Choose Steam Playtest, a demo, or Early Access based on build maturity, access control, player expectations, and the production question you need answered.
Read articleGame Development Task Estimation Without Fake Precision
Estimate game development tasks with evidence classes, small work items, explicit unknowns and velocity checks instead of false-precision deadlines.
Read articleIndie Game Risk Register: Practical Small-Team Template
Build a lightweight indie game risk register with triggers, owners, mitigation and contingency so your team can act before milestone risks become issues.
Read articleMissed Game Development Milestone: A Recovery Plan
Recover from a missed game development milestone with a practical reset: diagnose the slip, cut scope, rebuild acceptance checks, and replan.
Read articleGame Bug Triage Before Release: What Actually Blocks Shipping
Use a release-focused game bug triage checklist to separate blockers from deferrable issues, assign owners, and protect your final candidate build.
Read articleDefinition of Done for Indie Game Development Teams
Build a practical Definition of Done for indie game features with core and conditional checks that expose integration debt before work is marked complete.
Read articleGame Development Dependencies: Map Them Before a Milestone
Map game development dependencies before a milestone with a small-team workflow that exposes blocked handoffs, risky chains, and the next action.
Read articleVertical Slice Exit Criteria for Indie Game Production
Use clear vertical slice exit criteria to decide when an indie team is ready for production, with a practical PASS, HOLD or PIVOT review gate.
Read articleAI Coding Agents for Small Game Teams
Run AI coding agents in parallel without turning your game project into merge chaos. A practical workflow for scoped tasks, branches, tests, and review.
Read articleHow to Triage Steam Next Fest Feedback Without Blowing Up Your Backlog
Turn Steam Next Fest feedback into production decisions without flooding your backlog. A practical triage workflow for small indie game teams.
Read articleHow to Freeze Your Steam Next Fest Demo Without Stalling Development
A practical demo-freeze workflow for indie teams preparing for Steam Next Fest: lock risk, protect QA time, and keep post-demo work moving safely.
Read articleAI Is Speeding Up Game Development. Your Review Workflow Is the New Bottleneck
AI-assisted game development can produce more code, assets and options faster—but small teams still need to review, verify and prioritize the work. Here is a practical workflow for keeping AI output useful instead of turning it into production debt.
Read articleHow to Run an Indie Game Playtest Before You Feel Ready
Plan a focused early playtest that produces useful decisions without requiring a polished build, a large audience or weeks of preparation.
Read articleHow to Plan a Playable Milestone for an Indie Game
Turn a broad game idea into a small, testable milestone that gives your team a playable build instead of another growing backlog.
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