Best way of organizing development?

[BugInTheSYS]

What methods and equipment do you use and/or recommend when it comes to development organization (of teams or indivuals)?
Do you plan everything before, do you make a timetable?
Do you use whiteboards and a devcock?
Or do you just wonder how the .... I get this idea? x)
All in all: What do you think are the most valuable and efficient approaches to organize a development?
Thanks in advance!

[eatcomics]

What methods and equipment do you use and/or recommend when it comes to development organization (of teams or indivuals)?
Do you plan everything before, do you make a timetable?
Do you use whiteboards and a devcock?
Or do you just wonder how the .... I get this idea? x)
All in all: What do you think are the most valuable and efficient approaches to organize a development?
Thanks in advance!

Well what I do is some tests before the game, that way I can get a feel for it. Then I get some kind of base layed out on paper, I do have a devcock And then rewrite things 7x over :P

[Falco Girgis]

Whiteboards, dev notebooks, SVN, and beer.

You can't realistically have strict deadlines with a team of people who are doing it for fun and aren't being paid for the labor. Other team members have school, work, and other obligations. If you want something done, make sure that you're close enough to bitch to them, not present them with formal "it better be done now" documents.

The minute you start doing that, it becomes a job, an obligation, and a hassle rather than something you are passionate about and look forward to spending your weekend working on.

[trufun202]

Whiteboards, dev notebooks, SVN, and beer.

this. And I'll also include Notepad. I keep a checklist of milestones, bugs, and nice-to-have items. It keeps me on-track and helps me maximize my dev time. It's also rewarding as hell to check off a bug that has haunted you for weeks!

You can't realistically have strict deadlines with a team of people who are doing it for fun and aren't being paid for the labor. Other team members have school, work, and other obligations. If you want something done, make sure that you're close enough to bitch to them, not present them with formal "it better be done now" documents.

This is a tough one, and I struggle with it as well. I try to keep my team members motivated with constant communication - letting them know what I'm working on, what's next, and making myself available if they need anything. But, this doesn't always work... Like Gyro said, when it's free labor, your hands are tied. This go round, I'm trying to set milestones for the GAME, not individual team members. Everyone knows what portion of said milestone is theirs, and collectively, we move towards a common goal. That's the thought anyway...we'll see if it works.

[Milch]

I'm currently using GoogleDocs and Mercurial (BitBucket to be exact) for most of the team-management.
GoogleDocs is just a great way to share concepts, discuss them and edit them at the same time.
BitBucket gives you a Mercurial rep with unlimited space for free, a wiki and a issue-tracker, so this is nice too (though, if you want to make a rep private, its limited to 5 users - so youre better of renting a server)

[TheBuzzSaw]

Git freakin' rocks. I'm done with SVN.

[BugInTheSYS]

Git freakin' rocks. I'm done with SVN.

Lol people can argue about what system to use, but I see, there's a lot of version management involved here^^
And thank you all guys, very useful advice for me :D

[TheBuzzSaw]

SVN is fantastic if you're new to version control. I was leery about learning Git, but now that I have, I'm 200% committed. It is soooo powerful.

[pubby8]

I do my planning/thinking in notepad.exe and I use a real notepad if I need to draw anything. 95% of planning ends up being thrown away (that 5% better be the best plan ever).

[trufun202]

BitBucket gives you a Mercurial rep with unlimited space for free, a wiki and a issue-tracker, so this is nice too (though, if you want to make a rep private, its limited to 5 users - so youre better of renting a server)

Fantastic suggestion! I signed up a few days ago, and BitBucket is EXACTLY what I needed for my team. Everything has come in handy - asset storage, SVN, wiki, and issue-tracker. I love the fact that I can create tasks, assign them to a team member, and follow the progress via email. This has taken my project to another level. I finally feel like a somewhat-organized project manager.

Gotta love doin' things like a big boy!