Collaborating on Scope Cutting: Tips for Small Teams

Collaborating on Scope Cutting: Tips for Small Teams

Indie game development often starts with grand visions. Features pile up, ideas blossom, and suddenly your dream project feels less like a game and more like an impossible mountain of work. This is feature creep, a common struggle for small teams. Counterintuitively, removing features can be far more challenging than adding them.

Imagine a small indie team, “Pixel Dreamers,” developing their passion project, “Chronicles of Eldoria,” a sprawling RPG. Initially, it was a modest adventure. Over months, however, discussions led to adding a complex crafting system, then a dynamic weather system, an intricate social reputation mechanic, and multiple branching narrative paths for every NPC. Each addition felt essential at the time.

Why Cutting is Harder Than Adding

Cutting features feels like abandoning hard work. Teams develop emotional attachments to ideas. The fear of “losing” valuable work, even if it is not contributing to the core experience, can paralyze decision-making. Furthermore, features rarely exist in isolation. Removing one can unexpectedly break another, creating a tangled web of dependencies that is hard to unravel, especially without clear insight into existing systems. This is where poor documentation becomes a huge liability, turning a surgical removal into a chaotic demolition. Without knowing how systems connect, teams often end up creating more problems than they solve.

The Power of Documentation in Scope Management

Documentation is the ultimate communication tool for game development. It is not just about recording code; it is about logging design decisions, tracking feature dependencies, and articulating the ‘why’ behind every element. When scope cutting becomes necessary, clear documentation makes the process transparent, less painful, and far more efficient. It transforms subjective opinions into objective data, allowing the team to make informed decisions based on facts rather than assumptions or emotional bias.

Collaborative Scope Cutting Steps

Effectively cutting scope requires a structured, collaborative approach. Here’s a step-by-step guide for small teams to navigate this challenging process.

Step 1: The Audit

Begin by objectively reviewing all existing features. Create a shared document or spreadsheet. List every single feature, large or small, that is currently in the game or planned for it. This includes mechanics, art assets, soundscapes, UI elements, and narrative beats. For each item, briefly describe its purpose and current status. This initial audit provides a clear, unbiased snapshot of your project’s current state.

Step 2: Define the Core Experience

Next, identify the absolute must-have features that define the game’s essence. If you stripped away everything else, what would remain that still makes your game unique and enjoyable? This is your minimum viable product (MVP). It is the heart of your game, the core loop that delivers the primary fun. Focusing on this helps separate the essential from the “nice-to-haves.”

Step 3: Prioritization Matrix

With your complete feature list, apply a simple prioritization framework. A common approach is a “MoSCoW” analysis (Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won’t Have). Alternatively, an Impact/Effort matrix can be effective: plot each feature based on its projected impact on player experience versus the effort required to implement it. Features with low impact and high effort are immediate candidates for removal. Document the justification for each feature’s placement on your matrix.

Step 4: The “Kill List” Meeting

This is where the tough conversations happen. Facilitate a meeting where the team discusses the prioritized features. Approach these discussions respectfully, focusing on the game’s best interest. Present the audit and prioritization matrix. For each feature identified as a candidate for cutting, discuss its interdependencies and the potential impact of its removal. Emphasize that cutting features is not a failure, but a strategic decision to ensure the project’s success and timely release. Focus on what the game needs, not what individual team members want to keep.

Step 5: Communication and Documentation

Once decisions are made, communicate them clearly and transparently to the entire team. More importantly, document every decision, every cut, and the reasoning behind it. This is crucial for maintaining clarity and preventing old debates from resurfacing. This documentation should outline what was cut, why it was cut (e.g., “removed due to high complexity and low impact on core gameplay”), and any related features that might be affected. To ensure everyone is on the same page and to avoid rehashing old debates, meticulous documentation of your scope cutting decisions is crucial. Start building that habit now and keep a clear record of your game’s evolving scope in your own development journal: track game development progress.

Step 6: Iterate

Scope cutting is not a one-time event. As development progresses, new challenges and opportunities may arise, requiring further adjustments. Regularly revisit your scope and be prepared to iterate on your plans. Consistent documentation of your game development log throughout this process will provide a historical record, helping your team learn from past decisions and make more informed choices in the future. Maintaining a game dev journal is key to navigating these ongoing adjustments.