Detail vs. Big Picture: Game Dev Journaling Explained

Posted by Gemma Ellison

July 30, 2025

Indie game development is a constant balancing act. You’re diving deep into intricate code one moment, then soaring high to envision the complete player experience the next. How do you keep from getting lost in the weeds and losing sight of your overall vision?

The answer is a game dev journal.

A game dev journal is more than just a diary. It’s a strategic tool to track game development progress, organize your creative process, and stay consistent with your devlogs. It’s your personal roadmap, ensuring you’re always moving toward your destination.

Think of it as a way to ground yourself when you’re focused on minute details, and a source of inspiration when you feel lost in the enormity of the project. Let’s explore how you can make journaling work for you.

The Pitfalls of Neglecting the Big Picture

It’s easy to get caught up in the details. You spend hours tweaking a character animation, only to realize it doesn’t quite fit the game’s overall art style. Or you optimize a piece of code to perfection, only to find it doesn’t actually improve performance noticeably.

These situations highlight the importance of always keeping the bigger picture in mind. Without a clear vision and a way to regularly check your progress, you risk wasting time and energy on things that don’t truly contribute to your game.

Journaling helps prevent this. It forces you to articulate your goals, document your decisions, and reflect on your progress, ensuring that your daily tasks are always aligned with your overall vision.

Why Keep a Game Development Log?

A game development log serves multiple purposes:

It provides a historical record of your project’s evolution.
It helps you identify patterns in your workflow and optimize your process.
It allows you to track your progress and stay motivated.
It serves as a valuable resource for creating devlogs and marketing materials.
It forces you to be more intentional with your development decisions.

Think of it like this: would you embark on a long road trip without a map? A game dev journal is your map, guiding you through the often-turbulent journey of game development.

Checklist for Effective Journaling

Here’s a checklist to guide you in establishing an effective journaling process:

Outline Daily Tasks: Start each day by listing the specific tasks you plan to accomplish. This doesn’t need to be exhaustive, but it should provide a clear focus for your work. For example, “Implement player movement,” or “Design level 2 layout.”
Reflect on Progress: At the end of each day, take a few minutes to reflect on your progress. Did you accomplish your planned tasks? What challenges did you encounter? What did you learn? Don’t just list what you did; analyze why you did it and how it went.
Document Design Decisions: Every design decision, no matter how small, should be documented. Why did you choose a particular enemy type? Why did you place that platform in that specific location? Documenting your reasoning will help you remember your intentions later and make informed decisions when you need to make changes.
Analyze Roadblocks: Roadblocks are inevitable in game development. Don’t just brush them aside. Analyze them. What caused the roadblock? What steps did you take to overcome it? Documenting your struggles and solutions will help you avoid similar problems in the future.
Track Key Metrics: Identify a few key metrics that you want to track, such as lines of code written, bugs fixed, or features completed. Tracking these metrics will give you a quantitative measure of your progress and help you identify areas where you need to improve.
Maintain Consistency: The key to effective journaling is consistency. Make it a daily habit, even if it’s just for a few minutes. The more consistent you are, the more valuable your journal will become.

Real-World Examples

Many successful indie developers swear by journaling. For example, the developer of Stardew Valley, Eric Barone, meticulously documented his development process, which not only helped him stay organized but also provided valuable content for his devlogs.

Another example is the team behind Dead Cells, who used a detailed task management system (a form of journaling) to track their progress and ensure that they were always working towards their core design goals.

These are just two examples of how journaling can contribute to the success of an indie game.

From Chaos to Clarity: The Power of Documentation

A game dev journal isn’t just about recording what you did. It’s about understanding why you did it, and how it contributes to the overall vision of your game. It’s about transforming the chaotic process of game development into a clear, organized, and manageable project.

Once you’ve established a clear record of your game development journey and created some useful metrics to track, using a specialized tool can streamline this process further. Check out our Game Dev Journaling Tool for a faster, more organized way to document your progress!