Game Development Community

Overlord II: Coming Soon!

by Jacob Fike · 06/21/2006 (5:32 pm) · 10 comments

Well, it has been quite a while, but Overlord II is nearing completion. I am in the middle of fiddling with the UI to find the best way to display and edit a few things like Assignments and linking items to milestones (if you have any suggestions on this, please let me know). I then have to go over all of my model classes to make sure that they cascade properly (like updating the progress of a linked milestone when you update or delete an item). After that, I just have some HTML to tidy up and to udate and test the install and upgrade scripts. I will probably udate the online demo (www.phpoverlord.com/demo) once it is feature complete, so that I can get some feedback while I work on the install and upgrade scripts. More information can be found at the offical site: www.phpoverlord.com and I am always open to questions, comments, or suggestions either here, on the official forums, or through email at jacob [at] randomdeveloper.com.

Here's an obligatory screenshot:
www.phpoverlord.com/images/previews/overlord2preview_s.gifClick for larger version
Some things to note:
* Streamlined interface leaves more room for content and is easy on the eyes
* New personal and global sidebar, using style tags it is easy to add links to whatever you want
* Mini-icons for edit/delete and for each type of item

About the author

As the CTO of Avalon Labs LLC, I am responsible for the technology behind Fellowstream, our team-based to-do list.


#1
06/21/2006 (6:07 pm)
Very awesome, can't wait. Overlord has been a huge help in managing several of the projects I work with here at GG over the web, as well as personally. Can't beat the price for usefulness it gives.
#2
06/22/2006 (8:52 am)
Is this free?

Does it come with hosting?

I had never heard of the origianl, looks sick and helpfull.
#3
06/22/2006 (9:18 am)
Awesome!! Excelent news!!!
#4
06/22/2006 (10:48 am)
This looks to be a great alternative to 37signals' Basecamp - which is an awesome product. I've used Basecamp a number of time on various projects and it has increased productivity ten-fold.

Looking forward to giving Overlord a test-run on a few upcoming projects.
#5
06/22/2006 (11:39 am)
@Tim, Gustavo, Michael: Thanks!

@Allyn: Overlord is not free, it is $20 for a lifetime license, which includes all updates and support. It is also not a hosted solution, it is a downloadable package that you install on your own server, like popular forum packages (it's really easy to do). I will be updating the official homepage soon to better explain what it is and how it works.
#6
06/23/2006 (4:23 am)
This looks really cool, about time we got something like this :)

One question though, does the application support sub-tasks, e.g. creating a task (A) and creating new tasks (B and C) under that task, so that task A will be completed only when B and C are completed?

-A
--B
--C

I tried the demo but could not find any functionality for this.
#7
06/23/2006 (11:41 am)
@Thijs: The demo is using version 1.0.2, which does not support depencies. This is supported for milestones in Overlord II, though. Milestones are automatically updated as their linked items are updated, and you can set one milestone as a child of another, so that, for instance, milestone 2 cannot be completed until milestone 1 is completed, which will only happen when all of its child items are completed. I have thought about adding this to all items(except messages), but I don't see a reason to actually enforce a dependency(since some tasks can be completed but might just depend on another task for implementation or something), I might just add a way to visually represent dependency. I have also planned on allowing tasks and bugs to be added as items of a checklist(which could then be assigned to one person), so that things could be grouped together that way. I will need more feedback to get this done right.
#8
06/28/2006 (1:37 pm)
@Jacob: Overlod is used just for moddings teams?
When it would be released?
#9
06/28/2006 (7:09 pm)
@Gustavo: Overlord is just a project management web-portal. It is designed with game developers in mind, whether they are making mods, indie games, or anything else; however, it can be used for anything that requires organization and coordination between multiple people. You could even use it just for your own personal to-do list.

It has already been released, I am just working on a new version with some new features. I don't know when it will be done, I can only say that I AM actually working on it.
#10
07/04/2006 (5:34 pm)
@Jacob: It's really nice Jacob. I've just ordered my license. =)
I can't wait to see the new Overlord II. =)