Project Management

There are many tools that make software and game development easier. Some of these tools do multiple things and/or overlap the categories listed below.

General Project Management Tools

These tools are usually oriented towards creating tasks, assigning them to people, and assigning due dates, but often can do much more. This is a fantastic (only a few years old), very detailed summary of project management tools from Gamasutra.

  • Trello (free/paid)
    A general-use tool that works well with SCRUM/Agile development. What we use most within the program. It's very visually-oriented, inuitive, and flexible. Its free version is very powerful.
  • Miro (free/paid)
    A real-time visual collaboration tool with a lot of plugins. Think a virtual whiteboard that everyone can use simultaneously. Great for planning. More free form and less data-oriented. Free limited to one workplace with three boards.
  • HacknPlan (free/paid)
    A little more game-design specific. The free version is somewhat limited doesn't provide a weekly summary of an individual tasks (essential to assessment). Please don't use this unless you can demonstrate a way to easily acheive those summaries.
  • Asana (free/paid)
    I have not used this personally, but looks great.
  • Basecamp (free/paid)
    This is a dinosaur. It used to be used by most companies to manage projects. I haven't used it in years, but it felt a bit rigid to use.

Others that might be worth checking out: Monday, Codecks, Wrike.

Hour Tracking and Invoicing

These tools are useful for tracking the time spent on individual tasks and then turning that into invoices. They are very useful for when invoicing a client for hourly work. Here is a list of some tools, but there are a lot of lists and a lot of tools.

  • Clockify (free/paid)
    Great free option. From their site: you can track as much time and invite as many users as you want, and use Clockify for free as long as you want. We also offer support to everyone, regardless of their plan. If you need additional features, you can upgrade at any time. One feature that's paid: adding time for others.
  • Harvest (free/paid)
    The free version works only for one person and two projects, but it's great software. It has a timer for tracking hours (and an app) and it's easy to generate great looking invoices from them. It's the only one I've used personally.

Real-time Communication

These tools are designed to organize real-time chat discussions with file sharing and other features.

  • Slack (free/paid)
    Basically an organized chat with channels, categories, file-sharing, etc... It's free version is a little more limited than Discord.
  • Discord (free/paid)
    I'm sure most of you know what this is. Very similar to Slack, but free and easy to extend with bots/scripts, etc... Gaming-oriented.

Bug Tracking

These tools are designed to organize bug reporting and tracking often keeping track of priorities, dates, and stages of completion.

  • JIRA (paid/trial)
    Specifically to track and manage bugs in software development. Jira’s free plan allows for up to 10 users. A lot of companies use it.
  • Trello, Asana, Spreadsheet... (free/paid)
    Most of the project management tools listed above are flexible enough to use for bug tracking as well. If you're a small team sometimes it's just as easy to use a share spreadsheet on OneDrive or Google Drive.

Others that might be worth checking out: BugHerd, Backlog, Monday.