I have been using ClickUp for a project for about 2 months now, it’s been absolutely excellent. I would strongly recommend this for any game development, whether a solo project or involving multiple developers. It is also incredibly versatile, and will streamline any project you throw at it.
This is what my super simple implementation looks like:
ClickUp also strongly fulfills some principles that are very front-and-centre to productivity. It seems like common sense, but here are some good quotes from Getting Things Done (David Allen):
You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it "done.”
Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. You want to be adding value as you think about projects and people, not simply reminding yourself they exist.
For anybody who doesn’t use a project management software, or isn’t getting enough value from their current one, I really want to stress the amazing potential of a project management system which (1) projects the system as a series of actionable steps, immediately allowing you to work on “the next step” rather than getting lost in the complexity of the project, (2) is easy to use and versatile to whatever you throw at it, and (3) easily allows you to prioritise the actions which are most important for achieving a presentable product.
Additionally, in my own experience, I have a tendency to focus on very minor (often labelled as “fun” in order to make them seem valuable, while they are really not) features which will not contribute significant value to the game, but do take up precious development time. ClickUp (and a project management system in general, by extension) is extremely helpful for utilising something referred to as the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) – 80% of the results/effects come from 20% of the effort/causes. This rule can be applied to many different scenarios – in a workplace, 80% of the work is done by 20% of employees, in an interaction between a doctor and a patient, 80% of useful information comes from 20% of what is communicated. Similarly, in game development, 80% of the value of your product tends to come from 20% of your features and development effort (as a general rule, obviously the numbers are flexible). Don’t allow yourself to get sidelined–focus on what will add the most value to your game, and then polish. This is the best way to release games that are fun, and release them quickly (relatively speaking).
I hope this isn’t a total rant. I love productivity systems, and I have always had trouble completing my games, and keeping these rules in mind is insanely helpful.
I don’t think these was mentioned in the OP, so here are also some specific ClickUp features I find extremely useful:
- effectively infinite levels of hierarchy for managing tasks
- multiple views for projects, including lists, calendar, and the classic kanban
- tasks are able to have dependent on eachother, streamlining the prioritization of task