Task tracking for game development: a Kanban board by discipline
For producers, leads and developers who need one place to see who is doing what across art, design, programming, audio and QA. You will learn how to set up a board that fits game production, which task fields actually matter, and how the Gameheim Task Board, comments, dashboard and Perforce submits fit together.
Why task tracking for game development is harder than it looks
A game team is several teams at once. Artists produce assets, designers tune systems, programmers build features, audio designers deliver sound, and QA tests all of it. Each discipline works at a different rhythm, and each one depends on the others. A character is not finished when the model is done: it still needs rigging, animation, gameplay code, sound and a test pass.
General-purpose tools that were never built for game production tend to push this work into one long list. The result is familiar to most producers:
- Nobody can tell at a glance how much art work is blocked or how much QA work is waiting.
- Tasks live in one tool, the real work lives in version control, and someone has to update the board by hand after every submit.
- Status meetings exist only to rebuild the picture of the week.
- Feedback on a task is scattered across chat, email and hallway conversations, so the next person to pick it up starts from zero.
What a good Kanban board for game dev needs
A Kanban board for game dev works best when every card carries its discipline, so each lead can filter to their own column of work without losing the whole-project view. It needs a small, fixed set of statuses that everyone reads the same way, including an explicit review step and an explicit blocked state. It needs a stable, short identifier for every task, so people can reference work in commit messages, chat and bug reports. And it needs estimates and dates on the tasks that matter, because a board without them cannot tell you whether the plan is realistic.
How Gameheim tracks game development tasks
Gameheim gives every project a Task Board with five status columns and a discipline filter, a short key for every task, a comment thread on every task, and a project Dashboard with a live Activity Feed. When your project uses Perforce, submitting a changelist from Gameheim can move linked tasks forward for you.
Five statuses, read the same way by everyone
The board has five columns, in this order: To Do, In Progress, In Review, Done and Blocked. You change a status by dragging a card to another column, or by picking a new Status in the task detail. If the change cannot be saved, the card moves back and the board says Could not change the status. Nothing was saved. Changes made by other people appear on your board while you are looking at it.
Disciplines built into every task
Every task has a Discipline: Art, Design, Programming, Audio, QA or General. The tabs above the board filter it to All or to one discipline, so an art lead sees only art work and a producer sees everything. Tasks marked General appear under All. The same disciplines drive the Discipline Breakdown on the dashboard and the discipline view in capacity planning.
Task keys like OFT-12
Each project has a Code, and every task key starts with it: in a project with code OFT, tasks are OFT-12, OFT-13 and so on. Bugs and decisions use the same prefix (OFT-BUG-5, OFT-DEC-3), so keys stay unique across all your projects. A project without a code uses TASK-12. If you rename the code, every key changes to the new prefix, the old keys still point to the same project, and no other project can take the old code.
Comments where the work is
The task detail has a Comments thread with rich text. Type @ to mention a project member: they get a notification. The assignee and everyone who commented before are also notified of new comments. You can edit or delete your own comments; deleting someone else's comment is a moderation action reserved for people with the tasks manage permission.
A dashboard and activity feed instead of a status meeting
The Dashboard shows Total Tasks, Active Locks, Online and Progress at the top, then the Activity Feed, the Lock Dashboard, Task Status Distribution, Discipline Breakdown and Overall Progress. The feed shows the 20 most recent events you are allowed to read: tasks created, status and progress changes, completed tasks, Perforce submits that reference a task, bugs and decisions created or moved, milestones reached and plugin changes.
Task progress from Perforce submits
When you submit a changelist from the P4 Workspace page, the Submit dialog has a Link tasks field. Pick a task and choose Link only, Progress or Completed. Gameheim appends a token such as #OFT-12, #OFT-12 progress:60 or #OFT-12 done to the end of the changelist description, and after the submit it updates the task. The step-by-step procedure is below, and the exact rules are in the reference table further down.
How to track tasks on a Kanban board in Gameheim
These steps take you from an empty project to a board your team can work from, with tasks that report their own progress when work is submitted.
- A project in Gameheim. If you do not have one yet, start with Getting started with Gameheim.
- The tasks read permission to see the board, and tasks write to create and edit tasks. The default Team Member (Default) role has both.
- The tasks assign permission to assign a task to someone other than yourself, or to a vendor. Leads and Admins have it; the default member role does not.
- For automatic progress from submits: a Perforce project, the Gameheim Agent installed (install guide) and permission to submit from the P4 Workspace.
Give the project a code
Open the project list in the sidebar, click the pencil next to the project (Edit project) and fill in Code, for example
OFT. It prefixes every task, bug and decision key. If the project has no code yet, Gameheim shows a reminder with an Add project code button.Create a task with the New Task button
Click New Task in the top bar. Fill in Title (required), then Description, Discipline, Priority and Status. New tasks default to General, Medium and To Do. Click Create Task.
- Priority is Low, Medium, High or Critical.
- Assignee picks a project member. Or assign to vendor gives the task to an outsourcing vendor instead. A task belongs to a person or a vendor, never both.
- When you assign a task to someone, they get a notification and an email. Project members who can read tasks are notified that a new task exists.
Add an estimate and dates to the tasks you want to plan
Fill in Estimate (hours), Start date and Due date. The form reminds you: Set estimate, start and due date to plan this task in Capacity Planning. The estimate must be a positive number of hours, and the due date cannot be before the start date.
