Interested in following a game develop?

[GunFlame]

I've been working making games for only around 6 years. Not too long really. So a few months ago when an opportunity was opened, I took a chance. The door was only slightly ajar, so I had to make sure that I pushed with enough force to open things up properly.

 

At the moment, I'm working for a small company in Asia that specializes now in Mobile games, and also used to deal with MMO's and Social Network games. This was a new direction for the company itself, and may have only been doing what it is doing now, for around 18 months at the most. Anyway, we were open to new projects if the idea was right. And that was my opening, albeit small.

 

Well, I needed to think of something. I already had a bunch of concepts from but not fleshed out. The one that I was the most comfortable with, wasn't something that was really suitable right now. The scope didn't match up with the scenario. So I had to look through what I had, and play some games. After a few days, I came up with something and made a very, very simple pitch. It just outlined the core concept with some basic features. It got the go ahead.

 

Now the go ahead here is that I was approved to flesh out the game design. The first full draft took me two weeks to put together. It was an 80+ page doc with plenty of detail, but I was also kinda concerned that it was too big. The idea for the game is simple, and anyone that plays it would agree, but the amount of components just started to grow and grow.

 

Not every creates documents this detailed, but I wanted to make sure I knew the full extent of it, and that anyone who would glance over it would too (and I do mean glance, no one reads properly).

 

So, after a bunch of 12-15 hours days putting it all together, I submitted it.

 

After about 5 days (which is pretty damn quick), I got some feedback. Generally it was looking positive, but some aspects needed to be fleshed out a little more. And then there were some more parts that hadn't been covered at all. Or at least not to the extent that they wanted. So I went and revised it over the next couple of days.

 

Greenlight Meeting 1: Due to the complexity of it all (or actually, the size), it was rejected. But the idea was something that they wanted to keep. So they asked me to scale down. A lot.

 

Back to the drawing board and it a couple of days, I figured out what to do. It was a much tighter game, but a lot of the content was removed. Around 80% in fact. But the core combat was the same. Well I tidied up the document, checked that I highlighted everything that I may have overlooked last time, and presented it again.

 

Greenlight Meeting 2: It was approved...in part. They liked the idea still and how the business side worked. But they were looking at it as a possible hybrid. I wasn't all that happy, but it was something. So lets see what I could do. I prepared for the kick-off meeting.

 

I started took a bit of a breather for a while, well, actually I just switched my focus. I had a lot of work to do anyway. But about a week after the second Greenlight, a new Programmer came over to me (although experienced) and said that he had been given my Design Doc. My original one, the now 100+ page one. He understood it the simplicity. An opportunity!

 

Well, I didn't want to waste anytime and went straight to the boss. We ran through it and explain once more the simplicity of it. He approved a prototype. This happened about 6 weeks after I started the project, so it's moving fast! But it's so big...

 

Apologies for any grammar or spelling errors, I don't have time to proof read right now...

Edited September 20, 2011 by GunFlame

[DocSeuss]

Well, to answer the title of your post, yes, I'm interested in following this.

[GunFlame]

To resume where I left off...

 

So work began on the prototype for a small presentation. We had about 5 days, not much time to get something. But all we needed was something, just to show what it could be.

 

After some business discussions, we decided on using the engine that I had originally designed it to use. So we had a point to start from. Now we needed some assets to work with. But due to resource issues, all we had were the concepts. Time to get busy.

 

After a certain amount of covering and ripping, separated some aspects of the concept art in anyway we could, and put them as placeholders into the game. I had to personally redraw about 8 or so characters just so that they had the right dimensions which would make it easy to programme. But it did work, although it looked like crap. But hey, what can be expected from a prototype that uses concept art?

 

So we got something working and presented. After a little Q&A, we got a positive nod to move forward. Seeing it in very basic action (although running off a PC) helped clear up a few things and made it all easier to understand. But the Q&A did raise some issues, a few things that I had originally overlooked. But fortunately, it wouldn't be too much of an issues to quickly redesign those areas. And after a nights sleep, I was confident in the formula that I have now settled on.

 

Move forward to today, and we have the official Kick-Off meeting.

