Indie game development is an exciting but challenging journey. Managing time, avoiding scope creep, and demonstrating professionalism are crucial for success. This is where Scrum comes in. Scrum is a flexible, iterative framework that can transform your development process, even for small teams. It not only helps you meet your deadlines and prevent your project from getting out of control, but it also makes you more attractive to investors and publishers by showcasing a disciplined approach to game development.
Why Scrum Matters for Indie Developers
Scrum allows teams to manage their work in short, focused sprints, which is essential for meeting deadlines and managing limited resources. This is particularly important for indie teams, where the pressure to deliver quickly is high. Scrum’s prioritization and iteration emphasize ensures that the most valuable work is done first.
- Time Management: Scrum’s structure is based on short, focused sprint cycles. Setting clear goals for each sprint ensures that your team stays on track and meets its deadlines. This is crucial in the indie game world, where resources are often limited.
- Preventing Scope Creep: One of the biggest threats to any game development project is scope creep, which occurs when additional features and changes accumulate and threaten to derail the project. Scrum tackles this by prioritizing tasks and maintaining a clear focus during each sprint, ensuring that only the most critical features are developed.
- Investor and Publisher Confidence: A well-structured development process is attractive to potential investors and publishers. It shows that your team is organized, understands its goals, and can deliver on its promises. This can be a decisive factor in securing funding or a publishing deal.
How Scrum Works
Scrum revolves around three main roles:
- Product Owner: Responsible for defining the game’s vision, prioritizing features, and ensuring the team is working on the most valuable aspects of the game. The Product Owner also manages the product backlog—a dynamic list of tasks that must be completed.
- Scrum Master: This person acts as the team’s facilitator, ensuring that Scrum practices are followed and removing any obstacles that might hinder progress. The Scrum Master is not a project manager but a guide who helps the team work more effectively.
- Development Team: The cross-functional team members who create the game. They manage their own work, choosing how to best achieve the sprint goals.
Implementing Scrum in Your Studio
Implementing Scrum is straightforward but requires discipline and commitment. Each team member must understand their role and the importance of communication and collaboration.
- Maintain the Product Backlog: Continuously update and refine the product backlog to reflect changes in priorities or new insights gained during development.
- Set Up Sprints: Divide your project into time-boxed sprints, typically lasting 2-4 weeks. At the start of each sprint, the team selects a set of tasks from the product backlog to complete. Focus on delivering a potentially shippable product increment at the end of each sprint.
- Daily Stand-Ups: Hold a brief daily meeting where team members discuss what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today, and any blockers they face. This keeps everyone aligned and highlights any issues early.
- Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives: Review what was accomplished with the entire team at the end of each sprint. Afterward, hold a retrospective meeting to discuss what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve in the next sprint.
Working with a Small Team (2-3 Members)
Even with a tiny team, Scrum can still be effective. Roles might overlap, but maintaining Scrum’s discipline is key to managing limited resources and ensuring progress.
For a team of 2-3:
- Keep it Simple: Focus on the essentials. Limit the scope of each sprint to a few key features or tasks, ensuring that each sprint delivers tangible progress toward the final game.
- Combine Roles: In small teams, one person may act as both Product Owner and Scrum Master. This individual must balance prioritization with facilitation, ensuring the vision and the process are maintained.
- Self-Organizing: The development team must take more initiative in decision-making. With fewer people, communication is easier, but ensuring everyone’s work is aligned with the sprint goals is crucial.
Actionable Tips for Indie Teams
- Start Small: If your team is new to Scrum, begin with shorter sprints and fewer backlog items. Gradually scale as the team becomes comfortable with the process.
- Stay Flexible: Scrum is designed to be adaptive. Don’t be afraid to tweak the process to fit your team’s unique needs, but remain committed to the core principles of iterative development and continuous improvement.
- Focus on Communication: Keep lines of communication open, especially in small teams. Regular check-ins and transparency are key to keeping everyone on the same page.
- Use Tools: Implement project management tools like Trello, Jira, or Asana to help manage your sprints and backlog efficiently. These tools also provide visibility into your process, which can be valuable when pitching to investors.
Conclusion.
Scrum offers indie developers a practical, scalable solution to manage development, avoid pitfalls, and present a professional front to stakeholders. By embracing Scrum, you increase your chances of delivering a successful game on time while making your studio more attractive to external partners. With clear roles, focused sprints, and continuous feedback, Scrum ensures that you maintain control over your project while being agile enough to adapt to changes. Whether you’re a small team or a solo developer, adopting Scrum can be the key to your next indie hit.
If you are looking to do even more, check out our post about OKRs, a framework that will further improve your productivity and works perfectly in sync with the Scrum methodology.