A priori, the reality is that I had no plans to put together a Production plan. Which is both ironic and comical.
Right from the start, I don’t recommend anyone to undertake a project without having a production plan. That’s basically why I took a break and put on my Game Producer hat for a little while.
It is very, VERY important to have a plan that will guide the way and serve as a reminder of the next step to take.
In my particular case, it is not a normal production plan because I am working alone. But the normal thing is to choose between one of two ways of working:
- Cascade methodology, in which tasks are basically planned by concatenating them.
- Agile methodology, where work is done in “sprints” with specific work objectives.
- Secret method three: a mix of both.
I have just made an exaggerated summary of both methodologies, because it is not appropriate to talk about them at length.
I’m going to work in cascade because, being a 1 man studio, I don’t have many options. Besides, since I only work on Saturdays, it doesn’t make much sense to set up sprints that I won’t be able to do.
The advantage of my production grid is that it allows me to visualize how I am progressing in my project.
Baby steps, baby steps. Today we’re going at this pace, but who’s to say, maybe later we’ll add more hours of work or more progress behind the camera.