The event is drawing closer, and it is time for preparations, so I wanted to put down some notes on how I plan to manage my time during this LD. Those might look like pieces of advice, and you are free to use them as such, but in reality those are just notes. They might not even work for me.

1. Chomp the chunks. The Game Jam format is wonderful, because it offers you a strict deadline. And setting deadlines is a huge part of Time Management. Having a start there is wonderful, but this is only a starting point. Now we need to plot this time we have as a timeline and chomp it into chunks. Firstly - plot the time you need to sleep. Then add a couple breaks for eating, and going for a walk - you'll need those to keep your productivity up. If you have other obstructions that you know will take your time - plot them on the timeline as well. Now you are left with the time you can actually spend on the game. But since the development is not a homogenous process, split this time into 3 chunks: Plan, Prototype and Polish. Those are going to be the main stages your development process. My plan is to spend 6 hours in planning, about 4 more in Prototyping (yep, that might look like not much, but more on this below) and about 3-4 hours of Polish on Saturday. Sunday is Polish all the way. This is about it for planning before the event. But all those time chunks need to be chomped into even smaller partitions each having a smaller task that needs to be completed. And if those tasks end up being too big - they will still need to be cut into even smaller chunks. In theory your plan should end up having no task that would take you longer than 5 minutes to complete individually. But in reality, I will stop partitioning if the tasks are about 20-30 minutes each.

2. Planning Stage This is probably the main stage of the process. And this is why is plotted to take almost half of the Saturday. Obviously this stage includes thinking up the idea. Or several ideas. And possibly some basic asset creation. And a lot of time allocation. But most importantly - the end of this phase means that there is no turning back from current game idea. At the end of planning stage I am committed to the game I am making, and so I must be sure that I can pull it off. In order to assure this I will do something like this:

   • Imagine a game.
   • List all assets required to pull it off.
   • Split all assets into 2 groups: Essential and Cosmetic. Essential assets are something that is required for the game to function. Imagine the game without this asset. Can it work? Sure it will be less of a game anyway but will it still be a game? If yes - than the asset is not Essential.
   • Split the Essential assets into Familiar and Experimental. Experimental assets are the ones I am not sure I can build. Not to the point of "not having a clue how to handle it" - having those on the list would meant the idea needs to be scrapped... or at least modified not to require them. I need to have a rough idea how to make it, but I am not comfortable estimating how long it would take me to build. All those assets must be done by the end of planning phase. And if there are too many - down the trash bin they go.
   • Evaluate time and the amount of experiments and if you can fit in. If no - what would be more feasible - down-scope this idea?
   • If necessary - start over.

3. Prototyping Stage By the beginning of this stage I should have a number of assets prepared and a comprehensive list of things to build. This means that at every stage I can focus on executing limited tasks, rather than wasting my mental capacity on reevaluating what to do next. The only thing to consider - reserve some time towards the end of the process on "Assembly" - making sure the assets work together as a game.

4. Keep calm and carry on. Once the prototyping stage is over, I will have a piece of mind knowing that I have something to publish already. And on top of it I will have list of potential improvements. And if I end up not implementing some of those - not a big deal. This will not ruin the game anyway...