Setting and Completing Goals

Character Concept Art by Qwenn Parker

When creating a game, it is important to keep a backlog of things that need to be done during a set period of time. Our team switches Scrum masters every two weeks and pull from the backlog to make sure we are on track with our progress.

For those unfamiliar with Scrum, it is a type of project management that is most commonly used in software development. The process uses Sprints which usually last between 1 and 4 weeks and have a set list of tasks to be completed. A Scrum Master is the person in charge of a small team that makes sure to keep a log of time spent on each task and makes sure that it is completed by the end of the Sprint.

In that process, there is a backlog from which we pull tasks for each Sprint. Currently, we have over 700 items on our backlog! The tasks range from creating posters to making sure a checkpoint in our game works. Part of our development process involves the ability to adjust to situations, choose whether an asset is really necessary, and the ability to add more tasks to our list.

By having our backlog, we can see how much is left to accomplish and how to adjust our time so we can complete the game by the end of the quarter! Though intimidating at first, it is the driving force to accomplish all work.

It is very important to keep items prioritized and to update the backlog each day according to our current sprint.