 

I have outlined the scope for the version that we will be putting together and compiled a list of assets for the artist. We also got one great mechanic working today, which is was pretty awesome to see in all its primitive glory.

 

But the die is now cast, the next step is to solidify the development schedule over the next couple of days (it's been drafted, this just makes it official). The artist will begin work tomorrow, and the programmer has it prioritized on what he needs to get done for now.

 

We have 3 months.

[GunFlame]

So, today I've been in the process of finalizing my development team for the game. I have been approved the headcount, so now it's just getting everyone on the same page. At this point I have a small team of programmer and artist with a designer pending. The designer should be finalized later today or maybe tomorrow. At this point it isn't critical, I've already designed all of the base aspects, so the designer will be configuring numbers for balancing. It's a good role for a Junior Designer.

 

I've pulled together most of the documentation now, so far, we have 7 separate project related documents that carry information of different aspects of the game that are tailored towards different people. For example, there is an asset list for the artist to work from, and then some early numbers for the programmer to start working with, as well as the overall design doc for reference.

 

I may be delayed another day before I can start to work directly with the artist due to prior arrangements. Not a huge problem, but some early content would be nice to work with rather than just placeholders that we have right now.

 

Let me know if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer.

[GunFlame]

I wouldn't say that we are in full production yet. We're moving there, but it's taking a little longer than expected to get the development flow in place due to some delivery issues for assets being worked out. They're teething problems only though, and understandable. It's okay, a good learning experience for everyone involved and it helps bond the team via troubleshooting.

 

One bonus is that one of the main mechanics appears to be less troublesome than it was first believed to be, which is a huge headache cured. This was kind of a make or break for it to be something a little new. But the system that has been devised means that the feature actually becomes very easy to implement and manipulate. It's a big boost this early on.

 

At the moment, the main concern is the asset creation. The original estimate needs to be adjusted because the work takes longer that originally guessed. It could be problematic, but I need to see how much can be done first, and then look to cut or adjust. We'll see what happens over the next week.

 

It's very early, but I'm pretty pleased with the progress on the programming side. A lot of the core elements are falling in place well.

 

Today I'll mostly work on compiling a lot of the reference material into a single project file, one which out lines the milestones and tracks the development progress. Due to the time-frame, I'll look to mark 2-3 milestones. Likely a Feature Complete and certain Component completion. The content allowed is flexible, so a projected content complete may be added. But again, I'll have to see how progress goes on the asset creation.

 

The designer is currently brushing up on the gameflow and assets. Their work will be minimal, but it will be quite rapid towards the last month or so I expect when we hit the balancing phase due to the amount of components at work. But hopefully, my ground work for these design aspects should mean that only minor tweaks will be needed.

 

I have recently thought of a new aspect of monetization that I think could work very well. So, I'll look into that a little more and see how it can be balanced with what is there, or even take over the current plan. We'll see.

[GunFlame]

So the monetization aspects have been roughed out in how they would be implemented. Originally, I discarded the thought of it due to the version being massively cut down. I found it hard to warrant the original purchases planned in the initial launch. They would come after an update possibly, but the full version was monetized. But due to the changes, we moved to hold it for now...until I thought of another possible way to implement. But for that, we can wait and see. It depends how well we progress over the next 3 weeks.

 

Kinda quiet today. The team are basically working of the designs that I had come up with a while back. So we are seeing asset creation along with developing the core functionality of the game. All is well for now.

 

I'll get my hands on the latest working build later today. It will have included, some of the new assets, and one of the key features in the game. I'm still in the process of compiling the Project Files and creating a high level time-line. At the moment, it's slow and steady. A still a long, long way off.

 

I've had to adopt Google Docs recently to help create a better and more flexible share point. But I don't like GD, I think that both the Spreadsheet and Word Processing tools are terrible. I would have liked to have used One Note for some of the documents, but it just isn't feasible due to who actually has the software and who doesn't.

 

The weekends going to be quiet.

[GunFlame]

To explain a little more, I'm going to end up revealing some little tidbits that help actually reveal the kind of game that I have designed. Which is going to be interesting, but anyway...

