HacknPlan Blog
Insights from shipping teams, workflow deep-dives, and product updates from HacknPlan.
Chris Estevez - March 29, 2026
HacknPlan enters a new era with refreshed branding, a modern faster website, improved documentation, a cleaner v1 interface, and performance and usability improvements across both v1 and v2 modules.
Chris Estevez - March 11, 2026
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept in the gaming industry. It is already becoming part of the everyday workflow of many studios, and its influence continues...
Chris Estevez - March 2, 2026
We are excited to announce that the new Documents module is now available in HacknPlan!! Every successful game project needs a single source of truth. When documentation is scattered across different tools, drives, and chat threads, teams lose alignment. Decisions become harder to track. New members struggle to onboard. Context fades over time. Starting today...
Chris Estevez - February 24, 2026
Effective sprint planning forces clarity before work begins. It surfaces conflicts early when they are cheap to resolve. It gives everyone a shared understanding of what "done" looks like for the next two weeks. That shared understanding is worth more than any tool or methodology.
HacknPlan Team - February 17, 2026
In modern game development, prioritizing features is both an art and a science. Teams must balance player value, technical feasibility, business goals, and team capacity while navigating fast-changing technologies and player expectations. Successful prioritization reduces wasted effort, shortens feedback loops, and helps teams avoid last-minute scope creep and unsustainable crunch. The best teams combine clear...
Chris Estevez - November 10, 2025
Hi hacknplanners, Today, we present a new update for HacknPlan v2! I must start saying this is a "boring" update, meaning it doesn't touch very relevant modules of the application, such as the kanban boards, design model, or metrics. However, you will be able to experience a glimpse of the new HacknPlan v2 UX, the...
Chris Estevez - September 25, 2025
Today, we are announcing the roadmap for HacknPlan v2!! HacknPlan v2 is a major evolution of our platform, a comprehensive overhaul designed to make your game development planning more powerful, flexible, and enjoyable. This new version is not just about adding new features and a slightly prettier UI; we are rebuilding from scratch the entire...
Chris Estevez - June 22, 2025
Dear Hacknplanners, Today marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the HacknPlan journey, one we've been shaping for quite some time. Believe it or not, HacknPlan has been around for almost 10 years already, and while the platform has grown a lot since the early days, some parts are starting to show...
Chris Estevez - February 9, 2025
After the most recent update, HacknPlan is the only project management tool that natively supports the visualization of 3D models.
Chris Estevez - October 13, 2024
Hi hacknplanners, This update comes with handy features that will help you customize the work item and design element editors to fit your workflow. After last year's big UI update, we have received so much feedback about how you miss some of the simplicity of the old work item and design element editors, so we...
Chris Estevez - August 27, 2024
We’re introducing some changes to our pricing plans that will become effective on November 5th. We have stuck to the same prices since the first premium tiers of HacknPlan were released back in 2017, and our goal always was to provide an affordable solution for game developers to manage their projects, from hobbyists to indies...
Chris Estevez - May 19, 2024
You asked for it and, finally, here it is! We are releasing the beta version of our Discord integration, which comes packed with features. Let's dive in! Team commands This first version of the integration is all about slash commands. After integrating your project with your Discord server, you'll be able to execute common day-to-day actions...
Lidia Machuca - April 5, 2024
Bugs. That pain in the ass. Every development team is afraid of bugs. They can slow down your development process, derail your planning, ruin your release and make your game have a bunch of negative reviews because it shipped half-broken. That’s every studio’s nightmare. However, bugs are unavoidable. Games are such complex pieces of software...
Lidia Machuca - March 5, 2024
This article is a collaboration with Ewan McKenzie, Producer at Ant Workshop, about the importance of time logs for game production. At Ant Workshop, we’re a small indie studio that has worked on a variety of projects of differing scopes. From small prototypes to porting PC titles to consoles, to the full development of our...
Lidia Machuca - January 11, 2024
What’s the planning fallacy? The planning fallacy is a common bias in which people tend to underestimate the time required to complete a project. This happens because they are too optimistic about how things will turn out, making two main mistakes: overestimating positive outcomes and underestimating time, costs, or risks of future actions. The planning...
Lidia Machuca - December 13, 2023
This article about team communication is a collaboration with Rubén Calles, he began his journey in game development in 2014, and since then, he has collaborated with various studios. He published "A Place for the Unwilling" with his first company, Alpixel Games. Later, he directed the art for "The Fabulous Fear Machine" at Fictiorama Studios....
Chris Estevez - August 11, 2023
Hi hacknplanners, We are back with an important and long-awaited update, we have been receiving a lot of feedback from you and prepared a new release that focuses on UI/UX. Our main goal was to make the user interface cleaner, sharper, and more intuitive, and reduce clicks to perform common operations. We also included some...
Lidia Machuca - August 7, 2023
Planning is one of the most crucial aspects of game development, as it is necessary to organize both time and resources as efficiently as possible. For this purpose, the production process plays a relevant role. In this article, we will share valuable insights into how we manage our projects.
