Announcing the agitodo Alpha: A Game Dev Companion

Woo! Back-to-back free app releases. Yesterday, I shipped the first iteration of agitodo - a growth companion for game developers.

Why?

Game development is freaking hard. It combines so many different skills - art, programming, design, audio, and more. I thought I had to make a lot of decisions as a software architect, but defining the entire ruleset of a game, its environment, its UX, its sound, its animation, collisions, and on and on... it's so much. This diversity is both exciting and challenging. I often struggle to understand where I should focus my energy or how to build games that play to my strengths. I built this for myself to be more honest with where my skills lie and more effectively scope projects. Hopefully it can be of value to others too.

What is it?

agitodo helps you visualize and track your growth across different game development skills. It's a reflection tool that helps you understand your unique combination of abilities and how to leverage them in your games. Think of it like leveling up in a typical RPG except the character is your time investment into game development. Every day you get new skill points to assign across the various domains of game development and over time you can see how you've grown.

For example, if you're spending most of your time on art and that's clearly where your passion lies, agitodo might help you realize that your next game could be built around art-based mechanics (and now think of all the unique combinations across the highly diverse skillset needed to build a game). Instead of forcing yourself to build skills you're not excited about, or maybe are out of reach given your timelines, you can focus on what makes you unique as a game creator and inherently differentiates your game from something anyone else could make.

Current Features

• Skill tracking across multiple game development disciplines
• Visual representation of your skill growth
• Social sharing of your skillset

Up Next

• Whatever feedback you have!
• Personalized game jams based on your skillset
• Negotiate feature design based on your skillset

Building in Public

I'm releasing agitodo early because I believe in learning from the community. While it is something I am using along my game development journey, I'm excited to see if there are ways it can evolve to benefit others as well based on more feedback.

Try It Out

agitodo is completely free and requires no login. I built it to help game developers better understand their unique abilities and create games that reflect their strengths. Let me know any thoughts if you get to play around with it! james@kokutech.com

Thanks for reading,
James