Collaborating on Documentation: Tips for Small Teams
The Quiet Power of Your Game Dev Journal
Remember that moment, just before your first major playtest? For our small indie team, it was a mix of exhilarating anticipation and quiet dread. We had poured months into our 2D narrative puzzle game, “Chronos’ Compass,” and the alpha release was looming. As the day approached, we realized our collective knowledge, once neatly contained in our heads, was now a scattered mess of Discord messages, forgotten design docs, and half-remembered conversations. This is where a dedicated game dev journal becomes invaluable.
We had no single source of truth for all the little decisions we’d made. Why did we choose that particular art style for the NPC? What was the intended emotional impact of the final puzzle sequence? Trying to answer these questions on the fly, while new players poked and prodded at our creation, exposed a critical weakness: fragmented knowledge.
From Chaos to Clarity: Documenting Our First Playtest
Our first playtest was a baptism by fire. We had ten eager players, and a mountain of assumptions about how they’d interact with our game. As the playtest progressed, we furiously scribbled notes on loose paper, trying to track bugs, understand player confusion, and capture those unexpected “aha!” moments. It was chaotic. We realized we needed a better system to track game development progress.
That night, after the playtest, we faced a mountain of unstructured feedback. It was difficult to discern patterns or prioritize fixes because our notes were inconsistent and incomplete. This experience cemented a critical lesson: a shared, consistent game development log wasn’t a luxury; it was a necessity.
Establishing Sustainable Documentation Habits
The solution wasn’t just to “document more.” It was about building habits. First, we established clear responsibilities. One team member was assigned the “documentation lead” for each major milestone, ensuring someone always had an eye on maintaining our game dev journal. This didn’t mean they did all the writing, but they championed its importance and kept us accountable.
Next, we focused on accessibility. We chose a simple, cloud-based tool for our game development log. The goal was to make it as easy as possible for anyone on the team to add, edit, and access information. This addressed the common pitfall of documentation becoming a chore or being siloed on one person’s computer.
Step-by-Step for Consistent Devlogs
Here’s how we transformed our approach to our game dev journal, creating a sustainable system:
Define Core Categories: We outlined the essential sections for our game development log. This included “Design Decisions,” “Bug Tracker,” “Playtest Feedback,” “Art Assets,” and “Code Snippets.” Having these categories provided a clear structure for where new information should go.
Regular Documentation Sprints: We set aside 15-30 minutes at the end of each workday for a “documentation sprint.” During this time, each team member would add their daily progress, decisions, and any new learnings to the relevant sections of our game dev journal. This small, consistent effort prevented knowledge from piling up and becoming overwhelming.
Cross-Referencing and Linking: Whenever a new entry referenced an existing design choice or bug, we made sure to link them. This created a web of interconnected information within our game development log, making it easy to trace the lineage of ideas and solutions. It helped us connect the dots between player feedback and specific design iterations.
Leverage Templates for Consistency: For recurring tasks, like playtest reports, we created simple templates. This ensured that every playtest generated consistent data points, making it much easier to compare results and identify trends over time.
Review and Refine: Once a week, we had a quick “documentation review” meeting. This wasn’t about micromanaging, but about ensuring our game dev journal remained accurate, relevant, and easy to navigate. It was an opportunity to update outdated information or re-organize sections that had become unwieldy.
The Long-Term Payoff of a Detailed Game Dev Journal
Consistent, shared documentation became our project’s backbone. It helped us maintain momentum, even during the inevitable periods of creative block or fatigue. When we needed to revisit an old design decision, the answer was always in our game development log, not buried in someone’s memory. This clarity made it easier to track game development progress and identify areas for improvement.
For “Chronos’ Compass,” this systematic approach meant our second playtest was significantly more productive. We could pinpoint specific areas of confusion players experienced in the first test and see if our fixes were effective. This iterative improvement cycle, fueled by our detailed game dev journal, was instrumental in shaping the final game.
Whether you’re a solo developer or part of a small team, starting a game dev journal is one of the most impactful steps you can take for your project’s longevity and success. It’s not just about recording information; it’s about building a collective memory, fostering clarity, and ensuring that every lesson learned becomes a stepping stone, not a forgotten note. To help you get started and keep your creative process organized, consider trying out our journaling tool: track your game development progress with our journal tool. It’s designed to help you stay consistent with your devlogs and maintain momentum on your long-term projects.