 

All of the base sprites for the main characters have now been completed. We are keeping it simple, so I have asked for each sprite to only have 2 frames of idle animation and a frame of attack animation. It's actually working pretty well and it looks fluid when everything is running, regardless of it still being pretty much bare-bones.

 

The enemy resource is slowly being built up now, and so far I have been very happy with the work. I haven't felt the need to revise any of the designs so far, which was a potential headache that has now been removed. A testament to the talent that I am fortunate to work alongside.

 

On the programming side, it's mainly adding features and tuning a little more, some of the base mechanics. But like the art, everything here is going swimmingly, it's all looking good so far. I could hardly ask for more.

 

I've been mulling over the best way to implement the leveling system. I had been thinking to simplify it, but as things are going smoothly, I decided to see if we can push in the original system. Luckily, we can! It's actually not going to be a problem at all, which is great because it's going to offer a nice level of diversity and make things feel a little more organic than they could have. I'm still working on the overall numbers, but I have a foundation now.

 

No designer this week, but that's all okay. I don't really need one yet. There is still plenty to be down, so the designer isn't needed right now. Perhaps next week or beyond thought, it really does depend on the amount of content we are able to squeeze in. It will also help make balancing adjustments a little quicker later in development.

 

We will have to show a demo tomorrow. This could have zero impact on what we are currently doing, or it could be drastic. It depends on how the current product is received. I'm hoping for a little more art resource, this will give me a chance to beef it up and little, and really put something out there that is closer to my original concept.

 

Then again, things could go the other way. I'll have to wait and see, but I'm confident.

[GunFlame]

Minimal but satisfying progress today. We managed to integrate some of the latest assets into the game ready for the demo with the review panel (they aren't really called the review panel).

 

The reception of the current version was pretty positive, there were some basic user related feedback issues, but that will be fixed with polish. I mean, this is a super, super early build still. But to be honest, the condition of this build is pretty good. Even with the place holders and limited assets and features, it comes together.

 

We have been asked to push it out sooner though, they have taken about 2-3 weeks away from us, which is rough. But on the flip side, we have raised that we have a bottleneck (art), and we have been granted another artist. It's just a case of finding one that is available at the moment. But it will be a massive help.

 

To be honest, I'm enjoying playing the game as it is. So I'm looking forward to playing it some more when the content gets pushed into it.

 

There were some suggestions that I didn't really feel would fit, or at least they would seem like too obvious a cash-in, rather than a worth while addition that syncs with the game, so I kinda dodged that aspect and instead, promoted what we will have prepared in the next week or so. But with that, I did realize that regardless of the small content that we will have to roll out, they will want to see some monetization for sure. This isn't ideal, but it isn't a problem. I have something in place ready to go.

 

By the end of the week, we are looking to have the content to structure out the first scenario/level/stage/world, and from there, we can then move onto building the UI. The UI is a huge deal because its addition ties everything together by ironically, breaking it apart.

 

It's still looking good, but there are some spanners being thrown into the works. Hopefully the artist can help balance the cut in time, and also, I get confirmation on whether they want to have the initial release monetized in a certain way.

Edited September 27, 2011 by GunFlame

[quiddity]

Great posts! If you don't mind my asking, what's the most difficult/annoying thing so far in the development cycle?

[GunFlame]

  On 9/27/2011 at 6:45 PM, quiddity said:

Great posts! If you don't mind my asking, what's the most difficult/annoying thing so far in the development cycle?

 

Thanks, I hope it can provide an insight. In regards to your question; so far the main problem has been getting movement on the art and asset creation due to resource availability. At the moment, it is slowing things down, and this morning, it took a step back which made it even worse.

 

Besides that part, it was quite a push to get it off the ground. My original idea was deemed too complex, so I was asked to simplify it. That ended up stripping away part of what I wanted it to be, I lost a lot of interest at that point due to the new concept that I created - although it was solid - not being what I had begun with. It was irritating to have to strip away so much simply because it could not be easily understood.

 

I got lucky though in the end, and we managed to hire a guy who was able to see what the original idea was saying. And with that, I could try and put together my original vision.

 

Anyway, back to the current progress update...

 

After yesterdays minor boost in regards to more resource, this morning I was welcomed with my current resource being taken away for maybe a full day. This is quite a big hit.

