GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Making Delightful Tools for Sustainable Small-Team Development
Isadora Rodopoulos (Programmer, Coldblood Inc.)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Programming
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
How you and your team spend time is key to achieving a sustainable development workflow. The time invested in developing tools pays off over the years by providing a solid foundation with a rapid iteration. Making these tools delightful to use reflects on the game quality, team culture, cohesion, and the creative energy poured into the game.
In this talk, Isadora will present nine tips for investing in development tools for your small indie team. She will cover how a data-oriented mindset helps build a modular and flexible gameplay architecture; how building tools tailored for the team’s exact needs ensures scalability and simplicity; and how to balance engine development, tools development and gameplay implementation to maximize your team’s sustainability and morale.
Takeaway
Indie developers will learn practical tips for building sustainable game tools by adopting a data-oriented mindset and goal-driven approach. These tips can be applied in their day-to-day work to boost the team's speed, morale and enthusiasm.
Intended Audience
This talk is for programmers and developers building their own tooling, whether working solo or in a small team, who want to balance daily productivity while keeping the work fun and engaging. Examples will be presented from our custom game engine, but the lessons are also applicable to teams using third-party engine based tooling. Intermediate technical expertise is recommended but not required.