HacknPlan Blog
Insights from shipping teams, workflow deep-dives, and product updates from HacknPlan.
Chris Estevez - March 29, 2026
HacknPlan enters a new era with refreshed branding, a modern faster website, improved documentation, a cleaner v1 interface, and performance and usability improvements across both v1 and v2 modules.
Chris Estevez - March 11, 2026
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept in the gaming industry. It is already becoming part of the everyday workflow of many studios, and its influence continues...
Chris Estevez - March 2, 2026
We are excited to announce that the new Documents module is now available in HacknPlan!! Every successful game project needs a single source of truth. When documentation is scattered across different tools, drives, and chat threads, teams lose alignment. Decisions become harder to track. New members struggle to onboard. Context fades over time. Starting today...
Chris Estevez - February 24, 2026
Effective sprint planning forces clarity before work begins. It surfaces conflicts early when they are cheap to resolve. It gives everyone a shared understanding of what "done" looks like for the next two weeks. That shared understanding is worth more than any tool or methodology.
HacknPlan Team - February 17, 2026
In modern game development, prioritizing features is both an art and a science. Teams must balance player value, technical feasibility, business goals, and team capacity while navigating fast-changing technologies and player expectations. Successful prioritization reduces wasted effort, shortens feedback loops, and helps teams avoid last-minute scope creep and unsustainable crunch. The best teams combine clear...
Chris Estevez - November 10, 2025
Hi hacknplanners, Today, we present a new update for HacknPlan v2! I must start saying this is a "boring" update, meaning it doesn't touch very relevant modules of the application, such as the kanban boards, design model, or metrics. However, you will be able to experience a glimpse of the new HacknPlan v2 UX, the...
Chris Estevez - September 25, 2025
Today, we are announcing the roadmap for HacknPlan v2!! HacknPlan v2 is a major evolution of our platform, a comprehensive overhaul designed to make your game development planning more powerful, flexible, and enjoyable. This new version is not just about adding new features and a slightly prettier UI; we are rebuilding from scratch the entire...
Chris Estevez - June 22, 2025
Dear Hacknplanners, Today marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the HacknPlan journey, one we've been shaping for quite some time. Believe it or not, HacknPlan has been around for almost 10 years already, and while the platform has grown a lot since the early days, some parts are starting to show...
Chris Estevez - February 9, 2025
After the most recent update, HacknPlan is the only project management tool that natively supports the visualization of 3D models.
Chris Estevez - October 13, 2024
Hi hacknplanners, This update comes with handy features that will help you customize the work item and design element editors to fit your workflow. After last year's big UI update, we have received so much feedback about how you miss some of the simplicity of the old work item and design element editors, so we...
Chris Estevez - August 27, 2024
We’re introducing some changes to our pricing plans that will become effective on November 5th. We have stuck to the same prices since the first premium tiers of HacknPlan were released back in 2017, and our goal always was to provide an affordable solution for game developers to manage their projects, from hobbyists to indies...
Chris Estevez - May 19, 2024
You asked for it and, finally, here it is! We are releasing the beta version of our Discord integration, which comes packed with features. Let's dive in! Team commands This first version of the integration is all about slash commands. After integrating your project with your Discord server, you'll be able to execute common day-to-day actions...
Lidia Machuca - April 5, 2024
Bugs. That pain in the ass. Every development team is afraid of bugs. They can slow down your development process, derail your planning, ruin your release and make your game have a bunch of negative reviews because it shipped half-broken. That’s every studio’s nightmare. However, bugs are unavoidable. Games are such complex pieces of software...
Lidia Machuca - March 5, 2024
This article is a collaboration with Ewan McKenzie, Producer at Ant Workshop, about the importance of time logs for game production. At Ant Workshop, we’re a small indie studio that has worked on a variety of projects of differing scopes. From small prototypes to porting PC titles to consoles, to the full development of our...
Lidia Machuca - January 11, 2024
What’s the planning fallacy? The planning fallacy is a common bias in which people tend to underestimate the time required to complete a project. This happens because they are too optimistic about how things will turn out, making two main mistakes: overestimating positive outcomes and underestimating time, costs, or risks of future actions. The planning...
Lidia Machuca - December 13, 2023
This article about team communication is a collaboration with Rubén Calles, he began his journey in game development in 2014, and since then, he has collaborated with various studios. He published "A Place for the Unwilling" with his first company, Alpixel Games. Later, he directed the art for "The Fabulous Fear Machine" at Fictiorama Studios....
Chris Estevez - August 11, 2023
Hi hacknplanners, We are back with an important and long-awaited update, we have been receiving a lot of feedback from you and prepared a new release that focuses on UI/UX. Our main goal was to make the user interface cleaner, sharper, and more intuitive, and reduce clicks to perform common operations. We also included some...
Lidia Machuca - August 7, 2023
Planning is one of the most crucial aspects of game development, as it is necessary to organize both time and resources as efficiently as possible. For this purpose, the production process plays a relevant role. In this article, we will share valuable insights into how we manage our projects.
