A method for simplifying task tracking in video game development projects

Computer game development differs from “traditional” IT project development mainly due to the high degree of process creativity, which should be taken into account when applying software engineering methods. The research topic is studying the specifics of project management process automation and developing a tool embodying the methods and recommendations formed for the game industry. The authors have analyzed topical scientific sources to set the goal and objectives correctly. As a result, they have highlighted a number of functions necessary for team task trackers that are: assigning a role or a task to an employee, creating dependent tasks, Gantt chart, giving access to information about related tasks to an employee, distributing links and documents, creating reusable templates. Based on the extensive research results, the paper presents a methodology that simplifies the work of the project manager in terms of task management. The approach includes creation of the following features: executors automatically receive tasks according to their field of concern; automatic creation of duplicates and configuration of task dependencies; automatic transfer of artifacts to dependent tasks; generating a project template according to a brief. The work is interesting for the field of interactive project development with a prevailing gamedev component. In order to check the result effectiveness, the generated practical approaches were integrated into the LeanTime system. The proposed approach has shown the reduction of time for management tasks by more than 20%; in case of need for many new templates the reduction can even exceed 40%. The designed web-tool can then be integrated as an automation tool not only in the development processes of gamedev projects, but in general for any highly specialized IT development areas.