The Shipping an Amazing Game

Checklist
Okay, this checklist doesn’t actually cover any part of creating an amazing game. Instead, it’s a
list of all the things I’ve thought of that are required to ship a game in 2018, in addition to the
actual and tremendous task of making a great game. It is a culled and expanded list from my
own project and is geared toward Indie devs who are developing standalone games to be sold
via Steam and other channels.

This list is very much a work in progress. While I’ve shipped several games, I have not launched
a standalone title as an Indie Developer. So if you think of something important that’s not on this
list or think I’ve got something wrong, tweet at me (@wx3labs), or respond to the Reddit post
and I’ll update this.

1. Create amazing game.

2. Application meta-game functionality (anything that’s part of the application, but not
directly part of game play)
a. Launch screens, studio logos, etc. What shows up while the application is
loading?
b. Main menu. Most games start players here, or at least have one.
i. Options
1. Display settings.
a. Resolution
b. Windowed
c. Subtitles
i. On/Off
ii. Accessibility (size/background)
d. FOV slider
2. Quality settings. There are a lot of possible options, check which
ones look good and have some impact on performance—it may
vary by platform, particularly mobile.
3. Language/localization. There are hundreds of little things that
need to be done to support localization, but the first is to do decide
if you’re going to support localization.
4. Volume control.
a. Master
b. Music
c. Dialogue
d. Game/UI
5. Controls
a. Keybindings. If the game has keyboard control, people will
complain about not being able to change the bindings.
 b. Controller support. Will you support this? Which
controllers? Can players change the bindings?
6. Other accessibility options
a. http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/
ii. Save/Load. Some games don’t need it, some games can get by with level
unlocks, others needs a robust system that can save the state of an open
world.
1. Saving
a. Is the game saved automatically, if so, where? If not, how
do they save?
i. Provide some indicator that the game is saving, so
the player knows when it’s safe to quit.
b. Local save
c. Cloud / Steam Cloud save
2. Loading
a. Generally, players will want to continue their previous
game as a default
b. If the game supports multiple save slots, there needs to be
a mechanism for choosing a slot to load.
3. Save compatibility: if you plan to update your game after launch,
can you be sure that updates will be backwards compatible with
saves? If not, how will you handle “save breaking” changes to
avoid upsetting players.
4. Some games offer quick save / quick load hotkeys.
iii. Support/Troubleshooting. You need a way for players to solve their
problems and let you know when they can’t.
1. Contact form
2. Email
3. Forum
4. Game Wiki
iv. High scores/leaderboards
v. Feedback. (Subnautica has a neat system where you can give feedback
at any time from in game by pressing F8 and reminds about this fact
periodically.)
vi. Credits/About. Don’t forget to thank everyone who helped!
1. Artists
2. Sound/Music
3. Playtesters
vii. Updates. Some way to tell players what changed in the latest build so
they aren’t confused.
c. Loading screen. Even if the game levels load instantly, there should be some
kind of transition.
 d. Error-handling/automatic reporting. If the game is encountering errors, it should
tell be able to tell you (the developer) without requiring the player to submit a bug
report.
e. In-game options. Many games have at least a pause screen that has a set of
options that may overlap the main options, including exiting the game or
returning to the main menu.
f. Achievements
i. Create a list of possible achievements
1. Implement game hooks
2. Create clever names
3. Icons
ii. Integrate these with Steam and any other launch/wrapper platform
g. End game sequence. Even if it’s just the credits, a clear indication that the main
story of the game is over.
h. Engine / technology credits or splash. Some engines, plugins or middleware may
require that you acknowledge that the game was “built using X.” Check your
licenses.
3. Non-gameplay polish.
a. Replace default cursor.
b. Game icons (multiple resolutions).
4. Testing
a. Test plans. The primary purpose of a good test plan is to make sure you never
deploy a game build where something is unplayably broken.
b. Automated testing
c. Beta/branch test build
d. Play testing
i. Regularly recruit play testers on dev forums (Feedback Friday, etc)
ii. Find sources of virgin in-market playtesters.
5. Marketing
a. Market research
i. Identify similar games
ii. Estimate market size
iii. Choose starting price point
iv. Realistic high/low/median sales figures. Do these numbers justify the time
and money you’re putting into the game?
v. Try to find success and failure stories to learn from and get a sense of
what worked/didn’t. E.g.:
1. https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/76htb2/successful_s
team_launch_postmortem_throne_of_lies/
b. Regularly updated:
i. Blog / website. Hopefully updated at least weekly, preferably more often.
ii. Twitter. I am so bad at this. I went from Aug ’14 to May ’18 with zero
tweets, but I’m working on it! (https://twitter.com/Wx3Labs)
iii. Facebook page.
 iv. Instagram. I’ve read several blog posts about Instagram being good for
games due to the visual medium, but it seems harder to grow a following
due to a lack of a way to re-share content.
v. Other social media
vi. Email campaigns. Make sure you’re only sending to people who have
actively requested email updates (particularly note recent GDPR
requirements, below)
1. https://mailchimp.com/ You might remember them as the sponsor
of the famous Serial podcast (wow did they get a lot of marketing
for their $), it’s a pretty good way to collect emails and send out
campaigns. Has a free tier for <2000 emails.
vii. Steam store page.
1. Active Community Forum
a. Pre-seed with content (not fake posts, just stuff about the
game so it’s not empty)
b. Maintain active presence
2. Screenshots
3. News
viii. Other publishers/markets
ix. Appropriate web forums/threads
1. IndieDB, TIGSource, r/indiegames/ etc
c. Textual info:
i. Shortest possible pitch (“it’s Diablo II meets Starflight”)