 

Another issue is, is that although more resource has been granted, we don't have it available. So granting that extra overhead at the moment is meaningless. The art creation has been an issue from the get go, and the biggest resource that I mentioned I needed during the green-light meetings and scheduling.

 

Today is going to be a case of doing what we can do. It's a real shame because the artist has been doing a great job, but any momentum we seem to try and pick up gets taken away after about a day or two.

 

I'm still confident that we can reach the submission and launch date, but at what cut in content and polish, I'm not sure.

[fuchikoma]

Interesting. Definitely following this.

[GunFlame]

Well, yesterday was a write-off. Storms prevented people from working, so we lost a day. It's not ideal, but it shouldn't be crippling.

 

We should have the first environment finished today, which will mean we have all the base assets for the first stage. It will then really start to look like a game. We're doing something a bit different with how we are putting the environments together, if it works, it's going to help create diversity as well as depth. I'm pretty excited to see how it will come together, and hopefully by the end of today, I'll see just that.

 

On the programming side, we are adding all of the gameplay variables so that we can look at how the game plays when all of the values are thrown together. But, even though the base stats that I have drafted up for different components have yet to be proven in the game environment, I'm confident that the algorithms are right, and will prove to give a solid foundation for balancing as we develop further. As long as they work, the rest is a piece of cake!

 

For adjusting stats and such, we are using a basic XML file. It's convenient for small scale stuff and allows for everything to be in the same place. As we ramp up the scale, we'll likely have to use specific tools. One suggestion - that was based on experience - mentioned about building the tools in a web page, which would be a great move. It means that they can get accessed very easily.

 

At the moment, I am in the process of writing the script and refining the tutorials. I did most of this a while ago, I just need to make sure that all of the text is using the same terminology and following the same tone. That's the problem with writing over a broken time period, when you go back and forth, you sometimes slip out of the mood that you began writing with, which changes the tone in places and the consistency. I'm not a professional in terms of writing, so I have no special method of negating this. But it's a minor problem that has quick and easy resolutions.

 

All in all, it's not going too bad at this stage. The features and code are coming together well, we just need those visuals.

Edited September 30, 2011 by GunFlame

[GunFlame]

Right, so over the weekend I spent sometime drafting up all of the UI that we will be using. We are getting to a stage where we can start to really build out the game, to well...look like a game. It was something we would have liked to have done last week, but the days we lost due to not having an artist set us back quite a bit.

 

The designer started today. To begin, she will be looking to put together an algorithm for enemy levels, and then with more content coming in, she will be assigning effects and audio to some of the actions in the game. It's basic design, but that is actually a more routine design position, than entering a company and creating huge aspects of a game in your first try.

 

Unfortunately, the programmer is sick, so even though some of the UI has now been drafted, we won't have it being built until tomorrow - that's if all goes well and the guy is back to his best. But, it shouldn't be too much of a problem though, he is ahead of schedule (the guy's a beast!) and would be waiting for content anyway. So although not desirable, the set back is only minor.

 

The one thing it does impact though, is that we were supposed to be demoing the current version. We can't do that now because all of the code is stored locally. So no demo today. I'm kinda glad to be honest, we have little difference to show that would be obvious from a glace. At least this way, I can push forward with what I want, without too much outside influence.

 

Today I'll be stepping back into a more producer/director like role now that the designer is on board. I'll be mostly updating the documentation and trying to push as much through while the PM is out of office. It's going to give me a little leeway and allow me to be a bit bullish in regards to additional resource.

 

I'll also be looking to get some audio together. Today I should be getting in touch with the composer and also, speak with the sound engineer some more in regards to what else we may need. She sent me some generic effects about a month a go, but now we need to start to tag all of the actions with some audio feedback, so she needs to be aware of the scale.

 

If we get everyone going tomorrow, this week could be highly productive.

 

On a side note, you may have noticed that I mentioned 'she' twice. That's right, including the artist, the team has three female game developers on board. Women DO work in the games industry!

Take note equal rights!

Edited October 3, 2011 by GunFlame

[GunFlame]

Right, we have 5 weeks. We have a lot to do.

