Good Development Practices
Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 6:37 pm
Hi everyone. I am Dantreige. Currently, I am theTechnical Coordinator for the Abyss404 server.
Red Golem and I are revamping our development process right now to make things a little easier on him. I would like to get some tips from you on some good development practices. As most of you have working development teams already, I would like to pick your brains a little on what works, what don’t, when it comes to organizing multiple developers, quality control, deadlines, and whatever else you may think is relevant.
Any help would be much appreciated from our end. I think these tips may be useful to all of the CoPaP worlds as well.
Some things that we have found useful are using template documents for regional and sub area development. These documents list things like, history, intended gameplay value, average character level the area is designed for, npc’s, mood, feel, creatures, tricks, traps, etc. Also we have Regional Technical Design Guidelines for several regions. These include all of the technical aspects used in the region. Things like, area tag and resref naming conventions, trigger placement, encounter guidelines, etc.
These tools are useful, especially when the developer gets lost in the layer and goes missing. Its easy to pick up where someone left off when this kind on information is available. (These docs are used to post this information to the developers forums for comment, revision, and polishing.)
We also are working on a developer handbook. This handbook will have info such as history summary for our world, area design concepts and guidelines, naming conventions for scripts, areas, creature tags and resrefs, and ultimately the design process we agree upon. (This will include task delegation, submission guidelines, etc.)
This handbook is intended to get new developers up to speed with what we are trying to accomplish. (As well as set the tone for quality for our current developers.)
So, with all the possibilities, what works for your PW?
Thanks
Dantreige
Red Golem and I are revamping our development process right now to make things a little easier on him. I would like to get some tips from you on some good development practices. As most of you have working development teams already, I would like to pick your brains a little on what works, what don’t, when it comes to organizing multiple developers, quality control, deadlines, and whatever else you may think is relevant.
Any help would be much appreciated from our end. I think these tips may be useful to all of the CoPaP worlds as well.
Some things that we have found useful are using template documents for regional and sub area development. These documents list things like, history, intended gameplay value, average character level the area is designed for, npc’s, mood, feel, creatures, tricks, traps, etc. Also we have Regional Technical Design Guidelines for several regions. These include all of the technical aspects used in the region. Things like, area tag and resref naming conventions, trigger placement, encounter guidelines, etc.
These tools are useful, especially when the developer gets lost in the layer and goes missing. Its easy to pick up where someone left off when this kind on information is available. (These docs are used to post this information to the developers forums for comment, revision, and polishing.)
We also are working on a developer handbook. This handbook will have info such as history summary for our world, area design concepts and guidelines, naming conventions for scripts, areas, creature tags and resrefs, and ultimately the design process we agree upon. (This will include task delegation, submission guidelines, etc.)
This handbook is intended to get new developers up to speed with what we are trying to accomplish. (As well as set the tone for quality for our current developers.)
So, with all the possibilities, what works for your PW?
Thanks
Dantreige