Indie path. Part 3/15. How to plan development to plan

Great plan, Walter! Just ah *** if I understand correctly. Reliable, bl ***, like a Swiss watch!

H/f “Big Lebovski”

Who am I, what am I sharing and why you may be interested, indicated in the first post.

Disclaimer: I do not tell how to make games correctly, but I tell how I experimented, studied and continue to develop in this direction.

Links to all articles of the series in the application.

The exhibition we visited for the first time was held. It was urgent to decide what to do next:

that we are clearly shitty, how to change it?

What we miss, how to add it?

what is worth leaving, https://prive-casino-uk.org since it has potential?

that we have superfluous, how to “cut off”?

We were helped with all these questions to determine the list of reviews after the showcase, which I attached to familiarize yourself with the last article, and, of course, the development plan. At that time, he was already in two versions: real, for internal work, and fake, for demonstrations (both are available by links in the application).

It was decided to conduct a large capture and cut off at least half of our game. Nevertheless, taking into account what was left, we lacked examinations in many aspects. Therefore, they began to look for a 3D model, programmer, animator and marketer.

Where to look? We went:

to the producer (Vyacheslav Pogochkin) for help

To their friends (invited to participate)

As a result, it was possible to lure two programmers (Alexandri Alexei), a starting 3D-shnik (Ivan), a marketer (Alexei), accidentally selected the localizer’s gamedeer with knowledge of the English and Chinese languages ​​(Julia), as well as Level-designer-architects (Dmitry). And all this in 2 months, having in hand the results of the showcase, a fan newsletter for friends and acquaintances, several announcements in gamed forums, as well as a wide network of contacts of the producer.

Was it difficult to look for people? No. You just need to be patient and clearly formulate tasks.

Was it difficult to filter the found? No. Naturally, the flow of those who wanted was not prohibitive.

Is it more difficult to manage with an increased command by more than 2 times? A little.

We started a couple of thematic chats in a telegram and I, like PM, began to administer all this. Chat for general ads and flood, chat for marketing, chat for content questions about art and music. We began to carry out two calls weekly. For each I made plans, filled out the results, put the tusks in Jira, expanded the knowledge base in confluence, retained documents on the general G-disk and made it conveniently to work for everyone. So that everyone has the most simple access to all resources of the team, and that everyone knows where what is located.

In July 2019, the new programmers analyzed the insides of the project and told us a terrible phrase: “Cod Refectoring”: we must redo the architecture, leave the blueprints to C++. Launched to work.

Together, we analyzed the analysis and realized that we would make a game with an emphasis on the narrative, synchronizing with him all the mechanics and visual. At the same time, it was required to identify the central mechanics on which we can build a skeleton of the game, since it is not original to build it on a “deep lore” – to put it mildly, not original. We also began to create level diagrams, pretend to be a game design, remake a concept and describe it in more detail. This is not to say that at this stage we have already begun to make normal documentation, but we laid the foundation.

At this moment, I believe, the unspoken rules of interaction in the team were born. It was they who entailed a number of administrative documents: our charter, “party policy” and a list of employees. All this is now included in the WelCome Task list, which is required to familiarize yourself for any beginner.

In parallel, the introduction of the administrative part, in large strokes, threw a list of a mechanic, on the basis of which they began to set specific tasks of the team members. It became easier to plan calls, marketing activity and monitor the progress of work. A constructive appeared.

The project on which we wanted to learn how to make games began to develop into something more. All people who were part of the team by the end of the summer of 2019 perfectly understood that the development would take more time than planned. Let me remind you that initially we wanted to release the game in August 2019 (at least for early access). That is, spend ± 7 months on the development. But we had an excess of enthusiasm and a little free time in the evenings. The prospect to increase the development time, did not scare anyone. We are not the first.

Just at this moment, the founders of the team thought about turning this small gamed “between the landscape” into a project that we would not be ashamed to sell. Together we agreed that we will try to make an indie to a game, which we will not only write down in the portfolio, but on the basis of which we will collect the real studio.