Notes from Freeplay 2009 friday
Ideas and a rather messy collection of notes from the friday presentations at Freeplay 2009
iPhone game dev
Kynan Woodman (Firemint), Neil Rennison (Tinman), Paul Motion (Iron Monkey)
Selling at 99c on the App market to get people interested. Then bumping to $2.99 when game becomes visible.
Home developers can potentially develop faster then EA. When new platforms come out, indies can take advantage of it faster. Six month development time becoming more prevalent in industry for iPhone apps.
Polys one of the only advantages of the PSP over the iPhone.
Where 3D is difficult to do well on DS at its '32x32' res - iPhone is easier.
iPhone artists moving from DS dev to iPhone get confronted by a 1024x1024 blank photoshop file to work with.
Flight Control took a week to develop by Firemint's CEO. Makes use of line drawing methods. Was worth making extra maps for.
Issue of Mobile dev is no D-PAD an issue that ported games often ignore. When it comes to using a new platform well, new innovation 'tends to be the cream that rises to the top'.
Firemint has moved well from Work for hire to publishing - with royalties and massive critical acclaim as the reward (eg Mirror's Edge) though the process was a difficult learning experience.
Useful to look at in relation to the AppStores 'delayed rating' system where
Flight control sells - ratings slow to move until sales continue - then rating increases - dips a bit - and the dip in ratings lags behind it.
There is a PDF of the sales of Flight Control floating around somewhere.To illustrate this
Agile Development in Practice
Focus on Scrum development
Scrum methodology comes from Research and Development industries such as pharmaceuticals where time, money and labor is difficult to allocate upfront.
The starting point of deciding on work is based apon the decision of whether 'this will give the client what they want'.
It works by going though cycles, each producing robust code. These cycles are known as sprints.
This allows for a situation where a product is always close to a point where it can be released quickly.
Scrum mantras
'don't do anything that wont make money' (ie. code commenting doesnt make money)
'focus on individuals and actions over processes and tools'
Working software over comprehensive sofware and documentation
Customer contact key (through a single point of contact, in games this is often a publisher rep). Publisher rep plays role of "product owner" in scrum methodology.
Scrum related to the 'kaizen process' ('kaizen' japanese for improvement (wow how groundbreaking!!) idea from japanese car manufacturing): 'look around everyday and decide how customers product can be improved'. ie Feature driven development. Eg: engine programmers don't include features until they are needed/requested.
Artists often can't wrap their minds around scrum 'often dont know what you guys are talking about' 'cant i just go back to making some icons now'
'Scrumm zealot' bible: "The pragmatic programmer" (not necessarily scrumm related) has a mantra of 'you are a tradesperson, this is how to make quality code'
Agile methods: Others like the crystal method exist
Game development has tighter deadlines and publisher requirements compared to other projects.
(A question: Can team members maintain a consistent vision of the design docs [given such design methodology 'extra work'])
'5-8 Optimal number for scrumms (ie teams)'
"Getting to the end of a scrumm you find your self putting on the hat of researcher for the next cycle."
Scrum helps organises tasks (or modules of work).
Multitasking distracts from work. The idea of radio silence (No disruption or communication until a task is done; focus) assists this ban on multitasking.
"Scrums tend to stop when bugs occur which they need to be stopped"
"Allocation of staff outside of the cycle to fix bugs"
"The advantage of Scrum in our small studio is having the tasks up on the wall to help focus, even though there aren't 2-3 week cycles"
A Burndown Chart: a line that descends to zero (indicating progress to cycle completion).
This can be included in a information radiator. IE a plasma TV - highly visible. Shows progress. Marquees indicate measures of progress.
ScrumWorks: a software tool to help create a burn down chart.
After a sprint planning meeting, someone is allocated a task of punching in and ticking boxes on ScrumWorks. A web server could be set up to disseminate scrum information.
When turbulent requirements arise, changing to 2 week cycle - clear goals change cycle back to 4 weeks.
