I had been planning one game with a long production timeline, but following my last meeting with my SCORE mentors, I think I’m going to start with a smaller game set in the same overall universe as what I’m envisioning where I can prototype mechanics and style, build an audience and potentially some income. I’ll support it, then I’ll need to decide if I’m going to keep adding on to it (free or DLC), or pivot to the more ambitious plan.

With my business plan complete, I’m transitioning to pre-production. I’ve been churning through back office tasks with a goal of having a 90% game production, 10% back office balance.

For example, I’ve consolidated links from my old domains and projects to point to this one and moved some content over. I’ve got a nicer menu now with SVG logos. After doing some competitive comparisons, I wrote an About page for the business.

On the marketing side of my plan, it’s a bit too early to start executing on a number of my goals. It’s too early for a mailing list, but I should research which vendor I’m going to use. I don’t have a product, so an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) is premature. I’m looking into Keymailer and some of their offerings which can offset some of my labor, but again, a little too early. Privacy Policy and TOS? Bug Report? Not until I have a target.

For project management, I had been using Trello, but there are a lot of areas of friction. I didn’t want to go back to JIRA as that would be a massive overhead and overkill. After some research, I started a Codecks trial and I love it! It’s a good fit for my workflow, and I’ve moved both my business organization and game development tasks there. They’ve been responsive on Discord, which I appreciate.

So, what’s remaining from the back office? Scheduling insurance for January 1, 2026, changing ownership of a couple things set up with old emails, some Quickbooks tidying up, but really, I’m pretty pencils down on meta setup.

A Game Design Document (GDD) is next. I’ll include background and potential future plans so I have an outlet, but I’ll keep the focus on the game at hand. I will define the setting, then work on the strategy and mechanics. It’s better than shoehorning an idea into an existing framework.

I’m looking forward to sharing my GDD with my family over the holidays for some early feedback!