Backlogs I love you...

As promised in the last blog post, here's a bit on the backlog for the game. Don't worry there's also pictures at the bottom of this post. Hopefully I can start decorating this blog with an Abstract No1 style soon...also, ive added a flickr widget on the right there. I'll be uploading the odd image of predevelopment as I go along...

For predev I'm stealing parts of the agile methodology. One of the most useful parts of agile is the backlog.
For my purposes, in short, a backlog is a list of features that the player should see in the game.

Note the word should used above and in the backlog, a backlog is a list of features that should be realised. They do not have to be realised. It's phrased this way because backlogs always change and should change based on feedback from focus tests. This is part of what makes agile...agile.

Take a look below at a sample of the current backlog for Abstract No 1.
The formatting is very limited in Blogger however be assured that my backlog is extensively formatted to enable me to easily tell what is a feature, what is a task to realise a feature and the tasks current status. At work I use Hansoft to maintain a backlog, for this project I'm using open office. It's far less fancy however it does the job!


Abstract No.1 Backlog

Key:
Bold text = feature
Normal text = task that should be done to realise a feature
Black text = task to do
Green = task that is complete
Red = task that is in progress

There should be a mood board – complete
there should be an ideas storyboard
rough ideas sheets - progress
There should be an ideas storyboard edited to the music
an edited video of the when to jump, dodge, avoid - progress
create assets for video – Jump, dbl jump, avoid, dodge – progress
There should be an HTML(PDF?) two sheet game design pitch - for focus testing
There title of the game should be presented with a custom font
font ideas sheet - complete
font implemented into poster- complete
custom font should be made - progress
There should be a game poster – in progress
There should be a concept of how the game should look
There should be an in game shot mockup
There should be a colour script
there should be colour variations of the poster - complete
There should be a deer character
there should be a deer mess sheets – complete
there should be a deer box sheet – complete
there should be deer silhouette sheets – complete
focus test1
focusTest1 follow up tasks - progress
colour variations - progress
antler variations - progress
deer rendering style research - progress
there should be a deer interior sheet
there should be a deer texture sheet
there should be a deer colour sheet
there should be a deer lighting sheet
there should be a deer rough mesh
there should be a deer mesh
there should be a deer rig
there should be a deer pose sheet
There should be deer animations
There should be multiple wolves
there should be wolf mess sheets
there should be wolf box sheets
there should be wolf silhouette sheets
there should be wolf interior sheets
there should be wolf texture sheets
there should be wolf colour sheets
there should be wolf lighting sheets
there should be a wolf rough mesh
there should be a wolf mesh
there should be a wolf rig
there should be a wolf pose sheet
There should be wolf animations
There should be quick death animations
there should be death sequence idea storyboards
there should be death sequence storyboards
there should be death sequence animations
There should be forest backgrounds
there should be a forest mess sheet
there should be a forest colour sheet

Pictures
I also promised there would be pictures in my last blog post. Based on the completed tasks in the backlog above here are a few images...


Moodboard
Its a lot of fun to get really involved with an idea, totally live with it, be somewhere else. To that end here's a few photographs of the images I have on the walls of my flat....



the image below shows a lot of the abstract art ive been looking at, im interested in them for the moods they create with their colurs shape and forms. I think abstract art lends its self to music which is an area I want to explore with the game. Recently i've been looking at their colours schemes for the poster...



This is more of a technical wall, I really want to understand everything about the creatures i'll be animating from an anatomical and expressive viewpoint.




Poster development
To help with branding its a good to have an image that instantly identifies the game.
A poster. I'm trying to make something that is reminiscent of early 20th century vintage posters. So far im happy with the composition and with the help of some good art friends am working on finding a strong colour scheme. I'm being open minded trying out everything. I'll go into this more in depth in another post, in the meantime here's an image of the colour variations im currently trying out.



till next post!

The Rules

Below are some rules for development of the next game. Believe it or not, creativity flourishes within a good set of tight rules. They help to prevent development getting lost in and becoming directionless. Note how I've used the word “must”. Normally I use the word “should”. I'll make a blog post on this aspect of communicating project management in the future.


THE RULES OF DEVELOPMENT

Before development begins pre-development must be complete
before a single asset is made the entire project should be storyboarded, tightly briefed, specced out, thoroughly concepted and thought out to the nth degree. Illustrations should be ready to work and develop with in the production phase. There must be a Pre-development video of how the final game will look.

The format of the game must be scaleable
It must be possible to develop and play the game on iPhone, browser, PC, XNA, 360, PSN (this does mean that the game will be on these platforms, it should be as easy as possible, without sacrificing quality, to port to these platforms)

The game must be supported with a concerted Marketing effort
there must be blogs, tweets, trailers, competitions, videos etc

It must be effectively, qualitatively play tested throughout the whole of development
During pre-development there must be weekly reviews of the materials as they are made.
During production there must be a focus test every two weeks. There should be developer playtest every week.

It must be playtested every week.
There must be developer playtests to see and log how development is going. To see what's missing, what could be improved and what's still to be done.

The game play must be iterated upon
the Agile methodology must be used to iterate on game play during pre development and development.


Next steps
My aim is to document every part of the development process. To create a very open development that everyone can see, examine and learn from by observing the successes and the failures.

Rubbish drawings and good drawings, good game designs and bad game designs. The expected and the unexpected.

Which means from now on there will be more pictures! :D

With these rules in mind my next steps are to create a backlog and start making materials to focus test. This is where the exciting stuff starts happening. More on what the backlog is and my initial explorations in the next post.

Till then!