Game Development Journal: Scheduling, Admins, and Flipping Accounts

With the main parts of my “Character Limit” game, efforts are turning to planning the last bits of development and testing, with administration becoming a more important element as we get closer to release.

I think it’s fair to say that much of the core of the game’s development is behind me. The introduction of systems for everything from letter selection to scoring, the main interface and even multilingual support are the highlights of the game.

This does not mean that the number of characters is closed. Far from it.

The reality is that there are many smaller, less obvious tasks that need to be completed before the game can be released. I break all of this down into three general areas: development brilliance, administration, and marketing.

Development gloss covers everything that goes into making the game itself. There are many awkward pieces of gameplay left to put into what’s already there that need to be implemented now.

For example, I need to complete more game modes, add a game statistics system, expand the settings panel to work on Mac and Windows desktop computers as well as iPhone and iPad, and implement a tutorial system. While the game works, it also has areas that need improvement, such as better sound effects or less poorly pixelated slider buttons.

Not to mention fixing the ever-growing list of bugs that crept in as development progressed. At least the ones I caught for myself.

These are all just things I decided needed to be done. Once I start actually testing the game with real potential players, I’ll get feedback on things that need to be fixed as well.

This means I need to get the game to a state I’d like to send to testers.

Scheduling problems

Any previous reader of this series will know that I am a fan of chalkboards. I currently count a total of six around me of various sizes and uses, and I’m longing for more.

Using whiteboards has its advantages, including being a quickly editable and very flexible medium for temporarily storing ideas. Having a whiteboard with a list that you can check off and delete in your eye line will help increase productivity.

However, it’s not really a great way when you have huge lists of tasks to complete. Even if you have more boards than available wall space.

You can add tons of lists, but you’re limited by the amount of space you have available. If your handwriting resembles a drunken spider climbing out of the inkwell and crawling across the page, these lists may become unreadable even for you in the future.

There is also a serious lack of portability. It’s one thing to have a list on the wall at your desk, but it’s another thing to sit in Starbucks on your iPad trying to remember what tasks to do.

The whiteboard list is also not easily shared with others. I’ll admit I’ve taken pictures of the boards to send to people, but I don’t expect anyone to want to open up Photoshop and make changes to a list based on images.

There must be a better way. And surprisingly, it’s already a solved problem.

Obvious ways include using Apple Notes or Reminders. If you need to collaborate with others, there are options like Trello, both free to use and paid subscriptions.

In my case I went for codecs. It is a project management tool that focuses on game development in many ways.

For starters, it’s card-based, in similar ways Magic: The Gathering gold Yu-Gi-Ohwhich represent tasks in different packages or subject areas. Users can make changes to cards, add them to their hand to work on, and then discard them.

It’s a project management system, sure, but a very well-disguised one that doesn’t feel “corporate” at all. It also has a free tier which is good enough for me.

If I have to bring someone else into the project, I now have a mechanism to show them where the project stands and bring them up to speed.

It might not happen in this particular project, but at least it’s there.

Turning the account

One thing that needed fixing was developer account registrations. Specifically, they had to be registered under the name of a limited liability company, not as an individual.

I’m not expecting massive sales or anything, but putting them under a UK limited company reduces my exposure to things going wrong. For example, a misguided lawsuit over created intellectual property can be very expensive to lose, and registering a limited liability company helps insulate my finances from that.

what to say to that? I like home ownership.

This change meant that some administrative changes had to be made. After setting up a bank account, which took four weeks and led to too much anger, it was another matter of notifying Apple and Steam.

In both cases, developer accounts were set up for individuals, but now had to be changed to work for an organization or other legal entity.

As far as Apple is concerned, the process is surprisingly quite easy. Apple’s documentation explains that you must apply as a founder or co-founder and submit business documents along with a DUNS number.

With some emailed PDF files from the UK registration system and other details, everything went through a series of emails with a member of the Apple support team. There were a few elements like tax information that followed, but that was relatively painless.

Even better, I didn’t have to pay the annual registration fee again. It was simply a change in account details.

The same cannot be said for Steam. You can’t actually change a Steamworks account from an individual to a company, but you can transfer a game you’ve created between accounts.

This means going through the registration process again for a Steamworks account as an organization.

An unexpected vulnerability occurred during re-registration. It turns out that Steam expects the app fee to be paid again when you sign up for this second account.

On Steam, the $100 fee is intended to pay for a game to be listed and possibly released on the platform, and is per game in nature. It’s game specific, not account specific.

I checked with their support team to see if I need to pay the fee again and it turns out that an additional payment will be required as Steam incurs various registration fees.

However, once the app is set up, it can be transferred from an individual account to a business account while retaining its paid status. As a result, the business account ends up with a list of paid games and one app credit on standby for a second game.

This isn’t ideal, but at least it saves some of the cost of getting the second game out into the world.

Testing times ahead

With the admin bits done and the scheduling scheme in place, all that’s left to do is the work itself. However, as a natural born procrastinator, that is easier said than done.

In order to continue, I need to set a deadline. Much like this job, which has deadlines set by Mike and strong words, if not followed properly, I have to do something similar.

The alternative is to keep playing and never get to the end. You just can’t stand it.

I had vague intentions of publishing in time for St. David’s Day to match the whole Welsh thing, but I know that can’t be accomplished. Add to that the fact that I have some level of testing to do before release and a date anytime soon is unlikely at best.

Instead, the midterm deadline is to actually start testing. The Apple developer account has transferred over so I can actually get down to using TestFlight and let the players hammer the game when I’m ready.

I can’t set it at the end of February because that’s just too long a runway for this job. Similarly, a week may be too short and not allow room for error correction.

My intention is to get to Valentine’s Day (February 14th) and start testing by then, if not within a few days of that date.

Here’s hoping I make it.