Tools

The team is using a variety of software to make the game. Some of it’s pretty obvious (i.e. Photoshop for art), but some of the tools are worth noting.

Planning with Opal

A lot of my note-taking and planning happens in an Opal outline. Opal is a great lightweight tool for making lists, putting them in hierarchies, rearranging them, and searching. It only runs on Mac OS X, but I am at my desk most of the time, which makes it a great way to keep a development diary. I use it to track ideas, but I’ve also created outlines of documents I’ve fleshed out in a word processor. And, I used it to plan the Tools Week tweets and this post. I am a little biased towards Opal because I wrote it, but others like it too. You can download a 30-day free trial.

Searching in Slack

The team is distributed, so we use Slack to communicate. Loosely, it’s a team-oriented chat system. There are similar products, but it has the best user interface, and very reasonable pricing. (We’re still able to use it at the free level, though I expect to upgrade at some point. So check it out via the affiliate link…) I have been unhappy with chat-based work in the past, but Slack has decent organization (although it still lacks threaded messages) and searches not only messages but files you post. Team-related email has dropped to about zero, which is probably a good thing. While I am still trying to figure out the best way to be transparent and encourage collaboration without swamping people with notifications, it seems to help create a little bit of a true studio feel. (Some of this may be due to the size of the team — a Slack team for Philadelphia iOS developers seemed horribly noisy. Admittedly, they aren’t people I’m actively collaborating with.) It integrates with an number of external systems, though we don’t really make much use of that.

There are other file sharing/synchronizing (or should I just go with the flow and call it “cloud storage”) solutions, but we use Dropbox. It’s been out there a while and you probably know about it, but if not, sign up for a free account. (Use the affiliate link and we both get more storage.) We have had one or two issues with the fact that shared files can be accidentally deleted, but it’s been a good means of bulk sharing (both of folders of concept art ideas, and large files that are too big to email). Another handy use of Dropbox is getting user interface mockups onto an iPad or iPhone quickly. We also do primitive project tracking by moving files between “To Review” and “To Revise” folders.

Kaleidoscope’s image comparator

The files in question are Word documents with the scenes that Robin’s writing. I compare versions with Kaleidoscope, so I can make sure important revisions don’t slip through the cracks. Word does have a Track Changes mechanism, but I find it much easier to use the side-by-side comparison. It also compares many other file types, and has a clever interface for showing graphical differences. You can get a free 15-day trial as a direct download, or get the app through the Mac App Store.

Editorial lets me keep notes in Dropbox and sync them among all devices, for when I’m away from Opal (but have an iPad or iPhone with me). It happens to be a Markdown editor, but mostly I find it easier to have searchable, synchronized notes than using Apple’s Notes app. (I use TextEdit if I need to get at the files on my Mac.) Get it from the iOS App Store. (Federico Viticci has an extensive review.)

Spreadsheets are a staple of game design. I prefer Numbers (mostly on Mac but also iPad). Robin uses Excel. They’re great for freeform tables, simple budget and time planning, and sometimes even calculating things.

Although there are a number of reasons it works poorly for game development (e.g. assets can be very large or hard to merge), we’re using Git as our version control system. The size of the team and nature of the assets alleviate some of those issues. But one reason is that we can host on Kiln, and integrate changes into Fogbugz. Kiln is a decent Git host, though I really didn’t make a wide search. Mostly, Fogbugz is the best bug tracking system I’ve used, and it integrates very well with Kiln. (Just put "case 1234" in a checkin comment, and the changeset is linked to the bug and vice versa.) Fogbugz has a focus on user interflow and making it as simple as possible to capture bug reports (for example, you can email reports, which is great for in-game reporting). It’s also got some project management features. And for a small startup, Fogbugz and Kiln are free! (Again, we will probably need to upgrade at some point.)