 

We have started on the UI, this is going to be a big, big hit on the programming side to try and get it right. Part of the issue is actually linked to the engine that we are using (Unity) and it's lack of decent base functions in this area. But the UI is a huge component of any game, it can make or break the accessibility and presentation.

 

The graphical content is coming along now, we are now in the process of creating a lot of the UI Icons and Menus. Once this is done, we'll then continue to create some more of the background assets and the rest of the characters that are going to be needed. There aren't many, but they soon add up to take a lot of time.

 

The designer has started on some of the pricing of items and will later start on creating the maps/levels for the First and Second Stages. This shouldn't take all too long, but having them in gives the game a huge boost in regards to completed content. Especially when the simple navigation functions are in place.

 

At the moment, I'm coordinating with the Sound Engineer and Composer, as well as approving the art assets. Later today, I'll start on the 'Help' text, that will act as an In-Game manual, as well as continue to update the project documents.

 

We really don't have a lot of time now, it's all up to how painless the UI can be integrated. Once that's done, we should be on easy streak. Take note of the 'Should'.

 

I'll break away for the current tasks for the moment, and give some details on the project itself:

 

- Firstly, the game is being built using Unity, but we won't be taking advantage of all of the 3D capabilities. We are using it to create a hybrid which uses the visual aspects of 2D, with the flexibility of 3D. This will show more in how the effects are shown in game.

 

- Obviously, the game is entirely touched based due to the platform (smart phones), but it will not use any kind of virtual d-pad/joystick or buttons.

 

- It is an RPG, very light but also very grindy. It's to hopefully help it's appeal to all groups.

 

Cuts and Changes:

 

There have been huge content "cuts" so far, but this isn't a cut in the traditional sense. It just means that it won't be going out in the first version.

 

For actual cuts, a Default Skill system has been cut and instead, replaced with just Skills aligned to equipment instead. It's actually not that big of a change at this point. It's a slight compromise, but there was a change in the system anyway.

 

Originally, the player would have limited access to Skills, that's why a Default was always available. But we changed that so more Skills would be accessible to the player. So the cut was really due to it no longer being a factor.

 

The initial version will also have a Level Cap inserted into it. This was something that I decided last night. I hadn't considered it too much before, because I wanted people to have the freedom to keep playing regardless of some new levels not being available. But by doing that, it would actually break the balance of the game when an update gets made available.

 

Busy times ahead, time is tight.

Edited October 6, 2011 by GunFlame

[GunFlame]

This is the first time since the start of development, that we have been able to start the week with a full team. I'm hoping to hold this through to at least the end of the week and really build up some momentum.

 

The art asset creation is coming along really, really well. The artist has made some excellent progress and stacked up a bunch of assets ready for use. She has been working hard on the UI lately, but the quality of it is very pleasing. She has pretty much nailed the style that I wanted and it should offer a nice amount of polish to the presentation.

 

The designer has drafted out the layouts of the dungeons and how the spawns will work in regards to what enemies, with what properties appear where. She is now in the process of simulating some runs through the dungeons to see the amount of experience and coins that the player may be able to accumulate in a playthrough. It's all about variables, and checking what the glancing or pedantic player types may build up during their time playing.

 

The engineer is now working on integrating some of the aspects of the UI - namely navigation - and also, some tuning to the leveling up and experience distribution all in preparation for integrating related UI components.

 

Going by my project plan, we have two weeks until we hit the second milestone. We missed the first by just a few percent in regards to the completion of tasks, so it wasn't too bad. But to meet the next one, we may have to step up a gear and work some OT. This is fine, I would rather get the meat of the work done now, rather than having a harmful push at the end of the schedule.

 

I'm a little concerned about the size of the game at the moment. I have drafted around 80 separate sound effects that will be needed, and about 8 audio tracks. 5 of the tracks will only be small, and it looks like the other tracks will have to run on shorter loops than I really want. I may also have to cut out some of the variation sound effects too, but it's finding the balance. I don't want repetitive SFX plaguing the player's experience. To try and counter this, I'm actually looking into different ways to distribute the file. Hopefully I can avoid cutting stuff just for the sake of file size.

 

Anyway, this week is going to leave a pretty big mark in regards to how well development is going, and how far we are behind or in front.

