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“Still Here” Is Released!
The game I have spend my last six weeks doing QA and UR on are now released and available on the Play Store. Maybe check out the teaser first?
Find it on Play Store for Android Devices. Best played on tablets with headphones.
A DADIU Post Mortem
Earlier this year I wrote about some big changes that had entered our project and lives. One of these changes were that both the Artist, the Oracle and I, the Architect, are attending DADIU (The National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment) this semester. While we are not fully finished yet (there is still one week left of productions at the time of writing this), I believe it is time for me to reflect on it all in relation to Tale of Omni.
QA & UR Manager
As I mentioned in the previous post of changes, my role on DADIU is Quality Assurance & User Research Manager (QA & UR Manager). As I have written before in personal ramblings on the matter, I were skeptical of entering this role in the very beginning, however, I have been learning a lot, and I am thankful, I got the opportunity. In the following I want to go through the main lessons, I have learned.
As a QA I have learned, that something does not have to be done to be tested. Or, well, I knew that already (I often prototype things), but I have really gotten the lesson under my skin now. By not being the one actually developing the games I have been able to see the value of testing things from a whole other perspective. I am a changed man. This has lead me to begin uploading weekly builds to the team, so that they can follow progress, and so that the Oracle can QA the shit out of the project as we go.
Closely tied to this lesson I have also learned, the importance of documentation. Yes, I touched upon this last time, I wrote, but it sticks deeper than the things, I wrote about then: I have now experienced first hand how troublesome it is to judge, whether things are like they should be, while not being close to the code. I have always been the programmer and designer, and I have always known my projects by heart, but for everyone else, it is much harder to know what happens. We already do meetings on the team, and as I explained in the post about documentation, I am also working iteratively on a game design document now - but I have also begun writing release notes for each build. This allows my fellow team members to know every small change happening to this part of the project, and it allows me to track what work, I have been doing, and what needs fixing.
When it comes to user research, my whole world view has been changed. As a Digital Design student at Aarhus University, I have been taught a whole lot about "the good design process": How to plan and execute workshops, iterations, mock-ups, prototyping, etc.. These has been good lessons, but "the good design process" as I knew it is utter utopia. Nobody have time to do prober cycles of iterations and develop ideas with user input in every single step. It simply takes too long. As UR I have learned, that the real challenge of user research is, to extract as much value from very little. This does not mean the users should not be heard, but simply that you shall pick your battles, and not suggest a full blown workshop in each and every step of the process. Sometimes it gives more value to the team not to ask the users, sometimes guerilla-testing on the street is enough. You just need an approximation of the users' needs - even the best of workshops would not give you the full picture anyways.
Following a Production
I did not only learn things as a QA and UR Manager. I knew from the beginning of the semester, that I would get most out of DADIU, if I were to learn from multiple other roles as well. So I tried to continuously look at the mistakes and victories of my team mates.
Learning from the programmers, I have further divided my code into individual systems, so that one system may be fully revamped without having to edit the whole code base. One of the recent changes, this has lead to, is a full-screen shader manager to keep track of various effects (bloom, day/night, saturation, etc.).
From seeing the Game Director and Project Manager do their work, I have also learned a lot. I have seen how important it is to be able to delegate work to my team mates, but also how important it is to always stay in the loop. It is okay that I have vision, but it should never be reason to push aside my team's needs. A team works better when the outcome is in line with hopes of the individuals. On the other hand I should not be afraid to demand things from my team. Sometimes you have to be less soft. But for God's sake, do not confuse that with being unfair.
Watching the Game Designer taught me a lot about the importance of being precise. Illustrate what you mean and try to think every little detail into it. But also ask for feedback and improve. Knowing, that what you make is not perfect, and letting the team know that you know this, is valuable.
I have also had the honor to work with some very talented artists, both in terms of visuals and audio. From the visual artists it became even more clear to me, how important it is to work out a direction for the art (and I saw how well such things could be made). I also learned that each piece of concept art should be made with purpose. From the Audio Designer I learned that maybe it is time to add some audio to Tale of Omni again. Because it does not have to be finished. It may even be crude. But it gives much more sense of the direction to iterate on the music and sound effects from early on.
