Iterations and Milestones - thisismatthew/Bottled GitHub Wiki
As we have a core list of features scoped for the first 3 months of our development, we have decided to structure the development of the project into Four iterations that encompass those core features. Initially, we used this Gantt Chart to track the progress of the team to better understand how long individual tasks were going to take.
After the first two iterations, we discovered that the use of a Gantt chart to track progress was too rigid to be effective at tracking and guiding our progression alone through each iteration so we have also turned to short weekly sprints coordinated through Trello. The following four iterations cover Milestone One. We have yet to fully plan the remaining Iterations for future milestones.
The programming team uses this trello to track weekly progress, and the art team is following this internal document.
Milestone One: Bottled Alpha 1.0 - Core Features (3/4/21 - 3/6/21)
Iteration One - Prototyping & Experimentation (3/4/21 - 16/4/21)
Programming
+ Running
+ Walking
+ Jumping
+ Dynamic Camera (Basic following & User Input)
+ Herbal Tea (Getting a potion and emptying)
+ Basic UI and Menu Interface
+ Basic Liquid Physics Shader & Placeholder Assets
Design
+ Basic Level Structure + Puzzle Design Concepts
+ Movement Tutorial Area
+ Narrative Bible
Art
+ Placeholder Main Character Model
+ Table Model
+ Book Model
+ Shelf Model
+ Placeholder Running Animation
Iteration Two - Core Feature Development (17/4/21 - 1/5/21)
Programming
+ Picking Up Objects
+ Cracking/Resetting
+ Dynamic Camera (Locking In Areas)
+ Fire Spout Interactions Testing
+ Bug Fixing
+ Climbing System Development
Design
+ Fire Potion Puzzles
+ Main Room Level Development
+ Intro Dialogue First Draft
Art
+ Noodles Modeling
+ Environment Concept
+ Noodles Animation Placeholders
+ Environment Shader Research
+ Schedule Remaining Art Tasks
Iteration Three - Core Feature Development (2/5/21 - 15/5/21)
Programming
+ Fire Potion Development
+ Climbing
+ Ingredients/Cauldron Interaction
+ Checkpoints System
+ Cracking (FX) Development
- Coyote Time
Design
+ Greybox Main Level
+ Draft Intro Dialogue
Art
+ Noodles Placeholder Animations
+ Greybox Environment Changes
+ Main Room Design Finalisation
Iteration Four - Core Feature Development (15/5/21 - 03/6/21)
Programming
- Anti-Grav Potion Development
+ Movement Code Documentation & Bugfixing
+ Unity Testing/Test Scenes
+ Profiling & Performance Benchmarking
+ Implimenting Art & FX into Unity.
+ Audio Systems Programming
+ Lighting & Particle Systems.
Design
+ Playtesting Puzzles and Ingredients Paths
+ Source Audio for Sound Design
Art
+ Main Room Object Creation
+ Cauldron particles
- Placeholder Witch Asset
Milestone Two: Bottled ALPHA 2.0 - Potion Powerups & Asset Creation (2/8/21 - 29/8/21)
Within this month of development, we aim to focus on adding in the potion powerups and the puzzle systems that support them, as well as producing assets to flesh out the main level. When we reach this milestone at the end of this period of development we will have a more developed Alpha ready for in depth user playtesting, to help guide our early Beta development.
Iteration 1
Programming
+ Better Jumping
+ Improved camera systems w/ Cinemachine
+ WitchFyre Potion Implementation (blacklight, lighting flammable objects, fire animation)
+ Final tweaks to potion liquid system & bug fixes
+ Ingredients tweaks and bugfixes
+ Fix Levitating objects so that they are not sliding the player around.
+ Scripted Camera Sequences
Design
+ Draw over of floor plan to rough out "Hub & Spoke" ingredient path loops
1. to the tea ingredient,
2. then to fire ingredient,
3. then (using blacklight witch fire) to the gravity ingredient,
4. then (using levitation pours and floaty jumps) to the final ingredient.
+ Create Standard Movement Test Level (to set parameters of jump distances/heights, lethal fall distances etc)
Art
+ Texturing assets
+ Numbered list for unity to put in the floorboards create paint by numbers
+ Draw Level Design Floorplan
+ Define the pipeline for texturing and importing materials and objects into unity (documentation)
Iteration 2
Programming
+ Dialogue System
+ Levitation Potion Implementation
+ Ladle Sparkle Effects
+ Jump Shadow/Marker
+ Better Ropes (that wiggle with physics)
+ Foot Cloud Markers
+ 2.5D Sidescrolling Areas
+ Fire Particles
+ Smash Liquid
Design
+ Pathways Development
+ Jump and Movement Variable Tweaks
+ Playtesting Feedback Form
+ Asset Implementation (put models into the scene)
Art
+ Master Asset List
+ Asset Texturing
+ Asset Modelling
+ Noodles Rigging
+ Witch Modelling/Character Design
+ Potion/Particle Effects Visual References
Audio
+ Audio Assets Scheduling
+ Assets List
+ Asset Sourcing
Writing
+ Entrance Sequence Dialogue
+ Ingredients Pickup Dialogue
+ Potion/Ladle Sequence Dialogue
+ End Sequence Dialogue
Milestone Three: Bottled BETA 1.0 - Playtesting Session, Redesigns, & Design Lock (5/9/21 - 17/9/21)
During this month of development, we will be focused on tweaking and making changes to the game using the tools we have developed. By the end of this milestone, we will have conducted formal playtests and have written documentation of the remaining tasks in each area of development (model checklist/animation checklist/ sound design checklist/ Asset implementation checklist, etc).
Iteration 1 - Playtest Session One
Programming
+ Bugfixing
+ Potion Visuals Development
+ Potion Powers Visual Development
+ Dialogue & Audio Scripting Sequence Development
Design
+ Responding to Feedback.
+ Pathway Development
+ Asset Implementation
+ Release Plan Document
Art
+ Asset Texturing
+ Asset Modelling
Audio
+ Asset Sourcing
+ Asset Implementation
Writing
+ Pickups