Attach the task to a milestone
Use the Milestone field to connect the task to a milestone of the production pipeline. The Milestones card on the Pipeline page then counts it in that milestone's progress.
Filter the board by discipline
Open Task Board in the sidebar. Use the tabs All, Art, Design, Programming, Audio and QA to focus on one discipline. Switch to My schedule to see only the tasks assigned to you on a timeline; turn on All projects to add your scheduled tasks from other projects, shown dimmed.
Move work across the board
Drag a card to a new column, or click the card to open its detail and change Status there. Click the pencil on a card, or Edit in the detail, to change the other fields. On a phone, the board shows one column at a time: swipe, or tap the status tabs above it.
Discuss the task in its comments
In the task detail, write in the comment box, mention people with
@, and click Comment. Feedback stays attached to the task for whoever picks it up next.Link tasks when you submit a changelist
On the P4 Workspace page, click Submit on a pending changelist. Write the description, then use Link tasks to search for a task and choose Link only, Progress (with a percentage) or Completed. Click Submit. When the submit succeeds, the linked tasks update and the Activity Feed shows the submit next to the task key.
Important:Only submits made from Gameheim update tasks. A changelist submitted from P4V, the Unreal Editor or the command line does not change any task, even if its description contains#OFT-12 done. The person submitting also needs the tasks write permission.
Task fields reference
| Field | What it holds | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Short name of the work | Required |
| Description | Details and acceptance criteria | Optional |
| Discipline | Art, Design, Programming, Audio, QA or General | Default General |
| Priority | Low, Medium, High or Critical | Default Medium |
| Status | To Do, In Progress, In Review, Done or Blocked | Default To Do |
| Assignee | One project member | Assigning someone else needs tasks assign |
| Or assign to vendor | An outsourcing vendor | Needs tasks assign; not together with an assignee |
| Milestone | A pipeline milestone | Feeds the Milestones card and the milestone roll-up |
| Estimate (hours) | Planned effort | Positive number |
| Start date / Due date | Planning window | Due date not before start date |
| Progress | 0 to 100 percent | Also set by Perforce submits |
Referencing tasks in a Perforce changelist
The Link tasks picker writes these tokens for you. You can also type them into the description of a submit you make from Gameheim.
| Token | Picker mode | Effect on the task |
|---|---|---|
#OFT-12 | Link only | A task in To Do moves to In Progress; nothing else changes |
#OFT-12 progress:60 | Progress | Progress becomes 60%; a task in To Do moves to In Progress; 100 or more marks it Done |
#OFT-12 done | Completed | Status becomes Done and progress 100% |
- Only keys with this project's own prefix are applied. A key written with the project's previous code still works.
- If the same key appears twice in one description, the strongest action wins: done beats progress, and the higher progress wins.
- When a task reaches Done this way, any milestone of type Linked to tasks whose tasks are now all Done completes on its own.
- Git commits do not update tasks.
Who can do what on the Task Board
Permissions are set per role under Roles & Permissions, in the Tasks group. Leads and Admins hold all of them in their organization. See roles and permissions for the full model.
| Permission | Allows |
|---|---|
| read | See the Task Board, open tasks, read comments |
| write | Create and edit tasks, change status, assign to yourself, comment, edit or delete your own comments |
| assign | Assign tasks to other people or to a vendor |
| manage | Delete tasks and delete other people's comments |
Troubleshooting the Task Board
- No pencil on the cards. You do not hold tasks write. You can still open the detail and read it.
- A submit did not move the task. Check that the submit was made from the P4 Workspace page in Gameheim, that the key uses this project's prefix, and that the person submitting holds tasks write.
- A task is missing under a discipline tab. Tasks marked General only appear under All.
- "Someone else changed this task while you were editing it." Another person saved the same task. The form tells you which fields changed so you can decide what to keep.
- The activity feed does not show locks. The feed records tasks, submits that reference a task, bugs, decisions, milestones reached and plugin changes. Current locks are in the Lock Dashboard panel instead.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to organize tasks for game development?
Organize by discipline and by a small set of shared statuses. Tag every task with its discipline (art, design, programming, audio, QA) so each lead can filter to their own work, keep five or so statuses that include review and blocked, and give the tasks you want to plan an estimate plus start and due dates. Connect tasks to milestones so progress rolls up into the production plan.
Can a Kanban board work for a whole game team?
Yes, if the board can be filtered. One board for the whole project keeps dependencies visible, and a discipline filter lets an art lead or a QA lead look only at their own cards. In Gameheim the Task Board has tabs for All, Art, Design, Programming, Audio and QA, and the dashboard adds a discipline breakdown of the same tasks.
How do I update a task from a Perforce changelist?
Submit the changelist from the P4 Workspace page in Gameheim and use the Link tasks field in the Submit dialog. Choose Link only, Progress or Completed for each task. Gameheim appends a token such as #OFT-12 done to the description and updates the task after the submit. Submits made from P4V or the Unreal Editor do not change tasks.
What do task keys like OFT-12 mean?
The letters are the project code and the number is the task number within that project. Bugs and decisions use the same code with their own marker, such as OFT-BUG-5 and OFT-DEC-3. Short keys let people reference work in changelist descriptions, chat and bug reports. If the project code changes, keys written with the old code still point to the same project.
Who gets notified when someone comments on a task?
Anyone mentioned with @ in the comment gets a mention notification. The task assignee and everyone who commented on the task before also get a notification about the new comment. The author is never notified of their own comment, and only people who can currently read tasks in the organization receive anything.