To Conclude / tl;dr
Being part of DADIU has been a rich experience. I have learned a lot, grown, met great people, and had great fun. In about a week we are done, and the whole team (almost) will once more be in Aarhus, ready to continue work on Tale of Omni. It is going to be great, and it is something, which I look very much forward to. Have a good one.
Sincerely The Architect
The DADIU Sage pt. 2 - Halfway There
More than 8 weeks have past now, which makes the saga halfway complete. Development on the graduation game has begun. We have spend our first time at DADIU with workshops, two 8-days productions, more workshops, and for us the QA and UR managers: A few weeks of nothing.
Last time I wrote, I were quite skeptical of my role as a QA and UR manager. One of my concerns were, that it could lead me astray in terms of getting into the business of game design and development. I am less concerned now. I have now found, that the position is a proper door-opener in the gaming industry. As it was relayed onto me: It is hard to land a position as a game designer (unless you are a startup, of course). The big companies want people with experience, and the small indies usually start up with a game design in mind, ie. the ideas and design are not what they search for people to aid them with. QA and UR is however needed on all levels of production (and not only in the game design field), and this could allow me footing in the industry. Granted, I will then have to showcase my skills somehow as a game designer to change course, which will indeed be a challenge, but which has been done before. And I am not necessarily saying that it is my "plan A" to start out as QA and UR, but it does broaden the possibilities.
Being QA
During the first weeks of DADIU it was told to us a multitude of times on the QA and UR team, that we were to be hated. Hated by everyone. And that production teams would only understand our use and value at the very end of the graduation game production. Until then we would just be this tiresome group adding to their work load. Luckily this has not been the exact case: I have not felt hade towards me by the production team I am managing at any point of time. However, it is hard work to get to do your work as a QA.
In the two 8-days productions we have been focusing on QA only, and the matter of simply getting builds to test from the production teams has been a challenge to say the least. The production teams have promised deadlines time upon time for when a build would be ready. And then pushed them. And pushed. And pushed them. And it is fair enough - the production teams needed to learn the ins and outs as well, and the two mini productions were exactly made to allow for error. Only problem is, that whenever they pushed a deadline, it was time wasted for us. Time we could have spend on better things. Also it limited how much we got to practice and iterate on how we do our QA.
But it is, what it is. At least communication with the production team has been pleasant, and they did supply some builds to test - they were not trying to ignore QA.
Being UR
After the two mini productions we had a workshop in UR. It was quite fine. Our workshop keeper were the very competent Dana Popa, and she adapted very well to what we needed. A lot of the things to learn were things a lot of us already knew. I have personally done plenty of user research as part of my study: Surveys, interviews, cultural probes, ethnographically inspired field studies, etc., so not much new here. But she did help us learn some nuances of the different methods, and she had some nice tips and tricks from experience. One thing she brought to us was the concept of pretotyping, which I believe is quite valuable. I will not flesh out what it is, as it can be easily googled.
The following weeks were barely planned by DADIU. We had to go practice our skills a little by doing UR on the mini productions, but after doing that: Nothing. The production teams had this time period fully planned out, but QA and UR was neglected. We tried to push for doing some pretotyping on the game ideas as they were fleshed out by the teams, and got permission to suggest it to our teams. My team did not want it. So nothing to do for me for now. Now I hope I can persuade them to let me do some work, so that I do not have to wait until they got their first build. Yes, there is paper work to be made, but not enough to fill out the next three days.
Anyway, it seems this post has caught up to the now. Time to see what the final 6-7 weeks bring.
A New Challenger! The Current Situation and Development Process
In today's blog post I will try to formulate the current challenges of the Tale of Omni game development process as well as develop an overview of its general state. I will start up introducing our fourth, newest member of team, the Oracle, who will be our QA and UR manager, then continue through an explanation of the reasoning behind the need of the role, and how this ties into our present challenge.
