Game Milestone Scope Cut-Line Board

Game Milestone Scope Cut-Line Board is a PlanMagnet concept for game studios that work to publisher or internal milestones such as a vertical slice, content lock or content complete. It is designed for producers, creative directors and discipline leads who need to know early which deliverables will make the milestone. Every deliverable is ranked by priority, tied to the milestone acceptance criterion it satisfies, if any, and set against a cut line drawn where the forecast runs out.

In a game studio, scope tends to outgrow a milestone quietly. The milestone lists its acceptance criteria, work that feels essential keeps being added, and the gap only shows in the final weeks, when the choice is overtime or a hurried cut. Remaining work sits in each discipline's own tracker, so nobody sees in one place which disciplines are already overcommitted.

The illustrated page sits under Milestones in the Projects area, for a sample season's content-complete milestone. Chips under the heading give the publisher due date, the weeks left and a forecast date range drawn from a run of sprints, which in the sample lands after the due date. Tiles count acceptance criteria at risk, points above and below the line, and a team overtime trend from recorded hours. The Scope by priority table lists rank, deliverable, criterion, remaining work by discipline, forecast and decision. Sample deliverables, including a map, a ranked mode rework, a new tutorial, two boss encounters and an emote pack, sit above and below a dashed cut line labeled with capacity to the due date. Above the line, forecasts read on track, fits or at risk; one deliverable has a rework round marked as watching, and the tutorial has a draft cut to three of its five stages. Below it, both deliverables are forecast after the milestone and are not required by any criterion; one shows a proposed deferral to a later update with Cut, Defer and Contractor actions, the other a contractor request sent to CrewFoundry. A strip at the foot compares full scope with CrewFoundry capacity by discipline, including approved leave.

The concept extends PlanMagnet's milestones, sprints and forecasting into milestone scope decisions. Capacity by discipline, including approved leave, is designed to come from CrewFoundry, and the overtime signal is designed to stay at team level, drawn from recorded hours and never shown per person. A deliverable marked for a contractor is designed to send its request to CrewFoundry for staffing, and Propose cut list and Milestone report actions sit at the top of the page. The aim is for the studio to know at week one what it can commit to. Milestones, deliverables and figures shown are sample data.