Why "Scrum" is Killing Your Indie Game

"Work on combat" is a terrible task

Hey Innovators,

Every indie dev eventually faces "blank canvas paralysis." You have a massive game idea, you open up a fresh engine project, and you immediately freeze because you don't know what you are actually supposed to do today.

On our latest episode of Indie Innovators, we sat down to demystify task creation and project management. We realized that a lot of indie studios are drowning simply because they are using the wrong frameworks.

Here are the highest-leverage takeaways from the episode to help you clean up your sprints this week.

Stop Using Scrum for Game Dev A lot of modern software is built using Scrum—you ask the users what they want, and you build it. It works for websites, but it is a disaster for games. If you try to build a game by taking daily feature requests from your community, you will never reach a 1.0 release. You will spend your entire budget constantly refactoring your core code to accommodate the loudest minority of players.

The Waterfall / Agile Sweet Spot Instead, successful indie teams use a hybrid approach. You use Waterfall for the macro: looking at the big picture and setting strict dependencies (e.g., "We can't write the final story dialogue until we actually build the interaction framework to support it"). Then, you use Agile for the micro: working in 2-week sprints to figure out exactly how to achieve those larger milestones.

Writing Better Tasks (The 2-Day Rule) If you sit down at your desk and your to-do list says "Work on Combat," you have already failed your sprint. Tasks must be actionable and testable. "Implement light attack hit detection" is a task because you can explicitly test if it works.

Furthermore, if a task takes you longer than two days to complete, it isn't a task—it is a feature, and it needs to be broken down into smaller pieces. Break it down until it reduces your anxiety.

The Hidden Tasks & The 20% Buffer Do not plan your sprint down to the final minute. The engine will crash, your files might corrupt, and things will take longer than expected. Always leave a 20% buffer in your sprint.

Additionally, stop treating marketing and bug testing as things that happen "after work." Compiling a build is a task. Finding bugs is a task. Recording a GIF for Twitter is a task. Put them in your sprint so they actually get done!

The Golden Anti-Procrastination Rule: At the end of your workday, write down the one specific task you are going to tackle first thing tomorrow morning on a sticky note. Stick it to your monitor. When you sit down the next morning, you won't waste 45 minutes trying to figure out where you left off.

Listen to the full episode here: ▶️ [YouTube Link] 🟢 [Spotify Link]

Stay organized, fail safely, and keep building.

Spencer & The Indie Innovators Team