Good News Everyone!
Being the originator of the project as well as the person on the team wearing the most hats (read: roles), I am doing a lot of work. That is not, I believe, unique to this project at all. I believe the situation is similar in a lot of indie teams: We want to keep the team small, therefore we cannot limit ourselves to singular roles. We need to keep our team small, both because there is no money in the project, and because more people can generate more trouble. I personally have to trust every single person, and every single person; the Artist, the Bard, and now the Oracle, need to be ready to work on this game out of pure passion, because being part of the project is all I have to offer.
As the Artist has touched upon before, we started out being just the two of us, and then some short while later included the Bard as well. Since then we have been us three, with the Artist helping out with the art of the game, the Bard helping out with the story (and planned to make the music), and myself trying to bind it all together as programmer, designer, director, animator, and pretty much any role I need to be (at our meetings both the Artist and the Bard shapes my work as well - I might be the "boss", but I try to listen to their thoughts and ideas as well. They are both functioning beyond there roles).
I do not mind having a lot of roles. Actually I quite like it, as it helps me make everything come together without me always having to wait for someone to make an asset for me or something like that. It surely has some drawbacks too, but it is a way to work - especially while the project is passion driven.
However. Some roles I cannot and should not take upon myself being so very close to the project. One such role is quality assurance (QA) and user research (UR), even though it is the role I am working as during my semester at DADIU. I am simply too invested to ensure that any test of Tale of Omni would be properly detached and objective. It is still good that I know about QA and UR and the processes of it, since it allows me to better understand the needs of my QA and UR manager, but I should not do the tests myself.
Luckily, I know a guy. A guy who is also doing QA and UR at DADIU this semester. A guy who is even one of two lead QA and UR managers between us. A guy who takes interest in Tale of Omni and who wishes to help us in our endeavor. He is now our fourth team member, and he is known as the Oracle.
Why Do We Need This Guy ^
As you may understand from what you have read so far, it is not a light decision for me (or for us as a team) to bring on another member. I do believe bringing on the Oracle will pay of many times in the long run, as Tale of Omni plays around with a lot innovative and unique game mechanics. It is important we get to know what works for the future players of the game and what does not. It is important that we know which darlings to kill and which to take care of. But bringing on the Oracle has also been a leap of faith. While our education (we are from the same study) does revolve around user testing, neither of us have had experience with QA before DADIU. Should he decide that QA is not what he want to do - well, then we are back at being three (or we need him to fill out some other role).
I shared on Twitter when the Oracle joined the team, and it was well before we started our journey on DADIU. This is because we wanted the Oracle to become familiar with the project, as he needs to understand the project to properly test it. He has been part of our meetings since then and will continue to be so in our future meetings - but this is also where we begin to run into the challenges we are currently facing.
I see three immediate challenges: We are four on the team now, we are split up across the country and we are more busy than ever.
Regarding us being four team members: This is probably the least of our problems. While more team members equals more management and more opinions, the Oracle will probably not be very vocal in the design and development process (save his role as QA and UR manager of course), as it would be bad for him to get too invested in the individual features of the game, as it would make it harder for him to test them objectively.
Regarding us being split up across the country: While Denmark is not a large country, it is still a disadvantage for us to not be able to sit physically together, and to generally not be within proximity of each other. With the Artist and the Oracle on Sealand and the Bard and I on Jutland (but not in the same city most of the time), we will have to do our meetings online. To add to that a lot of our work flow outside of the meetings consists of sparring with each other. I would oftentimes sit and work with the Artist on the graphics or talk with the Bard about the world and story of Tale of Omni. This is still doable online, but it is not optimal.
Lastly, regarding us being more busy than ever: This is probably my biggest concern as team leader. First and foremost it worsens the previously described challenges: It becomes harder to manage the team and it makes it harder to plan meetings and sparring. It also, quite frankly, makes it harder for us to find time to work on the game. Progress is slower and it was not exactly rapid before.
