Development Synopsis

Team Meme

‘All Beer and Skittles’

Development Journal

8th of October  Ideating the Game Concept    -------------------------------------------------------

Nova has set up a Discord Server for the team to communicate about the development of the game. We had discussed ideas on what game we want to create and decided to create a game focused on micromanagement that has a dystopian sci-fi theme with old western elements. The player is a space cowboy who has to manage a space wagon from breaking down by performing tasks. These tasks require resources that the player must collect by travelling to different planets. The player has a limited amount of time on the planet before they need to return to the wagon, or else the player will die and the game will end. 

14th of October    Developing the Game Pitch    -----------------------------------------------------

Sophia  has drawn a concept on what the player character might look like as well as the space beast that pulls the player’s wagon.

Michael has created the Game Pitch and developed it with Brandan, and Jerome. We have written the Introduction which describes the game concept and gameplay, Story/Context which describes narrative context of the game concept, Art Direction, Inspirations which shows what other media contributed to developing our idea, Problems we might face, and Ideas to expand the game in the future. 

15th of October    Developing and Presenting the Game Pitch    ----------------------------------

Michael, Sophia, Jerome, William, Bradan, and Sean have finalized the Game Pitch while adding Design Pillars, Target Audience, and references to the images used in the presentation.

15th of October    Creating a Git Repo and Trello    -------------------------------------------------

William  has created a Git Repo named GDV-Game which includes a basic Unity Project as well as a branch for each team member and a branch named STAGING-BRANCH. 

William has also created a Trello board named GDV-Game.

20th of October    Refining the Game Concept    -----------------------------------------------------

22nd of October    Creating a Noun/Verb Diagram    ------------------------------------------------

22nd of October    Creating Documents    -------------------------------------------------------------

Michael has created the Game Design Document and Development Journal that is shared to the rest of the team for them to read and edit. We all continued to decide on which ideas should stay and which ideas we should remove in order to stay on track and not over-scope our game. 

23nd of October    Writing the Game Design Document and Development Journal    ----------

Michael has written the layout of the Game Design Document and has written the Introduction and Deadlines in the document. He has also written the entries “8th of October, Ideating the Game Concept”, “14th of October, Developing the Game Pitch”, “15th of October, Developing and Presenting the Game Pitch”, “15th of October, Creating a Git Repo and Trello”, “15th of October, Creating a Git Repo and Trello”, “20th of October, Refining the Game Concept”, “22nd of October, Creating a Noun/Verb Diagram”, and “22nd of October, Creating Documents”. Sean created basic outfit designs for the characters. 

27nd of October    Writing the Game Design Document    -----------------------------------------

Sean has finished the basic outfit designs for the characters. Michael has written the entry: “27nd of October, Team Meeting”. Michael, Nova , and Bradan have written the Game Design Document. Michael has written under the Development Software headings and Gameplay and Game Mechanics headings. Nova has written under the  Target System, Target Market, Story, Game Progression, Design Pillars, and Team headings. Bradan has written under the Art Direction and Graphics heading. 

12th of November    Writing the To-Do Document --------------------------------------------------

Nova created a To-Do google doc and filled it with questions that still needed to be answered about the concept of the game, and missing portions of the GDD that still needed completing.

Nova , William, Michael, Bradan and Sophia worked together to fill in a large portion of the To-Do google document in preparation for a meeting set for tomorrow at 7:30pm.

Nova posted a notice in the discord group and tagged all members to alert and remind everyone of the meeting to happen tomorrow, and its purpose. The purpose of the meeting is for all attendees to go through the To-Do document, and delete, add or otherwise comment on the things written, and to complete the ideation and iteration process of the game concept and requirements in order to move forward strictly in development and completion.

13th of November    Team Meeting --------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael, Bradan , William and Nova attended the 7:30pm meeting and discussed, finalized and fleshed-out much of what was remaining to decide. Nova  recorded the zoom meeting and uploaded it to our team’s google drive. Sean added to the setting and story section of the GDD

15th of November    Team Meeting -------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Our entire team was present for a 1 hour meeting. We created a google doc called “What Do We Need To Do”, discussed what was left needing to be done, and filled in the doc. Sean added to the win and loss condition part of the GDD.

21st of November    Team Meeting --------------------------------------------------------------------

As per Michael’s suggestion, we had another team meeting today. Michael, Sohpia, Jerome,  Bradan and Nova  attended a 45 meeting to discuss what each of us are working on, what has been completed already, and what was left to do. We created a To-Do Timeline, and assigned all the remaining tasks to team members who were present in the meeting. Sean started creating the presentation and added to the crewmate section of the GDD.

22nd of November    Iteration One --------------------------------------------------------------------

(Will)

When playing through our almost complete product, myself and my roommates alongside family members all felt like the space beasts hunger was a little two unfair and was too much of a challenge that they felt they couldn't do anything else with their time. As a result I have nerfed and re-tested the space beasts hunger meter.

Result: “The game is half the speed it was before but still feels fun and fast paced.” This slowed down the gameplay to a comfortable level , which i thought was too slow at first, that not only lets the player get a feel for the ship but also gives them the freedom to explore the station options e.t.c without being scared of losing every damn second if you don't have someone in the grow room and someone in the cockpit.

23rd of November    Iteration Two --------------------------------------------------------------------

(Will)

When playing through the game extensively I noticed it was A, hard to know what the crewmates values and statistics were and B, I was able to tell if the crewmates were undergoing a task such as sleeping on occupying the kitchen / medbay e.t.c. As a result of this I have added both a progression cog to display task progression when there isn't explicitly any progression so to say and I also added health, energy,rest and hunger bars to each of the crewmates to help convey the feedback much more clearly.

Result: Much easier to understand what is going on at any one time and also much easier to see who is working a station that does not have any classical progression (Chef in kitchen, resting e.t.c).

24th of November    Documentation and Final Tasks ------------------------------------------------

William  and Nova  finished polishing and completing most of the GDD. Nova  set up the itch.io account and registered a Gmail account for the team. William worked tirelessly to bug test and document each iteration of gameplay. Sean finished the Final Presentation powerpoint for the team. He also added images to the presentation to make it more appealing. William  and Michael continued to work on the programming. All three artists worked tirelessly into the night to finish the last pieces of needed art.

25th of November    Game Release Launched!!!  ------------------------------------------------

We are happy to announce the release of "All Beer and Skittles"!

Please leave us any comments or questions about your experience with the game.

With enough positive response, we may even make a sequel :)