When I’m working on a project alone it’s tempting to skip some of the planning steps. After all, I’m the only one who needs to know the project status. For example I was going to skip making a full list of the 3D assets I would need for my game since I figured I would populate the locations with assets as I went along.

It turned out that my half-arsed asset list was occupying my mind much more than I thought it would. I found myself adding items to the list at night in fear that I would forget them by morning. Eventually, I decided to dedicate some time to make my asset list properly and in this way I was able to stop my mind racing back to it at unwanted moments.

A well built asset list has other benefits as well, besides giving me a good night’s sleep. Since the list shows the whole modelling workload it helps with making better estimates for time management and work schedules. With all the assets written down I can better plan the materials and textures needed too. Best of all, the list helps to prioritize the modelling effort. Now I can rate assets by their importance and when modelling I can just bash out a bunch of objects since I don’t have to do prioritising on demand.

To help me create the asset list I made several moodboards, each containing images of the items relevant to the locations I need to create. Creating the moodboards also helped me figure out more items I needed to create, which I might not have thought of otherwise. They will also come in handy for reference when I model the assets.

Now I can continue my 3D asset production with a clearer mind!