PKM Battle Arena Week 3

Disclaimer

This is a fan made project based on a prior mod. We do not own any of the models created, engines used, or names and assets provided. All Pokemon likenesses and names are owned by the The Pokémon Company. Any models are from Vex’s Pokemon Collection, and are merely references of the Pokemon from their respected games. We have no intention of selling our mod for Warcraft 3, and DotA 2 will be experiencing MASSIVE overhauls to avoid any copyright problems with The Pokémon Company’s IP if we choose to set up Patreon-esque services.

 

Introduction

Hello again! Another week has gone by and lots of things have been changed. Mostly backend things like switching to Trello and a cloud based storage system, but things in the frontline like we’ve switched into the development phase! Some interesting things to talk about going forward. We’ve changed up our focus for right now, and really want to push for a playable (albeit bare bones) version of the ability kits, a decent map, and everything else that falls in place with arena game modes. Check out below what we have to say and where we are, and where we hope to be next week, thanks!

 

Time Management and Trello

So as was brought up in last weeks post, Google Docs was a great start for us. It allowed us to manage different aspects of the game in multiple documents, but that last part really hurt us. Multiple documents meant lots of searching for very specific things, and forced me (Austin) to spend a couple hours or so dedicated to one document, wanting to get two done a day. This really burnt me out super quick, because while I like writing, I do not like outlining very specific things in one document, to have them generalized in another. It was also extremely messy, we had no structure to it. I just hand wrote everything and posted it in my personal Docs files, which became real cluttered. This is where we looked at other means of project management. We looked at Taskulu, a very basic management tool, which is something we wanted as a starter and easy to move software for when we become more experienced. Unfortunately it was too basic, allowing us to only make 3 lists: Todo, Doing, Done. After a couple hours of testing, we turned to Trello, which fit everything. Multiple boards for easy group management, one free app allowing for much more sharing capabilities, and more lists witch checklists, labeling and more. What this means for us is that I no longer need to share 400 Google Docs files, and we can easily implement cloud storage for quick updates and easy project sharing. This frees up a lot of time, and allows very quick and easy management for our next phase of this project.

Phase 2

We’re in the development phase a week early! What this means for us is that we have compiled a list of everything we know must be in the game, what we want as a group, what makes things more streamlined for players, and what we want personally in the game. Of course, this doesn’t mean the list will ever be done, as we will always think of something that would be great for players and the game for healthy growth. Now with phase 2, we want to ramp up internal development and pump out much more content in the team. This means we have been talking about expanding ourselves and looking for new members. We have only just starting talking about this, so that is all I can say about looking for members now. Phase 2 also introduces a new shift in focus. Our main thought-line was that Gyms should be priority focus, as everything else to do with NPC’s should fall in place after getting Gyms right. But we have realized that to get the ball rolling, there has to be a ball to roll in the first place.

The Ball

So what do we mean by this? Well you cannot fight enemies without a character to choose from, and a set of abilities to use to fight. That character needs a stat line, a type (because this is Pokemon) to counter another type and need clean movement and attack animations. This is where all of our first portion of phase 2 is going into. We have our list of characters that will be in the game at launch, but they have nothing to them. The way we want to structure making kits and stats, are that each person working on the project has the free will to choose whatever Pokemon they want and make a kit on a whim. Of course there are things we will stick to: recognizable moves for that character, no out of line movement for said character, and proper typing. Characters kits must be tested by another member of the group and confirmed by the other member. Once all individual kits are done, we start placing stats on the characters then balance the kits around each other. After that everyone working on the project can move on to work on whatever they wish. We want players to test the kits when they are done their first drafts, to see if players think they are fun. Of course as we are a week early on this stuff, we have no ETA for when we will finish them, this has to be the second most difficult part of the process starting out (first being item balance and third being the map), but we are confident they will be done faster than we hope, as this is something we are really excited to do.

 

Conclusion

So to recap, we’ve started phase 2 with emphasis on character kits and a playable version of them, balancing said kits, creating clean and stylistic animations for each character, we’ve changed up our project management system to have a more streamline and easily manageable project with different teams, an announcement for possible team expansion and we want players to try out said kits when they are done their first draft. This week was a big one for us, and next week will be rather slow, as I (Austin) have some family stopping by from across the country, and currently looking for housing for college. Thank you all for reading and keeping interest, and we hope to see you next week!