OSS: Development Process

Game Development Process

The teams game development process was setup to mimic that of a modern software company, with each team developing a product for release.  The start of the season was kicked off with a recruitment event, where interested game developers heard about the competition, the timelines, and expectations for their participation.  The team members then filled out job applications and commitment forms.  Teams were then chosen and the teams began working.

The development was broken into three phases detailed below.  Each phase had a major milestone the teams must complete to move on to the next phase.

Phase 1: Concept and Planning:

 The planning phase, where the teams developed their game concept, roles on the team, inventoried their capabilities and assets, and developed the game concept.  The game concept was then pitched to the CEO and Creative Director for approval.  Once the game concept was approved, the team developed a schedule for game development and assigned team members to the various needed roles.

Key Actives in the Concept and Planning Phase:

• • Introduction to game design training

  • Training and discussion on Minimum Viable product

  • Training and discussion on 

  • Review of competition timelines and key parts of successful games

  • Concept development

  • Peer review of concepts and feedback

  • Milestone : Shark Tank review of game concept with CEO and Creative Director

  • Detailed schedule development based on game concept

  • Team member assignment to various needed roles

  • Milestone : Schedule and team roles review with CEO

  • Team given green light to start development

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Phase 2: Build Minimum Viable Product

Once the team was given the green light, work began on the minimum viable product.  The team used a modified agile process for development, where each work session was framed as a sprint.  The development continued for several weeks as the team developed the MVP.  This phase concluded in a major milestone, the parent preview session.

At the parent preview session, family and friends were invited to join the game develop team and preview the MVP.  Team members collected feedback from the reviewers for discussion in the next work session.  The parents also interviewed the team members about their game and the game design work they had performed.

Adapted Agile Sprint used at each work session:

• • (scrum) Team meeting to discuss overall considerations, key near-term work to accomplish, and to escalate issue and help needed

  • Team would spend 15 minutes playing their game, creating bug and improvements list.

  • Team would take total list of work to be done (backlog), and the new bugs/improvements, can create a prioritized list for the work day (sprint work list), and assign task to individual team members.

  • Team worked on the prioritized list for most of the work session.

  • Team would have a brief meeting to capture key things to work on next time and any homework items.

  • Team would make a backup of their game

Phase 3: Expansion to Competition Ready Product

In this phase of develop, the team focused on adding the key components to the MVP to maximize game completeness and features which are valued at the OGPC competition.  The teams spent more time playing and debugging the game, and providing feedback on other games.  Work sessions continued to follow the modified agile process in Phase 2.  This phase ends with the major milestone of a competition ready game for OGPC.