Edited October 10, 2011 by GunFlame

[fuchikoma]

Sounds like it's getting exciting. Being a phone game and not demanding the highest fidelity, how about procedurally generating certain sound effects, as you would on an NES or GameBoy? I'm picturing a Diablo-ish game and thinking things like rings dropping (ting!), coins (shing!), clothes (fwop) etc could be replicated with pretty simple waveforms and white noise combinations?

[GunFlame]

Hopefully we can use a few tricks, but there are a lot of voices present in the sound effects library (or will be), that will be quite space hungry.

 

They not even lines of dialog, just basic grunts and roars, but when you have a potential cap of around 20mb, even the smallest audio file has an impact.

 

We are using Unity as well which gives us some issues. Although it is quite flexible in some places, the runtime library can take up quite a lot of space compared to if we built something from scratch. But this was an early decision that we had to make, and although it's a real space hog, it is already giving us access to a nice range of visual effects.

[GunFlame]

So, it's been a few days since I last updated, but that's not to say we haven't been busy.

 

This last week, we have mostly been getting the remainder of the groundwork in place so that we can actually start to build something that will closely resemble the final game in the coming week.

 

I'll do a brief run down of the progress and tasks of the individuals of the team.

 

Engineer - Basically Unity sucks for UI. Big time. But during the week, we had a mock up Victory Screen up and running in the game environment, as well as some aspects of the navigation. We can now move around the non-existent map, and gain coins and experience even though it isn't being stored 100%. But that will be changing this coming week.

 

We have done a lot of integration for the algorithms that define a lot of the dynamic game mechanics. The ones that have visual representation are working, but we need a few more things in place to see how the rest has keyed together. It'll likely end up with us seeing some gaping holes in the balancing of the game, but that is expected. But, I'm fairly confident in the base algorithms that I designed, so we shouldn't see anything that is way, way off the mark.

 

Also this coming week, we had a healthy boost of good news; we should be bringing on another engineer sometime between Tuesday or Wednesday. This'll allow us to simultaneously develop the UI and the game logic at the same time. It'll be a huge step towards making this coming milestone.

 

Art - The artist has been working her socks off, both in office and doing OT. But we have all of the base sprites now, and a whole assortment of UI. It looks pretty good, but there will need to be some changes made and a little tidying up done. But the design is something that definitely works, and some of the stuff really does look excellent. I'm very happy.

 

We'll finish the background for the second stage, and then move onto making some of the assets for things like equipment and items. That'll help us get the UI really in shape, and also give us something visually functional from a character progression perspective.

 

The art was originally one of my biggest problems. But it's looking to be coming together nicely.

 

Design - The designer finished up creating the maps for the first two stages, as well as rescaling some of the enemie's stats and how they will develop depending on how they are leveled. It looks pretty solid so far.

 

She's currently in the stage of drafting out some possible scenarios that show the potential experience that could be earned in a playthrough. This was something that was initially started a while ago, but it got delayed due to tuning up some other areas of the game so that they could be added sooner rather than later.

 

Now, it will be a case of entering and tweaking the changes in an XML file when Monday comes.

 

Sound Design - Wow! fast! She has almost finished up the 80+ audio effects in about 2 1/2 days. I'm very pleased with that. We'll start to get them in this coming week where applicable, so we can see how much they affect the file size of the game overall. I will receive the files tomorrow morning, and spend an hour or so going through them first to see if they are all good. But I'm sure that we will be able to take about 70% of what has been created.

 

Music - The composer has begun shaping some ideas, but he is going to be away next week. So this week, we'll have to see what he can do. The music isn't something that we need asap, but I want to see the impact on the file size.

 

We are now coming up to the second milestone and to be honest, we will likely miss it. But that could change depending on what the new engineer can do. Usually, it would be problematic to bring on another engineer like this, but she has knowledge with Unity. So that is going to be a massive help. I'm still weary though, so I'm prepared to be behind.

 

As I update the documentation, keeping track of the assets and changes, I usually end up spotting something that I missed out of the original estimation. It's frustrating, but I haven't let anything big slip through. It's just things like an icon somewhere, or a screen transition.