ii. Elevator pitch (“It’s a space-based open world ARPG mixing the mystery
of exploration with arcade style combat”)
iii. Search keywords
iv. Longer description
v. Short store/hook description. This is different from the pitches—you’re not
describing what the game is, you’re trying to pique players’ curiosity.
vi. Long store/hook description
d. Promotional assets
i. Trailer
1. Storyboard: Plan out the trailer, should be about 90 seconds.
a. https://gameanalytics.com/blog/dos-and-donts-of-game-
trailers.html
b. https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RoqueRey/20140703/22
0298/Indie_game_indie_trailer_Tips_for_making_a_trailer.
php
2. Capture video
3. Edit
4. Score
5. Polish
6. Get feedback, repeat
ii. Logo
 1. Various formats for Steam, Facebook page, Twitter, etc. You’ll
need literally dozens of versions of the logo in various resolutions.
iii. Backgrounds (for Steam, Facebook header, etc)
iv. Concept art
v. Screenshots
vi. Gameplay videos
e. Media
i. Press kit.
1. http://dopresskit.com/
ii. Bloggers/web based reviewers
iii. Streamers
iv. Traditional marketing channels. The value of these to most indie devs is
questionable, but there might be a specific niche scenario where they
work for you:
1. Web ads
2. Reddit ads (I actually was able to get beta testers for a web game
at a very reasonable cost per several years ago)
3. Keyword advertising
4. Social media buys
5. Other traditional media (magazines/TV/etc)
f. Conventions
i. ???
g. Analytics
i. Choose analytics platform (Google, Unity, etc) and integrate
ii. Define metrics, funnels, etc
iii. Track key game events
iv. System info/performance tracking
h. Playable demo
i. Current conventional wisdom is that a playable demo is neither necessary
or even desirable for most games, but some games may benefit from a
short demo.
i. Community engagement
i. Respond to player reviews good and bad
ii. Post in your forums(s) e.g., Steam Community Hub and respond to
questions
iii. Discord is a popular channel for direct player engagement
6. Sales
a. Steam
i. Pay product submission fee
ii. Setup bank account, info
iii. Complete onboarding process
iv. Steam Store launch checklist
1. Basic info, release date, sys reqs, pricing, trailer, screenshots,
branding, support, etc.
 v. “Coming Soon” launch
vi. Decide if you’re doing early access
1. If yes, see Steam’s early access checklist
b. Additional markets: Decide where else to sell your game
i. GOG
ii. See this list from Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/72nds2/the_list_of_indiefrie
ndly_publishers_2017_edition/
7. Misc. Technical
a. Source control
i. Git/Perforce/Unity Collab/Mercurial/etc
b. Scheduled backups.
i. Local
ii. Offsite
1. Specialized backup services:
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp
2. Upload zips to whatever you use for web hosting.
3. Google drive
4. Use a general purpose cloud solution like Amazon S3 or Glacier.
iii. Regardless of your backup methods, consider what kind of protection it
offers against:
1. Developer error (you accidentally delete a critical folder)
2. Hard drive failure
3. Fire/flood/theft destroys local equipment
4. Ransomeware (which may automatically overwrite remote non-
versioned backups)
c. System requirements. Besides testing on a bunch of machines, if you’ve been
collecting specs from beta testers this can help
i. Minimum
ii. Recommended
d. Cross platform support. Determine supported platforms. If you support a
platform, you need to be able to support that platform, which means test, fix
bugs, and provide all your builds for it.
i. Mac/Windows/*nix
ii. Consoles
iii. Android/iOS
iv. Web
e. Deployment plan/scripts
i. Versioning
1. If you have save games, you’ll need to decide what game versions
are compatible with what save versions and detect this in game.
ii. Automated builds
iii. Steampipe: Understand the Steamworks SDK:
1. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading
 f. DRM. A lot of players hate this, might hurt indies way more than lost sales to
piracy, but here for completeness.
8. Legal/financial
a. Decide legal entity: sole proprietor, partnership, DBA, LLC, S-corp, etc.
i. ???
b. If necessary, find lawyer, accountant
c. Check licenses/rights to all assets/content
i. 2D Images/Textures
ii. 3D Models
iii. Sounds
iv. Music
v. Plugins/libraries
vi. Textual content
vii. If you’re using an engine check your license for things like:
1. Are there revenue caps or royalties?
2. Are you required to show the engine’s logo?
viii. The same applies for some middleware and tools.
ix. Are you referencing anything potentially trademarked?
d. Protect own IP
i. Create, or have a lawyer draft, work-for-hire contracts for any
employees/contractors.
ii. Make sure if you have partnered/are in cahoots/collaborated with anyone
the IP ownership is clear. Remember to do this before Step 1, “Create
Amazing Game,” or it’ll be harder.
iii. Trademark logos, names, etc.
e. Set up bank account
i. Business accounts require additional documentation
f. Pay your taxes. This is pretty much the only step in the entire list where a serious
screw up can put you in jail. Although the more likely outcome is having to pay a
lot more than you expected due to penalties and interest.
i. You’ve been tracking expenses and revenue all along, right?
ii. Remember to get W9’s from contractors and make sure to send out those
1099s at end of year! (If you’re filing in the US)
1. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf
2. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-
employed/forms-and-associated-taxes-for-independent-
contractors
iii. Make quarterly payments as necessary.
iv. Plus regular filing. If you’re used to filing as an employee, this is going to
be more complicated no matter what legal structure you chose.
g. GDPR compliance (use of any personal information you collect)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
h. COPPA compliance (if you potentially collect personal information from children)
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/childrens-online-
privacy-protection-rule-six-step-compliance
i. Content Ratings, as necessary (ESRB, PEGI, etc)
j. Remember, I am not a lawyer. I am literally just a document you found on the
Internet. Make sure you do your own research as well.