Deep roasting: how I tried to combine the full development of the game with Timling

Hi all! In touch, Viktor Borisov, Timlid and developer of the game I, Toaster. Work on the “toaster” does not let us go – and the sound of reloading the bread product seems to be forever in our hearts. We decided to release a series of materials in which different members of our team will share their experience in creating a game. I’ll start first! I will be glad if the things I described will respond to someone, or if someone has a desire to share advice on the future on this topic.

Month – Not a deadline for Gamdev at all. Many games have been created for years, and the release of new parts is constantly postponed. Nevertheless, it seems to me that at the initial stage of work in Gamdev a month is a completely decisive term, which, first of all, helps a lot to understand about itself, its motivation and forces.

It was one month that the first stream of practical work lasted in the Gamebox game studio – in the framework of which our I, toaster was created. Here I will not talk in detail about Gamebox and how the first stream passes – you can google if you wish.

At first, in the framework of the already mentioned Gamebox, we all went through the selection in our specialties, and then were identified in the teams, randomly. Such a random is also a kind of test. It was not without reason that one person was eliminated from our team on the first day.

The main blow fell on the game designer, which was required as soon as possible, at least in general terms, to come up with the concept of the game. Read more about how he was the idea of ​​confrontation with toaster to vacuum cleaners, washings and more weighty enemies, we will tell in further posts. So far I’ll go to my expectations and pains: how to catch everything, given that all members of the team have the main work, and we live in different cities, countries and, importantly, in completely different time zones.

We tried to work according to Agile methodology – again, Google, the topic is cool, who is interested, I advise you to familiarize yourself with. Many smart books and articles have been written on this subject.

Initially, I did not want to be a Timlid. Constant calls, making complex decisions, resolving all kinds of conflicts, like working with people as a whole, this is the most difficult. In addition, the development tasks and without it were the sea. But we depended greatly on time, and I-from my light degree Control-Freak and desire to help everyone))

In the past, I had the experience of managing employees. But in conditions when everyone has many tasks, and no one pays money, to interact with the team members is completely unusual. Someone today has the only weekend in a week, someone has a daily shift, and someone has an average of 8 hours more time than everyone else.

Climate in the https://casinosnotongamcare.co.uk/non-gamstop-casinos/ team

In principle, the team and I were initially lucky, so we almost immediately formed a friendly and trusting relationship between team members.

This does not mean that there were no quarrels or misunderstandings – of course, without them nowhere. But it was precisely at such moments that it was especially important for me to find time, be distracted from other tasks and devote time to solving disputed issues, so as not to bring them to a boiling point. This, of course, is annoying: especially when you sit and puzzle over the next line of code. But the efficiency is important here! Otherwise, everyone is quarreled, and the work will get up or (even worse) someone will burn emotionally and will not be ready to continue working on the game at the same high pace.

Write everything, write about everything

Here, in principle, I initially understood that of course it was necessary to try to keep records in a notebook during rallies.
The only thing I did not expect is volume)))
Especially when we called up the team and discussed tasks in all areas of game development.
It is simply unrealistic to remember this in your head, so always have a notebook and pen at hand to aunt your calls a thesis.

Time management is important, but not a panacea

Of course, time management is super important thing. Tasks must be evaluated, planned and set.
But do not worry much if you haven’t had time. Yes, this is always unpleasant, but this is not a reason to stop the workflow and resent.
It is important to always keep your hand on the pulse and try to highlight the most important directions. For example, without which the game will not play.
And already starting from this to devote time to any additional. Mechanics.
The best enemy is good))
But this of course does not mean that you do not need to strive for the better, hehe))

How to sit on two chairs

I’ll say right away: the experience of combining Timling with development gave me a lot and, I hope, hardened me for future working challenges. Nevertheless, I want to start a story about this experience with significant minuses.

The main thing is, of course, a lack of time. In no case do I want to depreciate the work of the rest of the team, but it is very important to understand that often the development of the game is a process that requires a full involvement of a person working with the engine. All that the other members of the team did, whether it is the models of the characters, the environment, ui, animation or sound, you need to correctly import and configure in the game itself. And besides this, do not forget about your layer of work: about the development of architecture, mechanics, optimization, assembly (tests, of course, but we simply did not have time to bite authors =)). Therefore, in a heap of all these tasks, it is sometimes difficult to allocate for a moment for discussion. And you need to communicate with everyone, in detail and in free hours for this, which everyone has in different periods of the day. In general, that month I slept very little))

In this case, the most important advantages arise from these minuses! Since you, as a developer, collect the work of the whole team into the game, it becomes more clear to you when, in what sequence, and most importantly – in what terms – you need to complete the tasks in order to get the best result. You begin to see the approximate result long before the finals-since you learn to quickly solve certain problems and have some kind of intermediate, but indicative result.

By the way, in connection with this, I learned to tell the gamepresser and other members of the team especially clear “no”: when you need to cancel something in the framework of the development, because you understand that this may take a lot of time, and as part of a monthly sprint, it will not work to achieve a satisfactory result.

Did not finalize, did not finish

Although I am a developer with experience, I recently moved to Gamdev. Because of this, in the framework of work on the game, I often came across tasks that I could not solve quickly and familiar ways. Therefore, here is a couple of tips for beginners:

Look for games developers communities. And don’t be afraid to ask! I will not
say how rosy everything is there and how everyone is happy. The developers are also people, no one canceled toxicity – like a sudden desire to help at 2 a.m. If the question is really non -trivial, it is always interesting to make out! And this goes into plus people who ask and people who answer. Often, when you explain, then you yourself begin to understand the topic better. Especially when the question is difficult and with horseshoes. In addition, sometimes it is precisely with discussion of issues that long-term communication begins between members of the gamdev-community, which can lead to productive cooperation.

And in the framework of work on the game, I especially felt my lack of playfulness. We made the game in the genre of the School Arena, and I had almost never played the games of a similar genre, as I love completely different. But our team – and in particular, like Timlid – was very lucky with a game designer, who intelligibly explained how this genre stands out, how it catches. He collected several games as references and even tonsured how he plays in them =) I am insanely grateful to him for this.

Meanwhile, for myself, I clearly understood a simple, but previously seemingly inaccessible truth: if you make games, then you must play as often as possible in them-not only in your favorites, but also in something unusual, incomprehensible and even uncomfortable. Of course, it would be cool to get an offfer in the company releasing your favorite games. But first you need to expand the horizons, study the chips of various genres, and most importantly (for me as a development) – get acquainted with new mechanics and learn how to implement them in your game.