 

In regards to content and completion, we have about 40% art complete and about 50% game logic. The UI is at around 10% in total, and the audio is something that I can compile and calculate come Monday.

 

It's always slow through the beginning, but we are starting to get our grove. Come Monday, we'll have a brief meeting so I can run through current progress plus the tasks we need to start looking at. We'll finalize how we want the equipment assets to be delivered, and also, go through the XML with the designer. It'll be her first time.

 

I have decided to cut out 1-2 of the tutorials that I was originally going to have in favour of adding text that will be optional to read. There will still be two major tutorials, but I don't want the small amount of game that will be available, to be too bogged down with hand-holding. It's a bit frustrating to remove it, but it the mechanics in these areas to not directly relate to the main gameplay interactions.

 

This week, regardless of it hitting or missing the milestone, is going to be a big indication on what the final delivery will be like.

 

I'm currently mulling over whether I prefer "Mini" or "Petite"...

Edited October 16, 2011 by GunFlame

[GunFlame]

Well, there has been an interesting turn of events.

 

Due the original schedule being as tight as it was in an attempt to make a Christmas release, the release has now been delayed. Obviously, there are some immediate positives that can come from this like more polish and better stability. Because of that, I'm okay with the change.

 

Unfortunately, we will lose some resource due to the delay. Because the release has been pushed back, it is no longer the priority that it was. For around 3 weeks, we will not have a dedicated artist on the project, and this falls inline with the current break that the composer is on right now. So we are short of some content development for the rest of this month, and the first week or so of next month.

 

Although it's frustrating to have these areas lag a little, the last couple of weeks has been on UI development, so it hasn't been a delay on any of the programming really, as most of the assets were already created before the news of the priority shift. We still have about a week or so of UI to put together, and then that should be all of the base elements in place. It'll make a huge, huge difference.

 

The project missed the last milestone due to some of the resource changes, we are about a week behind. But because the timeline has now changed, I'll take the latest resource changes and adjust the milestones and development timeline. We are looking to push it back by about a month, so we are aiming for mid December. This should mean that we get an early-mid January release.

 

The last couple of weeks have been productive in regards to what we have been able to do, but it is not what was expected. The second engineer that was coming on board was also put back, so we won't have that added headcount until perhaps another 3 weeks. But by that time, we will likely not even need it. Initially, the added headcount was requested so that we could push for the mid November finish. But that is no longer a goal.

 

One thing that does bother me, is that I cannot adjust the scope a little. We will still develop within the original plan. With the added time, and the simplicity of adding content, I was looking to add another stage. But this won't be happening. It's just a case of tuning up what we have, which I am more that happy with, it's just, well, we always want more right?

 

Anyway, I should be receiving the last of the sound effects files today, so we can start to add them in possibly later this week if it looks to be suitable to do so.

[GunFlame]

Okay, so it's been a while since my last update. But it's going to be even longer until I can share any new information regarding the development.

 

For the time being, the project has been set on hold, and the resource reallocated. This is expected to last for around 2 weeks, so it's a pretty big hit. The most annoying part is the complete loss of momentum, and the drop in familiarity of the project when people return. it sucks, but myself personally, have plenty else to be taking care of in the meantime.

 

It's not gone, it's still there, it's just resting at the back for a short while.

[fuchikoma]

It's certainly interesting to see the twists and turns that come up in a project like this. Unfortunate that it got sidelined like it has, but I get the feeling this is a pretty normal example of game development?

[GunFlame]

Thing's are a-go once more..."we're getting the band back together".

 

It's going to take a little time to get everything moving in sync, as there are a couple of member changes, with a new (additional) artist, and a new programmer - which is hopefully a supplement to the current programmer.

 

I've seen some of the latest art work. We have another background created (that's out environments), and the work on some character assets should now be finished.

 

Just to answer you fuchikoma; it can happen this way, but larger, more committed developments don't tend to be affected by this. But if the company has an aggressive release mentality, it's changed up often to try and complete as many projects as possible, and with Christmas dawning, we wanted as much out as possible during the holiday season.

 

Although this took resource away from me, it has relaxed my development schedule a lot, and we may even be able to drop in a little more content that first scoped. We'll see.