Game development Gantt chart template: vertical slice to gold
An editable game development Gantt chart: prototype, a vertical slice gate, code, art and audio in parallel, alpha, beta, a platform certification wait and gold, with dependencies and milestones.
What the game development gantt chart template: vertical slice to gold process is
A game is planned differently from other software because its biggest risk is not whether it can be built but whether it is fun. Nobody can schedule that away, so the plan puts a decision early: a small, finished piece of the game, the vertical slice, that has to show the look, the feel and the core loop at something close to shipping quality. Until the slice is approved, only a few people should be building anything expensive. After it, art, audio and code can all run at full size, and the cost of changing the core idea is high. A timeline shows how much work waits behind that gate and where a late change would hurt.
This template has five groups: Concept and prototype, Code and design, Art and audio, Testing and certification and Release. "Write the game concept and pillars" (3 working days) is the only starting task. "Build the greybox prototype" (8) follows it, and "Develop the art style and concept art" (7) starts at the same time, so the look is explored while the feel is tested. "Playtest the prototype" (3) comes before "Build the vertical slice" (12), which starts 3 days after "Produce the vertical slice assets" (8) starts, with a start-to-start link, because the first assets are needed early but not all of them. "Vertical slice approved" is the first gate and waits for both.
After the gate the work spreads out. "Build core gameplay systems" (20) starts, and "Build and tune the levels" (18) starts 6 working days later, so level design uses the systems as they become usable. "Produce production art and animation" (36) and "Compose music and record sound effects" (15) start at the gate too, which is the safe overlap in a game: content is made beside the code that will carry it. "Alpha reached" waits for the systems and the levels, not for the art. Content is still being made at alpha, and "Fix alpha bugs and balance" (10) runs beside it. "Beta reached" waits for that fix and for the art and the audio. In the illustrative numbers the art is the longer chain: it ends 2 working days after the alpha fixes, so the art, not the code, sets the beta date.
The end of the plan is a wait you do not control. "Run the beta test round" (8) and "Fix beta bugs and polish" (10) lead to "Submit the release candidate" (1), and "Platform certification review" (10) is the platform's own review of the build. Replace its duration with what the platform tells you, and keep "Fix certification findings and resubmit" (3) as a buffer even if you expect to pass the first time. "Gold master approved" follows it, and "Launch day" closes the plan after 94 working days. "Prepare store pages and launch trailer" (8) starts at beta, since trailer footage needs a build that looks finished, and it has room to spare. All durations are illustrative; replace them with your own team's estimates.
A timeline schedules the work. It does not pass certification, clear music, fonts or other licensed material, or make the game fun. A game also differs from an ordinary software release in what is expensive to change late: a new mechanic after the slice, or a level layout after the art is built on it, costs far more than a bug fix at beta. For a plan that is only code, see /templates/software-project-gantt-chart; for the release steps of an application, /templates/software-release-gantt; and for how the same idea works in film-style production, /templates/animation-production-gantt-chart. The method behind a plan with gates, shared lead times and a fixed date is in /guides/release-date-lead-times-gantt-chart.
What this flowchart covers
In this template
- Five groups, Concept and prototype, Code and design, Art and audio, Testing and certification and Release, with 22 tasks and five milestones: "Vertical slice approved", "Alpha reached", "Beta reached", "Gold master approved" and "Launch day".
- A creative gate: "Vertical slice approved" waits for "Build the vertical slice" and "Produce the vertical slice assets" before the large production tasks start.
- Art, audio and code in parallel: "Produce production art and animation", "Compose music and record sound effects" and "Build core gameplay systems" all start at the gate, with "Build and tune the levels" starting 6 working days into the systems.
- A split between alpha and beta: "Alpha reached" waits for the code and the levels, while "Beta reached" also waits for the art and the audio.
- A certification wait: "Submit the release candidate", "Platform certification review" and "Fix certification findings and resubmit" sit between beta and "Gold master approved".
When to use this template
- You are planning a game from prototype to launch and need one schedule that holds code, art and audio together.
- You want to see whether the code, the art or the certification wait sets the launch date, and how much room the rest has.
- A publisher or platform expects milestones named alpha, beta and gold, and you want them as dated gates.
- You make games regularly and want a standard plan to resize for each project.
