Essential 5 Rules for Successful Indie Game Dev Journaling
Essential 5 Rules for Successful Indie Game Dev Journaling
Struggling to keep a game dev journal that actually helps you?
Most indie developers start with good intentions.
They want to track game development progress.
They aim to create a game development log.
But they quickly fall off the wagon.
Why? Because they lack a structured approach.
Here are five essential rules to keep your game dev journal effective and consistent.
1. Define Your Journaling Purpose
Why are you even keeping a game dev journal?
Is it for design documentation?
Perhaps for marketing outreach?
Or is it more for technical troubleshooting?
Having a clear purpose is crucial.
A design-focused journal will detail your game mechanics, level designs, and narrative choices.
A marketing-driven journal will track your outreach efforts, social media engagement, and potential press contacts.
A technical journal will log your code implementations, bug fixes, and optimization strategies.
Don’t mix everything together without a system.
Clarity of purpose will dictate your entries and keep you focused.
2. Choose a Documentation Style That Fits
Your documentation style needs to adapt to your project’s phase.
Early prototyping demands a different approach than final polish.
In the early stages, focus on rapid iteration and experimentation.
Use a bullet-point list to quickly record ideas and results.
Later in development, switch to more detailed, narrative-style entries.
Describe the problems you faced and the solutions you implemented.
Consider incorporating visuals – screenshots, sketches, and UI mockups.
The key is to align your style with the current needs of your game.
3. Embrace Reflection and Retrospectives
Journaling isn’t just about logging what happened.
It’s about reflecting on why it happened.
Schedule regular retrospectives.
Ask yourself: What went well? What could be improved? What did I learn?
Document these reflections in your journal.
Treat your journal like a “studio retrospective,” offering a sharp, critical analysis of your progress.
Example: Instead of “Fixed a bug with the player jump,” write “Spent 3 hours debugging a jump bug caused by inconsistent variable initialization. Need to double-check variable scopes in the future to prevent similar issues.”
This transforms your journal from a log into a learning tool.
4. Maintain Consistency and Avoid Pitfalls
Consistency is the hardest part.
Set a realistic schedule for journal entries.
Daily? Weekly? Find a rhythm that works for you.
Use calendar reminders to avoid forgetting.
Beware of common pitfalls.
Don’t aim for perfection. A short, imperfect entry is better than no entry at all.
Don’t get bogged down in formatting. Focus on content first.
Don’t be afraid to be honest about your struggles.
Admitting mistakes is part of the learning process.
5. Adapt Your Process with Journaling Insights
Your journal is a goldmine of data.
Use it to adapt your development process.
Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
Notice recurring problems and find ways to prevent them.
For example, if you consistently struggle with level design, consider investing in level design tutorials.
If you find yourself constantly rewriting code, explore better architecture patterns.
Turn your journaling insights into actionable improvements.
Don’t just record your journey; use it to steer the ship.
Keeping a consistent, high-quality game dev journal can be difficult, but the benefits for organization, clarity, and process refinement are hard to deny.
If you’re looking for a tool to help you stay consistent and make journaling easier, check out our journaling tool, designed to make tracking your game dev progress smooth and intuitive: Level Up Your Game Dev: Start Journaling Today