Plan for Shayne Guiliano

Hi, just a little squib about Coaching Youth Baseball.

I wanted to give a little heads up on the development going on with Coaching Youth Baseball.

For the past couple months we've been doing a lot of recruiting and a lot of evalution of features and technology, but have emerged from the massive pool of ideas feeling good about the decisions we've made and feel confident going into production.

From the beginning of the game I've tried to make sure that we've at least over prepared for each and every decision that I knew we would have to make before we began full production. I know this will pay off in the end. Having studied film production in college and worked in QA at a well respected software company, I borrowed many of the standards of preparation from those experiences. What we've been left with is a very well-thought out feature list that isn't too long or too short and that everyone agree on (very important), and about 100 very informative pages of technical diagrams including state machine transition diagrams, graphical algorithm diagrams, pages and pages of gameplay thought experimentation, etc., etc. There is still a lot of work to do on the documentation, but I feel that we have a solid grasp on what needs to be done and how many resources it will all take.

Though the recruitment process has been arduous and tiresome, I am confident about our chances of ending up with a graphically immersive game considering the quality of personality and talent on our team. I have come to agree that recruitment is the most important part of an independent production, and that the the evaluation of developers must be held to the highest standards.

We now have two modelers that are dedicated to the project, and though both of them have little commercial level production experience, they both have an eagerness to learn and improve, something I think we all share on the team so far. Considering the scope of the art necessities (a sports game has lots of pseudo-repetition in it, which makes it easier) I'm confident that we will emerge will a game whose graphics will not only not take away from the gameplay experience, but that will add a level of immersion that I couldn't even had envisioned 9 months ago. We plan to have rendered grass (a first in sports game) interactive chain-link fences, impressionable clay that gets harder to play on as the game progresses, interactive dandelions and clover patches that bored outfielders can interact with, (that can give players a "confidence" boost if they find the four-leaf clover or blow off all the dandelion seeds) and clay rocks that infielders will throw at each other when horsing around.(all of which I believe, after endless research, to be unique innovations) I can't imagine being more happy with the field's features that we've decided on.

I'd also like to throw some props out to Joe Marushuck(I know I'm spelling that wrong) and the whole BraveTree staff, since my working with them during the design of Think Tanks really gave me a real sense of the professionalism required to plan and produce an ambitious production.

So now we are moving into production and will begin having some screenshots and such in coming weeks and months. I've started to take the game design low-level, as I'm taking all the high-level design I've worked on over the past 8 months and adapting it to the technology. The actual design of the gameplay has been the biggest and most rewarding challenge. It was difficult doing it for 6 months on my own, but it is paying off now, as I feel ready to answer or solve any question or gameplay issue, and also feel capable of playing the game cycle through my head with an ease that could only come after months of thought and snooze dreams. It's my hope that when we're done, each and every agent will have a sense of individuality that will shine through, and that the coaches (you, the gamer) will have a real emotional stake in the development of the agents and team...and that this investment in preparation and guidance could help you lead your team to the World Series. (Which will hopefully be played out online, perhaps a couple times a year.)

Chris, the programmer, is a big reason why things are moving so well. He is very bright, patient, and a great communicator, as well as a graphics feature junkie. I'm positive that when we finish this game, Chris will he lauded as one the most talented young programmers in the industry. Without a doubt, he allows me to have confidence that my hard work will not go for not, since he is not only extremely talented and patient but dedicated and passionate about making games that blow people's minds.

I think that's it for now. Over the next few months I will be working on detailing the algorithm designs and implementing them, and codifying the state machine, while the rest of the game development including graphics and core handling (catching, throwing, hitting, ball physics) continues.

If you have any feedback, positive or negative, please feel free to respond. I love answering questions or hearing comments.