"Scrum helps to produce optimisation early: ie good algorithms"
"Last minute hacks often save your ass, how can this be reconciled with this methodology?"
Given a monthly cycle, customer demands a delayed until the start of the cycle in three weeks (ie sometimes they will forget) either way you dont have to drop tools to do their request.
Selling scrum methodology to clients: You get something for free (working display of code at end of each cycle).
Planning is usually three days at the start of the cycle. This can be considered as too onerous compared to mega planning and develop stage. Especially if it's a 3 day planning for a 2 week cycle. It's a fair question to ask if the flexibility worth the overhead. (Though it often is)
Small to medium teams - type and size of scrum utility.
Have a good definition of done.
Damian Scott (Primal Clarity's Imperial League)
Small niches and specialisations exist and are worth filling
Playing in someone else's sandpit
Spongebob: Light Camera Pants
Lucky because were able to write own story
gameplay and design are main avenues for creative influence
No fire, characters can't die etc
Try to build a good relationship with IP owner
Cameron Lee Visceral, EA
Get the licencees to define the essence of the licence "give us three important pillars of your IP"
Pixar's Cars three pillars:
* Racing
* Characters
*Environment
THQ publisher came in and asks for features
Take off tyres
Boost nitros
Torus Blake Mizzi: Scooby Doo
We wrote up our own description and gave it to them.
Create a document of guidelines from IP owner, all changes require you to refer back to doc.
Warner Bros wanted combat game "Like lego star wars + more"
This doesn't fit well with passive seeming characters traditionally in tv show as investigators.
Was a push to get Daffney holding a big hammer.
Ed Sharlton was sent to assist who is a original story writer for TV series, though not a good games writer. He wanted lots of dialogue and cutscenes. There ended up being over 60 minutes of tem.
JAWs IP:
Original idea to go around in the water in boat and complete challenges
Studio conception of IP "targeted to older audiences" ie JAWs was a horror story
- didn't really suite holders publisher came back and said:"The game should be: What parents think their kids would like"
(Monster Jam
Pub: Activision
IP: livenation(?)
No notes on this..)
DS homebrew:
Tools: DevKitPro, PALib
(DS Game Maker, MicroLua 'are crap')
presenter website:multiple-option.com
Getting things done (manager ideas)
google "The Cult of done manefesto"
find out source of problems; ask five why questions "go back 5 whys"
"Gofer"-ing is bad
Bug trackers bugzilla
basecamp.com
revision control
*subversion
*Git
Sources: "Making things happen" by Scott Berkun
"Lessons Learned" startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com
steveblank.com
2dboy.com - (getting things done by David Ellen(?))
7 habits of highly effective people ("bs self improvement book")
Wolfire games - wolfire.com
Petri Purho (that guy from Finland: Hyyvaa Paiva!!)
his game: Crayon Physics Deluxe (We were invited by Petri to download his game on 'the bay of pirates' website)
Play: Enviro-bear 2000 Operation: Hibernation (funny game, driving with mouse)
Play: Spelunky by Derek Yu (randomly generated adventure)
Read: Lost Garden -read articles on "Paint box games" eg of making creative games.
Read: "Click Nothing" (Improvisation) presentation material (a game design blog)
Prototyping rocks. "Prototyping is the foreplay of game development. The reason I call it foreplay is because most of you guys want to skip it"
Try making a game in 7 days. Read: "How to prototype in 7 days" (Probably the article Petri was talking about)
Read: "The scarlet letters - notes on making art"
"Put your shit prototypes on the net" because "some things are only awesome on the internet" (ie Rick Ashtley)
(Scribble Naughts game on DS mentioned to be similar to Crayon Physics deluxe.)
SPD aimed halfway between Sand Box Games and Hardcore Puzzle Games.
(His windows file explorer program "Nexus File V")
If you were misquoted or mis-attributed in theses notes, please email me.
Comments welcome below :)
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