Well I hate to be so mysterious about the game I am working on, but I feel like it's necessary, at least for the time being. I'm working with a team this time around (again), teaming up with a couple of my co-workers. I've told them that I won't say anything that they're not comfortable with me saying, and we're still talking about how much to reveal and when to reveal it. So I won't get into any details on what exactly we're working on yet. Details will come later.
At any rate, I'm going to make this update thread now, to let people know how things are going, even though I won't be showing any demos or screenshots yet.
I will say this much about our game: it uses touch pretty heavily, and also vector graphics. That means we've got our work cut out for us in terms of deciding which platforms to target, which channels to sell through, and which frameworks to use. We've had a lot of discussion so far about whether to use MonoGame or Unity, and I'm also throwing WPF or Universal Apps into the mix because it has such great support for vector drawing and touch input (while limiting us to Microsoft platforms only).
Sprint 0 Accomplishments
Since the weekend is ending, I think the first place to start is with an update on how Sprint 0 went for me, without revealing anything I shouldn't, yet.
As always, I had high hopes for what I could accomplish during the first weekend, and I maybe completed 1/3 of it. I was able to implement some pretty heavy math stuff, and I'm quite satisfied with the results. I'd love to show you a video or some screenshots, but that would maybe give away more than I should right now.
I also began putting together a document that analyzes the tradeoffs of our different target platforms (iPhone, Android, Windows, etc.), the different sales channels we're considering (App Store, Google Play, Steam, etc.), and the different frameworks we're contemplating (MonoGame, Unity, Universal App, etc.). It's a lot of research, and unfortunately, most of the most helpful information seems to be non-existent on the Internet. This document isn't done yet, but I did get a lot done with it.
Sprint 1 Goals
I don't know how much I can or can't do this sprint, since it was a day off from work, and I wasn't able to talk with my team mates. But I do have a tentative plan for the Sprint.
- Finish the framework analysis document, and pick a framework to go with (probably along with picking a sales channel and tentative target platforms).
- Have at least a basic design document for our game. One of the other guys is primarily doing this, but I want to help where I can.
- A really basic/simple prototype of our game in the three frameworks that we're considering: Unity, MonoGame, and Universal App. As I said, I've got a bit of code working, and it's mostly general purpose code that ought to apply in any of the frameworks. The goal here would be to get it working in each, which ought to reveal a ton about how well each will serve us. It sounds like a lot, and it probably is. But to be fair, this really simple prototype is nothing more than accepting mouse/touch input at various locations, running the aforementioned math code, and then drawing some lines and circles as a result. I'd like to think that any framework worth its salt could do that without any trouble. It's hardly more than the "Hello World" of video games. At any rate, this will help greatly with us making a framework decision, and I think we'll learn more from this little exercise than we will from the Googles.
- Decide as a team how much to share and when to share it, so I can at least let you guys know what to expect.
Stretch goals:
- Come up with an architecture for discussion/refinement as a team and over time.
- Decide on some tools (version control, project management, etc.)