While I kind of has found my own solution (I have a good 1½ train ride to and from "work" at DADIU, I try to put in some work during this commute time), I do not know if the others can manage to find time. I can hope, but we are all busy. The Artist, the Oracle and I working full hours at DADIU, and the Bard continuing his study. As I said: The Oracle is QA lead and has some extra responsibilities on top of doing the same job as me. I know I am busy, meaning I am plenty sure he is too. The Artist is testing his skills as a project manager, and I know this is an intensive role as well and probably quite the challenge. I am not too sure how much time the Bard has on his hands, but I know we need the meetings to properly iterate on the work he is doing, and however much he want to work, he can only develop the story so much between meetings, as we need to validate the work.
To Summarize
We are busy but happy - and growing ever so slightly. We have plenty of immediate challenges but the adventure is not at a halt - just slowed down while we adapt. I am sure we will get used to our new, busy, daily routines. Others before us have made games on the side with full time jobs, and so can we. We will keep you all updated as we progress through our obstacles.
Sincerely, The Architect
The DADIU Saga pt. 1 - First Encounters
From the 30th of August to the 1st of September my semester at DADIU was kick-started with an introductory workshop. The workshop was a get-to-know-your-team-and-each-other kind of deal, were we did a lot of social exercises and also made our own tabletop games. It was some good days settling my mind quite a bit.
When applying for DADIU I was hoping for the role Game Designer. I strongly believe it to be a role I fit very well, and I would hope to be working in such job position sometime in a not too distant future. I make games in my spare time, I scribble down game ideas all the time, and I teach children how to make games via voluntary work. However, I ended up in the QA (Quality Assurance) and UR (User Research) Manager position, which I have had a hard time turning into something positive. Not because it is not an important role, but simply because it is not a job I wish to have - it is not what I want to earn my money doing. I want to be part of the production team, I want my hands on the project, and I want to be able to point at it and say "I made this". I am a maker, and I always have been. I were honestly quite bummed about not getting the position I hoped for, and I feared it would be a wasted semester, only opening QA and UR doors.
But the course was set. And while the semester could very well be a waste in terms of opening for more game designer doors (I hope not, though), I would not allow it to be a waste in terms of actual, acquired, useful skills. I want to get most of it, learn what I can from my position, as well as play my part in the whole.
Then came the day of first encounters: The introductory workshop. A couple of much eventful days, mostly focused on socializing, being welcomed, and information. My team is composed of good people, at least that is my impression, and while we were often forgotten when it came to given information and calling out groups, Thomas (both a teacher at, and a founder of, DADIU) made sure we also felt welcome, and that our role where somewhat understood and respected by the production teams. He spoke highly of the role, and while a lot of it felt like fluff to make us feel better about being QA and UR managers, he also had much reason and experience behind his words. For better or worse he made the role feel more like a viable route to what I want to be and do.
As part of the socializing (and to get into DADIU spirit) we made our own tabletop games, and here the QA and UR manager team also got to participate and design a little. The task was to turn a digital game into an analogue one, and we ended up making a tabletop version of Overwatch, where you were two players against each other, fighting with three characters each: Soldier 76, Pharah and Roadhog. I do believe the game was much fun to play, and we could easily had extended it further, by adding more maps and characters.
At the time of writing this I am on my way to Copenhagen by train. The next couple of days we will have QA-workshops there. I look forward to getting started, and I look forward to tell you how everything turn out.
Yesterday DADIU 2014 ended with a presentation at The National Film School of Denmark, and I am now heading back to Aarhus with new competencies and a published game on Google Play Store called Dragon Journey.I am now planning to participate in the iOS workshop in january 2015 where I and members from the development team will get through the process publishing for App Store. So excited!!!
Download the game here:
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.dadiu.dragonjourney&hl=da
iOS: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.dadiu.dragonjourney&hl=da
texture's not finished yet (i don't even think I was supposed to start oops) but this is it for today.
Doing some initial concepts and storyboard for our competence project at DADIU. It might be a tad too cartoony but we'll see.
