Topics in Game Dev - Scope

Welcome to the second blog post of the 2025 fall quarter! This week, we're joined by VGDC's Projects Director, Ethan Schwartzman, for a discussion on the topic of managing a game's scope.

Ethan: "Managing scope is crucial for meeting deadlines, finishing features, and being able to debug and polish your game. Over-scoping is a pretty common point of failure, especially for game jams where you're on a limited amount of time."

Ethan: "It definitely can be. It's always hard to make cuts to the game, especially if you're attached to the idea. If it's possible to avoid, you should try doing that by making cuts at the beginning of the game versus the end, because it's always easier to get rid of ideas before you start working on them than after."

Ethan: "Some advice that I've seen a lot is to reduce the scope of your game to half of what you think you can accomplish, because it always takes more time than you'd expect. If you finish it fast enough, extra time is always okay because it's a lot easier to scope the game up than down."

Ethan: "I think you do both. You should scope appropriately when thinking up the idea, but once you have it, you should also review it to make sure that it's in scope for whatever you're doing."

Ethan: "It's a little bit tricky and situational, but in general, I normally lean towards cutting. A finished game is generally better than a game that feels unfinished and buggy. Even if you don't get all the features in, I'd prioritize making it feel nice for the player to experience."

Ethan: "A common pitfall is making a ton of variations of something, like adding a hundred weapon types or a hundred different items. A lot of the time, I feel like it's not super necessary."

Ethan: "Say you have a game with ten different puzzles in it—honestly, players will still enjoy it the same amount if it's one puzzle, but it gets harder each time. So you have one set of mechanics, but ten different levels of the same puzzle. It's a lot easier to implement, and it still feels just as fun to play."

Ethan: "That's the ideal situation to be in. You can always add polish and make the game feel more professional, but if you have the time, that's when you add those specific mechanics or the extra flavor to build out your game a bit more."

Ethan: "I think managing scope is one of, if not the most important thing you can do in things like a game jam. I would say cut strategically, especially at the beginning, because scoping down is always easier than scoping out, and making cuts early is always easier than making cuts later."

Ethan: "If you just manage your scope and your timeline well, then you'll be able to finish everything and provide the best experience for the player."

Thank you to Ethan for joining us this week. Check back here during week six for our TritonWare Showcase recap—as always, thank you for reading!