Why Most Indie Games Don’t Get Finished — and How I Fixed It

We all love starting games. But finishing them? That’s where the real challenge begins.

📺 Watch the video walkthrough:

Table of Contents

• 🚨 Why Projects Die
• 🔧 What Changed for Me
• 🧰 Building the Ultimate GameDev Organizer
• ✅ What UGO Actually Does
• 🎯 Who UGO Is For
• 🎬 Watch & Try It Yourself
• ❓FAQ

🚨 Why So Many Game Projects Die

Let’s be honest: starting a game is exciting. Ideas come fast. Prototypes appear in hours.

But finishing? That’s where motivation crashes, scope explodes, and projects quietly disappear into your archive folder.

After years of repeating that cycle, I asked myself the tough question:

Is it really about talent and time — or is it about methodology?

Because when I was a Software Engineer, I could pass the delivery phase of digital products successfully.

🔧 What Changed for Me

What changed wasn’t my skills or tools.
It was how I organized everything:

• I stopped improvising
• I started scoping clearly
• I broke features into user stories, user stories into tasks
• I estimated real durations
• I started logging progress daily

That’s when I finally saw real progress.

So I built myself a system — one I could rely on.

And I used it to ship a full project from idea to release.
That project? UGO itself.😁

🧰 Building the Ultimate GameDev Organizer (UGO)

UGO stands for Ultimate GameDev Organizer. It’s a Notion system I built to help indie creators:

• Set realistic scope
• Track tasks and deadlines
• Structure production into milestones
• Use Agile sprints in a simple, dev-friendly way
• Avoid burnout while still finishing their game

Initially, I made it for me. But I realized others were struggling with the same things. So I turned it into a template anyone can use.

✅ What UGO Actually Does

Here’s what’s inside the system:

• 📁 PARA doc organization (Projects / Areas / Resources / Archives)
• 📅 Agile board with custom filters for sprint progress, teams, tags
• 📝 User story breakdowns with time estimates
• 📊 Backlog views by feature group, priority, and milestone
• 🧠 Daily logs to reflect on progress and log dev time
• 🧮 Actual vs. estimated time tracking
• 🎯 Goal → Milestone → Task structure
• 📂 Asset tracker and cross-linked documentation
• 🧭 Marketing checklist, release roadmap, and project timeline

No fluff. Just a system to help you stay on track — and actually ship.

🎯 Who UGO Is For

UGO was built for:

• 🧑‍💻 Solo developers who start fast but struggle to finish
• 🧠 Studio teams who want clarity for smooth collaboration, even under time pressure
• 🎓 Game dev students or hobbists looking for pro structure

It’s flexible enough for one-person projects, and scalable for studio-size tasks.

🎬 Watch & Try It Yourself

If this resonates, check out the full video where I explain:

• How to align goal, resources, and action
• My process from chaos to completion
• How UGO helps stay focused, trackable, and motivated

🎥 Watch the full walkthrough here

And if you want to try it:

🆓 Try the free version — Get TGO on Gumroad
💼 Grab the full template — Get UGO on Gumroad

💬 What’s Your System?

I’d love to know — how do you organize your game dev process?
What’s helped you stay on track and actually finish?

Feel free to reach me on Discord or email me at guillaume.escarieux@mineogames.com. Let’s build better games — and finish them too.

❓ FAQ

What is UGO?

UGO (Ultimate GameDev Organizer) is a Notion-based productivity system designed specifically for game developers.
It helps manage scope, tasks, documentation, sprints, time tracking, and more — all in one place.

Can UGO help me finish my game?

That’s exactly what it’s for.
UGO is built to move you from “endless prototyping” to actual release.
By structuring your backlog, sprint planning, and time tracking, it keeps you grounded and focused through the full production cycle.

I’m a solo developer. Isn’t this overkill?

Not at all. UGO is made for solo devs too.
In fact, it was originally created by one. Everything is flexible and scalable — use only what you need, and hide the rest.

What’s the difference between UGO and Tiny GameDev Organizer?

Tiny GameDev Organizer (TGO) is a free, simplified version of UGO — great for game jams, fast prototyping, or students starting out.
UGO is the full version, designed for longer or more complex projects with more structure.

🆓 Try TGO here → Get TGO on Gumroad

Do you have a real example of UGO in action?

Yes — we used UGO to plan and ship our Global Game Jam 2025 project, Furotako.
It helped us stay organized during tight deadlines, from task tracking to post-mortem review.

🎮 Read the full story → Furotako: Game Jam Post-Mortem