Beyond Visual Studio, there are a few common software tools we use.
We use Jira pretty as our task-tracking tool for bugs and tasks - I've used it at multiple studios now, though it isn't as ubiquitous as Visual Studio. I've seen competitors like Trello and Hansoft used at various studios as well.
We usually use Perforce for our asset versioning. It's able to handle both plaintext and binary assets. I haven't really seen any other solutions in use in my experience, though I have heard of other studios using some other options.
The most common tool we use for game design is actually Excel. A huge amount of [game design work is handled via spreadsheets and the formulae there]. Some studios use Google Sheets instead since it's pretty similar (and free), but we all inevitably some sort of spreadsheet tool with macro capability is needed in order to handle all of the various design math in content creation.
Every studio uses some kind of instant messenger tool for team members to talk to each other directly, though the specific tool varies a lot with the studio. These days most are using Slack, but I've seen studios use MS Teams, and back in the day we even used tools like Yahoo Messenger, MSN, or even Skype.
[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]
Got a burning question you want answered?
- Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter
- Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky
- Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr
- Frequent Questions: The FAQ