FAQ

General

  • What is HacknPlan? 
    • HacknPlan is a SaaS production tool for game development studios, which provides a set of features for planning, documenting, scheduling, tracking and evaluating the progress of a game project. It has been inspired by other popular tools like Jira or Trello, but redesigning the workflow and adding specific features to be more intuitive and productive for game development teams.
  • How is HacknPlan different from other widely used project management tools?
    • The main difference between HacknPlan and other solutions is the integration of game design documentation as part of the organization of the project. While other solutions provide issues, user stories or tasks as isolated elements on lists, HacknPlan integrates the edition of a structured and dynamic GDD (game design document) which is linked to the tasks on the boards. This way, your design documentation is easier to maintain, gives context and meaning to the rest of the project, and is enriched with progress and metrics during development. It also provides predefined categorization and configurations based on common gaming industry standards.
  • How can I use HacknPlan? 
    • HacknPlan is provided as a service in the cloud with a web application client, so you can register here and start using it right away for free, no card needed. You can also give our premium services a try for 1 month at no cost.
  • Can I install HacknPlan on my own server? 
    • Nope, only the cloud version is available at the moment.
  • Is there a mobile app available?
    • Not yet, but it is planned. You can use the responsive web from mobile devices in the meantime.
  • Is there a Public API available?
    • Yes, there is a Public API in beta stage, you can read more about it here.

Premium tiers and billing

  • How much does HacknPlan cost?
    • HacknPlan is a freemium service with three different tiers:
      • Personal: Personal free account. You can use it to create your personal projects with unlimited members and to join Studio organizations for professional work.
      • Personal Plus: Premium account for individual users for just 4 EUR / month (paid annually). Get many advanced features on your side only while working on projects with other free users.
      • HacknPlan Studio: Premium account for professional studios for just 6 EUR per seat/month (paid annually). One single account representing a company or studio that can create an independent workspace and add projects and other Personal accounts to them (the company needs to pay for a seat for all their team members). Advanced features, extended file storage, dedicated support and unified invoicing.
      • Tier comparison.
  • What are the available subscription cycles:
    • You can pay for a HacknPlan subscription monthly (a bit more expensive but more flexible) and yearly (more commitment but a better overall price). You can change the billing cycle anytime. If you go from yearly to monthly, the part of the yearly cycle you paid for but not used is returned to you as account credit to cover future payments.
  • Can I subscribe to HacknPlan Studio just for myself and add free users to the project?
    • HacknPlan Studio creates an additional, independent workspace and once you upgrade, you need to add your existing projects and team members to it. However, the workspace can only contain as many users as seats you subscribed for, so if your team is 10 people, you need to add 10 seats to your subscription so they can be added to the workspace and collaborate on the projects that enjoy the premium features. More info.
  • Can I add or remove HacknPlan Studio seats anytime?
    • Yes, of course! When you add a new seat to the subscription, you need to pay for the remaining part of the current cycle (current month or year) for that new seat. If you reduce a seat,  the remaining part of what you paid for that seat for the current cycle is returned to you as credit. More info.
  • Where can I find my invoices?
    • Your invoices are available on your subscription page. Also, the invoices are sent to you by email as soon as they are generated.
  • Can I have a refund?
    • Refunds are not supported except in the case of fraud or mistakes that are notified early in the billing cycle.

Privacy and security

  • Who can access my project?
    • The projects in HacknPlan are completely private, and can only be seen by you and other users explicitly invited. There is a permission system that will allow you to give those users specific rights to read and/or write specific categories or sections of your project.
  • Does the application allow public projects?
    • Not yet, but we will implement the possibility of sharing publicly your whole project or parts of it in the future.
  • Is my data safe?
    • Of course, we guarantee all the information stored in our system is safe by using the generally accepted standards in security. The data stored on our servers is owned by the users. The user and project data are private and require authentication and proper permissions for other users to be able to access it. All the connections and data communications are encrypted by using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We back up our database daily to be able to recover the information in case of a major disaster. Our servers are hosted by Microsoft Azure and are located in Amsterdam (The Netherlands).
  • Can I erase my data?
    • Absolutely, when you delete your HacknPlan user account, all your personal data and the information you own (the projects that were created from your account) is erased completely and at a physical level. This does not include work-related data you created or shared in the context of your collaboration in projects owned by other users or companies, in which case the information remains on their property for historical reasons.