Blogging Documentation Tips

Blogging + Documentation Tips

Documenting your progress and process is a great tool for building your game and eventually your portfolio. Using simple blogging platforms such as Wordpress or Tumblr can be an easy way to keep track of your progress and eventually turn it into a portfolio piece.

1. Know your audience. Writing is a form of communication, so figure out who your audience is and what information you want to convey to them. If your audience consists of mainly game developers, your postings might include more technical information as compared to if your audience consists of mainly game enthusiasts, your postings might include more information on the different features and how it compares to other games. Your audience will help determine the tone of your writing as well.

2. Be concise. When people are looking at your posts or portfolio pieces, they do not want to read a novel. Make sure you cover all of the necessary information that your audience would be interested in.

3. Be specific. When you are providing descriptions or examples, be specific in what you say.

BAD: "And then I made the game interesting."

GOOD: "And then I added an extra wobbly platform at the end to make it more interesting for the player."

4. Have structure to your postings. Develop some sort of structure to your posts so that your reader knows what to expect. The structure will organize your writing and also make it easier for people to follow. (E.g.,

Paragraph 1: Overview of what I did

Paragraph 2: What I Learned

Paragraph 3: What I liked/disliked most

Paragraph 4: Tools I used

Paragraph 5: Future Tasks

5. Reflect on what you've done and set goals for future tasks. Blogging as you are developing the game is a great way for you to keep track of what you've done and to set goals for what you want to accomplish next. Writing about what worked well and what didn't work can help prevent future mistakes and can also keep you from blindly developing by keeping the big picture in sight. Discuss the rationale behind your decisions.

6. Take note of what you learned. Building on the previous point, you will acquire a lot of knowledge as you build your game. People love hearing about what knowledge and skills you learned and how your learning informs future iterations.

7. Take pictures/screenshots/videos/screen captures as you go. Words are great, but pictures and video can make your blog or portfolio piece come alive. Including some multimedia aspect to your postings (i.e. photos and videos) can break up the text a bit and provide another way for your audience to learn about your work.

8. Let yourself shine but respect the rules of grammar and spelling. Let your personality come through in your writing. In your blog, the reader should feel like s/he is listening to you speak. Your blog is like a representation of yourself, so add a bit of flavor to it in your writing, blog theme, design, etc. Do, however, exclude profanities and try to use correct spelling and grammar, as you never know who might be reading it. Stay classy.