CAGD 470 - Sprint 1

 CAGD 470 - Sprint 1

Production Process

This first sprint was a bit more scattered than I would've preferred, but we accomplished a lot despite this. Some of the design work had already been completed by our designer in a previous class which gave us a good starting point to build off of. The only problem is that the game was originally intended for 2D which we switched to 2.5D and then 3D after discussing with the professor. Thankfully, this process did not hinder us too much as we were able to get it settled early and any work completed by others was conceptual at that point.

One part of this production process newer to me specifically was using Jira. I've been a producer before for mobile game development where we used Trello. Trello, fundamentally, functions in the same way as they both use SCRUM. However, they differ in the manner they organize themselves and the tools they employ. From what I've learned about Jira is that it provides far more in-depth statistics which can be used to course correct and manage scope. Stories can be given different priorities, must follow a specific workflow, and can be assigned a parent epic. Overall, I've gotten a good understanding of Jira after two weeks and can now confidently use it.

Issues/Problems/Solutions

One of the issues we encountered was some miscommunication of design. Our programmer believed wands and the inventory would have a hotbar that held a specific number of wands. Our designer desired the player to be able to cycle through all the wands in their inventory on the fly. Thankfully, we hold frequent meetings and have time to discuss changes before things get too far out of hand. I've also started to implement virtual check-ins every other day to ensure that we are on task and can catch problems before they arise.

Another issue we ran into had to do with the enemy attack pattern tool. There was much debate as to whether we wanted every attack to be hard coded or to have some way for our designer to create patterns using a tool the programmer would build. We eventually came to the conclusion that the attack pattern tool could be implemented in a simpler way than the designer had initially proposed in a way that satisfied both parties.

Sprint Kickoff

Our sprint kickoff went fairly well since we had some pre-production work already done from a previous class. Getting it transferred to Jira was a bit slower due to the board not getting setup until the end of the first week. I put all of our combined user stories and some I determined myself into a google document before the board was published. I also took the time to acquaint myself with Jira and its tools.

User Stories Document

Work Completed

Most of the work I completed this sprint had to do with setting up meetings, hosting design discussions between the programmer and designer, organizing existing documents, and some slight VFX work. The first tangible piece of work I did was create a rough production timeline to show what features needed to be completed when. I also gathered a list of our artist's strengths and weaknesses to assess where everyone would best fit and to determine how to disperse tasks.

Rough Production Timeline & Strength/Weaknesses List

The second thing I did was setup a shared google drive where we can throw in anything relating to documentation and assets. Our designer had their features all listed out in individual documents which I compiled and formatted so that it was easier to read. Having all the design information in one spot was more convenient for the team, especially with the table of contents acting as an outline to jump to any specific spot in the text.

Google Drive & GDD

The last thing I wanted to get done was VFX for the basic wand the player uses in game. This was a purple glowing orb that pulsed to show there was magic in it. The effect is to be played on the actual staff not the projectile it shoots. I wanted this one to be a bit more simple and have rarer wands have more stylish effects.

Basic Wand VFX

Work Incomplete

I wanted to also get the dash VFX done for the ability, but my limited knowledge of VFX made creating the basic wand VFX take longer than anticipated. Other than that I was able to get most of my tasks done this sprint. I believe I still need to work on the backlog to ensure we have enough work and that we can get a quality product by the end.

Current Work

I'm currently working on the aforementioned dash VFX. Once I finish that I will get started on the basic wand projectiles.