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Free game production templates for indie studios (Excel, Notion)
The files I use in production, taken from Divider Dave and the Herringen application. The Excel and Word templates download without sign-up, the Notion workspace comes in exchange for your email. Each file includes instructions and example rows.
By José-Manuel Girona Mila, freelance producer · updated 3 November 2026
XLSX Game production kit 7 tabs
Enter the team, rates and dates once. Amber cells are the only ones you type in.
| Person | Discipline | Day rate |
|---|---|---|
| Léa | Programming | €350 |
| Sam | Art | €300 |
| Noé | Design, production | €300 |
| Date or rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Next Fest | June 2027 |
| Launch | Oct 2027 |
| Management | 15 % |
| Contingency | 10 % |
What the game costs, line by line: days per unit × units × rate.
| Activity | Who | Days/unit | Units | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core loop | Léa | 20 | 1 | €7,000 |
| Full level | Noé | 8 | 12 | €28,800 |
| World backgrounds | Sam | 25 | 4 | €30,000 |
| Total, management and contingency included | €201,400 | |||
What must be ready before each milestone. Dates come from Settings, costs from the WBS.
gamemarketingmilestone
Who is overloaded, and when. June overflows here: it is the Next Fest month, visible from November.
| Person | Apr | May | Jun | Jul |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Léa | 82% | 96% | 118% | 74% |
| Sam | 90% | 88% | 80% | 85% |
| Noé | 70% | 97% | 105% | 60% |
One risk per row, an action and an owner. The score computes itself.
| Risk | P | G | Score | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demo not ready for Next Fest | 3 | 4 | 12 | Noé |
| Regional grant paid late | 3 | 3 | 9 | Noé |
| Capsule freelancer late | 2 | 3 | 6 | Sam |
The cash flow plan of a funding application, computed from the schedule. You never edit it.
| Month | Nov | Dec | Jan | … | Oct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spending | €9,100 | €9,100 | €16,400 | … | €11,100 |
| Running total | €9,100 | €18,200 | €34,600 | … | €183,000 |
What it's for
Knowing what the game costs, who will be overloaded and what must be ready before each milestone.
When to use it
When you need a WBS, a schedule, a workload plan, a risk list or a cash flow forecast, and you don't want to keep five files in sync by hand. It is the base of the pieces a funder or a publisher reads: costed WBS, milestone schedule, budget.
How to start in 15 minutes
- Open the example project to see a complete, filled-in version.
- Enter the team, rates and dates once in Settings.
- The WBS, schedule, workload, risks and cash flow follow, with no copy and paste.
XLSX RACI
What it's for
No more tasks everyone thinks someone else is doing.
When to use it
As soon as several people, or freelancers, share the work and nobody is sure who decides what.
How it works
- Any row without exactly one approver turns red.
- Each person's real load is counted in days.
DOCX Go-to-market strategy
What it's for
Answering a publisher's or a committee's questions before they ask.
When to use it
Before a funding application or a publisher pitch: a go-to-market strategy (audience, price, platforms, milestone calendar, time set aside for marketing) is one of the points funders check.
What's inside
- Nine sections with what to write and why.
- The market as TAM, SAM, SOM.
- The visits to wishlists to sales funnel, with sourced rates.
- A reading list.
NOTION Notion workspace
What it's for
One place to run the project: milestones, Kanban, meeting notes, retrospectives and moodboard, with the user guide and the real Divider Dave art brief.
Don't oversize them
Fair warning, I'm going to be blunt: don't split hairs. These templates are overkill for a flash game or a prototype, and undersized for an MMO or a AAA. On a three month prototype, Settings and the WBS are enough. The rest is for the day you prepare a funding application or meet a publisher.
A filled-in template beats a perfect one.Want an outside eye on yours? 30 minutes, free.
Book 30 minutesRelated
Sources and tools
The sources behind my benchmarks and schedules, and the tools I open every week. If you follow only two: How To Market A Game and GameDiscoverCo.
Funding
Video game support fundCNCWriting, pre-production and production grants for French studios. Île-de-France regional grantsÎle-de-France RegionThe video game creation fund I supported for Herringen. Creative Europe, MEDIA strandEuropean CommissionThe yearly "Video games and immersive content development" call, open to European studios.Launching on Steam
How To Market A GameChris ZukowskiThe reference blog on Steam pages and wishlists. Festival listChris ZukowskiSteam festivals and shows, with application deadlines and cost. Check it before you schedule the demo. GameDiscoverCoSimon CarlessData on what players find and buy: conversions, Next Fest, rising genres. Partnier (ex-Keymailer)PartnierSend keys to creators and press, and track who covered the game. BufferBufferSchedule the week's posts across every network in one session.Steam page and art
Steam CapsulePythia GamesA gallery of Steam capsules to build a moodboard, plus specialist artists. My advice: hire a good artist. Our capsule, every format included, cost us $500. Before that, we had already spent money on mediocre work. Steam store graphical assetsValve, SteamworksSizes and rules for every capsule. Hand it to the artist with the brief, before they start. Press KittyIMPRESSAn online press kit, ready to send. Divider Dave uses it.Costing and comparables
SteamDBSteamDBPrice, sale and player count history for games close to yours. GamalyticGamalyticSales estimates per game. Take 3 to 5 comparables, as an order of magnitude, not as truth. GDC VaultGDCProduction postmortems: what cost more than planned, and why. Much of it is free. SuperJoost PlaylistJoost van DreunenIndustry economics: platforms, back catalog, the effect of AI on supply.