What is a 'milestone'?

What is a 'milestone'?

Harry Ravenswood (Lead Designer, Kuju Entertainment) gives expert video advice on: What is a developer and what do they do?; What are 'easter eggs'?; Why do developers put easter eggs in games? and more...

A milestone is a point in development, that can be set internally or externally, where we want to be at a certain point. We say that the game needs to be working to a certain standard by this point, and usually you'll have multiple milestones throughout the game development. Often you work for monthly milestones. By the end of this month, we want this to be working, by the end of this month, we want something else to be working, and by the end of the third month, we're going to show the publisher how we're doing it. You get the snapshot of the game at that milestone and the publisher can assess how we're tracking against our expectations. It's a very useful tool internally, too, just to keep the game team driving forward so you don't lose momentum.