News about Pelorea: Tactical War
by Frank Bignone · 06/28/2007 (3:47 am) · 3 comments
Documentation
As shown last month, we are now working on some documentation in order to setup: 1. the different in-game elements (cards, maps, items...), and 2. an implementation guideline in order to manage co-workers on the development. As already stated, all game mechanism and design has been done which helps us to be more confident in the overall project.
Concerning the first part, Pelorea's map is finished and has been divided into two different maps: a political map in order to show influence of each race, and a landscape map to illustrate Pelorea terrain features. Next picture is an illustration of our rough sketches. Thierry is now working on a first set of game cards that will be used during play. This first set will be available around mid-august, just in time for our first milestone.
Concerning the implementation guideline, it was a little bit more complex. At beginning, I started with a word document; but very quickly it proves to be inefficient when managing virtual team. Last monday, we decided to set-up a wiki and after some try-and-failure, we end-up with a mediawiki installation (wiki.pelorea.com). No information is available at the moment because I'm setting up everything by copying the previous word document into this wiki.
Development
As stated last month, we will start development as soon as all our tools / documentation are available in order to mitigate risks on the project. Some technical demonstration have already been done in order to check some of our thoughts. Hex-map is now implementing through a C++ class which manages at same time visibility, user interaction, net sync and vizualisation. We did also a test-bed for a player account system (authentification, registration...) by mixing an apache/php/sql site and TGE console scripts.
Team & Partners
During the last week, I was in contact with an active indie-group in Beijing (www.torquewow.com) which is working a lot with Torque products and have some smart people. We agree to help each other on our projects which will give us a boost for Pelorea: Tactical War. Another very significant help will come from Canon (www.frogames.net) which decides to help us as 3D Lead Artist for our project. His time being so precious, we will focus on important tasks in order to not impair his other projects.
Next steps
For the next coming weeks, main focus will be on two topics: 1. to define the game cards and items, 2. work on the first milestones which should offer a good test-bed application for artist and designer. Screenshots will come after first milestone will become available.
As shown last month, we are now working on some documentation in order to setup: 1. the different in-game elements (cards, maps, items...), and 2. an implementation guideline in order to manage co-workers on the development. As already stated, all game mechanism and design has been done which helps us to be more confident in the overall project.
Concerning the first part, Pelorea's map is finished and has been divided into two different maps: a political map in order to show influence of each race, and a landscape map to illustrate Pelorea terrain features. Next picture is an illustration of our rough sketches. Thierry is now working on a first set of game cards that will be used during play. This first set will be available around mid-august, just in time for our first milestone.
Concerning the implementation guideline, it was a little bit more complex. At beginning, I started with a word document; but very quickly it proves to be inefficient when managing virtual team. Last monday, we decided to set-up a wiki and after some try-and-failure, we end-up with a mediawiki installation (wiki.pelorea.com). No information is available at the moment because I'm setting up everything by copying the previous word document into this wiki.
Development
As stated last month, we will start development as soon as all our tools / documentation are available in order to mitigate risks on the project. Some technical demonstration have already been done in order to check some of our thoughts. Hex-map is now implementing through a C++ class which manages at same time visibility, user interaction, net sync and vizualisation. We did also a test-bed for a player account system (authentification, registration...) by mixing an apache/php/sql site and TGE console scripts.
Team & Partners
During the last week, I was in contact with an active indie-group in Beijing (www.torquewow.com) which is working a lot with Torque products and have some smart people. We agree to help each other on our projects which will give us a boost for Pelorea: Tactical War. Another very significant help will come from Canon (www.frogames.net) which decides to help us as 3D Lead Artist for our project. His time being so precious, we will focus on important tasks in order to not impair his other projects.
Next steps
For the next coming weeks, main focus will be on two topics: 1. to define the game cards and items, 2. work on the first milestones which should offer a good test-bed application for artist and designer. Screenshots will come after first milestone will become available.
About the author
Real programmers don't waste time recompiling; they patch the binary files... ... Real programmers don't waste time patching binary files; they patch memory.
#2
06/28/2007 (10:44 am)
Frank, I highly recommend using google docs (docs.google.com) and keep with the WORD doc. Basically, docs will allow you to collaboratively edit the word doc. The good bit about it is of course that as a word doc, you can actually print it out!! (try doing that with mediawiki).
#3
06/28/2007 (12:32 pm)
Thanks for the tips Phil.
Torque Owner Jason Swearingen
i'm actually kind of in a similar boat, except i'm in thailand, and am paying the people i work with (but not on game stuff, i'm doing that solo at the moment)