The plan, task by task
Every task in the chart with its length in working days and what it waits for. A dependency is a step number; SS is start-to-start, FF is finish-to-finish, and +n is a lag in working days.
| # | Task | Group | Working days | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Write the game concept and pillars | Concept and prototype | 3 | |
| 2 | Build the greybox prototype | Concept and prototype | 8 | 1 |
| 3 | Playtest the prototype | Concept and prototype | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | Vertical slice approved | Concept and prototype | Milestone | 5, 9 |
| 5 | Build the vertical slice | Code and design | 12 | 3, 9SS+3 |
| 6 | Build core gameplay systems | Code and design | 20 | 4 |
| 7 | Build and tune the levels | Code and design | 18 | 6SS+6 |
| 8 | Develop the art style and concept art | Art and audio | 7 | 1 |
| 9 | Produce the vertical slice assets | Art and audio | 8 | 8 |
| 10 | Produce production art and animation | Art and audio | 36 | 4 |
| 11 | Compose music and record sound effects | Art and audio | 15 | 4 |
| 12 | Alpha reached | Testing and certification | Milestone | 6, 7 |
| 13 | Fix alpha bugs and balance | Testing and certification | 10 | 12 |
| 14 | Beta reached | Testing and certification | Milestone | 10, 11, 13 |
| 15 | Run the beta test round | Testing and certification | 8 | 14 |
| 16 | Fix beta bugs and polish | Testing and certification | 10 | 15 |
| 17 | Submit the release candidate | Testing and certification | 1 | 16 |
| 18 | Platform certification review | Testing and certification | 10 | 17 |
| 19 | Fix certification findings and resubmit | Testing and certification | 3 | 18 |
| 20 | Gold master approved | Release | Milestone | 19 |
| 21 | Prepare store pages and launch trailer | Release | 8 | 14 |
| 22 | Launch day | Release | Milestone | 20, 21 |
How it works
Decide what the slice has to prove
Keep "Vertical slice approved" as the gate for the big spend. Write what it must show in the task's Notes, and shorten or lengthen "Build the vertical slice" to the size of slice you will actually judge.
Size the parallel streams
Set "Build core gameplay systems", "Build and tune the levels" and "Produce production art and animation" from your own estimates, then read which of them ends last. Use the start-to-start link on the levels to say how far ahead the systems have to be.
Set what alpha and beta mean
Decide what must exist at "Alpha reached" and "Beta reached" for your project and keep their dependencies to match. If your alpha needs the art, add that link.
Replace the certification wait
Set "Platform certification review" from what the platform tells you. Keep "Fix certification findings and resubmit" in the plan even if you expect to pass.
Check the release date
If the launch is fixed, give "Write the game concept and pillars" a fixed Start and "Launch day" a fixed Start. The plan starts on the earliest fixed Start and is scheduled forward: if the work cannot fit, "Launch day" is flagged with a conflict naming the earliest date its dependencies allow.
Add owners, share and export
Put the person responsible for each task in People, share the chart as a link with your publisher or team, and export a PDF or PNG for reviews.
Frequently asked questions
How is a game plan different from a software project plan?
A software plan can usually assume the design is settled once the requirements are. A game plan has to find out whether the design works, so it puts "Vertical slice approved" before the expensive work, and it runs art and audio as large parallel streams that gate beta. It also ends with a platform review that sits outside your control. If your project is mostly code, start from /templates/software-project-gantt-chart.
What is the critical path in the template?
In the illustrative numbers it runs through the vertical slice, then the art, then beta, the beta round, the certification review and launch. Turn on View ▸ Critical path to light it. The code chain is a few days shorter than the art, so the art sets "Beta reached" until you change the durations.
My launch date is fixed. Can the chart check it?
Yes. Give the first task a fixed Start and "Launch day" a fixed Start. The plan starts on the earliest fixed Start and is scheduled forward, so if the chain from concept to certification is too long, "Launch day" is flagged with a conflict. Compare the finish date with the date you need.
Can I add more platforms or more content updates?
Yes. Duplicate "Platform certification review" and its resubmit task for each platform that reviews separately, and link each one to "Gold master approved". Post-launch updates can be a second plan that starts at "Launch day".
Does the chart replace a production tracker?
No. It schedules the work and shows how tasks depend on each other. It does not hold bugs, asset lists or build numbers, and it does not clear licensed music or middleware. Progress can be marked on each task, but progress never moves dates.