People. If you’re trying to log on to the site right about now, you’ll see something completely different - and need I point out fabulous/gleaming/fresh/stunning/beautiful/superb - from what you’ve ever seen on Power Soccer before.

The biggest update ever is taking place at this very moment. If you were here, at the office, you’d feel the excitement in the air. Exhausted but optimistic game developers everywhere, whos bodies are filled with  Management by Milkshake milkshakes, code around the clock coffee and please-stay-awake-cake. Everyone has done everything within their power to make this a successful release, to make this the biggest day yet in the history of Power Soccer.

So stay tuned. It’s going to be a great day.

/ shaolinda, heading for another cup of coffee

Take a look at this —–>

Doesn’t it look awesome? A bun, cut into two, with a hole digged into it where there’s “almond icing” (is that even a word in English?) And then whipped cream and a lid with some icing sugar dusted on top. Semla. There are five of them with my name on, in the PC office fridge. My kids will love me today. Who said you can’t buy love? Wrong!

And as usual this has little or nothing to do with game development. I actually started writing a post yesterday that had more to do with that, but then I got busy doing other stuff and now…well, it feels a bit outdated. So instead of a Monday-post I had to write a Tuesday-post and as it’s Fat Tuesday in Sweden I felt the need to say something about semlor (semla in plural).

Moving on. I found another thread in the PS forum on the upcoming release of Power Racing, and the teaser film I was talking about the other day. Someone apparently interpreted my post as if the game itself was ready for release this week. And of course it isn’t. So, I’m sorry if some of you were disappointed when realising I was talking about the film, not the game. Tomas U is working on the film even as we speak, while working on some mockups and the HUD… And they say men can’t do more than one thing at the same time!? I say beluga!

Other things going in here at the moment… We have a master thesis/project student with us - Christian. He started his 15 week Power Challenge project period yesterday and he seems to fit in just nicely. His main focus will be the PR tracks, probably with some special attention to object placement and how to improve that process. He’s more than welcome to the team.

On the scrum boards this week we find stories like “single player: speed race”, “edit badge”, “font for power racing web”, “graphics: race flow”, “default badge”, “be able to save replay data”, “create legend”, “Nice: create curbs” - just to mention a few. The stories are not always split up with a complete sense of logic. For instance, sometimes we lift out the graphical components, making that a story on it’s own. Sometimes that is included in a larger, more all inclusive kind of story. Like “single player: speed race”. That includes everything from data base structure, saving the data, launching the client, starting the race, the HUD etc etc. It varies.

Well, maybe I should go and try to fetch some coffee or stare at an excel file or…something. Or do some laps on Drahmeldorf..?

See you soon. Maybe with some sneak peaks of our super fun game (it all depends on how Tomas’ multi tasking skills are doing)

/ L

I realise from time to time that most things in the world - inside and outside of game development - can be solved if you just talk to eachother. Maybe not toothache or bad weather, but most other human related issues.

An executive producer who spoke at GDC said something that really got stuck in my mind, that a producer shouldn’t just sit behind their desk, they need to do the walk and talk. Just go around, saying hi, checking how things are going. A lot of problems can be avoided if they’re caught in time. And a lot of times you manage to get there “in time” if you just ask questions. Talk… It sounds easy, right?

During my first six months or so working here I rarely spoke to people without feeling either guilty or stupid. Guilty for disturbing their peace of coding mind. Stupid because I had to ask so many question. It was a rather frustrating time. In order to be a good producer I needed to understand what they were doing and in order to understand I had to ask. But how could they respect me if it became obvious how little I knew? And what if they couldn’t do their job properly cause I constantly pulled them out of their natural work flow by asking [stupid] questions?

I know, no question is stupid if it’s an honest one. But still. Here I am, trying to be “boss” and running the project - but I don’t know what a poolserver is? Great… Apache who? Demons? Are they evil? Extrapol…what?

Time went by and I learned a lot, from constantly listening to the developers discussions and sitting in on their meetings. Occasionly I still asked questions, but with the basic knowledge in place the process was dramatically shortened.

What I’m trying to say is that communication IS the sh*t (pardon my French). It’s the coolest thing ever and a very nice way to get well-read and educated. You get to talk to people who know stuff that you don’t and you can even drink coffe in the meantime.

I rarely, or never, feel stupid anymore. Not just because I’ve actually learned a lot of the basic stuff and keep up with the shop-talk at the office. I’ve also come to realise that not knowing everything doesn’t necessarily make me a worse producer. It’s just hard getting used to when you’re a control freak like me

I suppose it’s a lot to do with feeling comfortable with the people around you. My team knows how much I appreciate them and hopefully they notice how much I enjoy working with them, so I think they’re pretty comfortable with me being their producer ( I also bribe them with candy, cake and ice cream from time to time). And they are so generous with straightening out all the tech questions I might have and keeping me updated with what they’re up to, that I couldn’t be more comfortable with being in charge of this project.

So, don’t stay in your seat all day sending out e-mails that might be misinterpreted. Don’t wait for that scheduled meeting before you speak to your team members. Get up, do the walk and talk. Listen and learn. (and when you meet your friends and family next time, dazzle them with your extended vocabulary…)

// Linda  - Certified Annoyer

My last post (hopefully) explained a bit about where our ideas come from. It’s not just the people who have “gamedesign” on their card that come up with suggestions for how the game should move forward. A lot of times the inspiration and new thoughts come from the community, from the developers themselves or the Product Owner (= in our case a really cool guy named Eric).

The Product Owner is the product’s (Power Soccer) very protective guardian who makes sure the game has everything it needs and grows the way it’s supposed to. He looks after the game in every possible way. If someone or something stands in the way of the game - the P.O. makes sure someone moves that obsticle aside, always focusing on the games best interest.

Get the picture?

Ok, so let’s say that Eric The Product Owner decides that the grass needs to be greener. It’s just not colourful enough on the field. He runs this idea by the people who should be involved in the actual development of this feature. The P.O. knows what the game needs from a gamer/marketing pers´pective but at this point doesn’t know anything about the technical process to get there. After speaking to the people involved (a graphical artist, the producer, a developer or two) this feature/task is put in the “backlog” (usually the P.O. himself manages the backlog, in our case it’s the producer).

The backlog (a worksheet with magical macros) is where everything that’s going to be developed, every smallest change, tweak, graphical element is listed. It’s the administrative backbone of the game. It’s the heart and soul of Power Soccer - in writing.

So, Mr Eric Product Owner’s idea of making the field more colourful could end up in a worksheet looking like this:

[Feature group] 3D Game [Title] Fix grass on field [Story] Make the grass greener. Includes new texture and shading.

(That’s probably not how one of the graphical artists would have put it, but never mind. It’s just to give you a picture of how we do stuff.)

We also include some information on status, how the feature will be demonstrated after finished and more. And now the feature is added to the backlog, it has an “importance” value and it’s waiting to be developed.

We want happier users so we make the stadiums prettier. To get the stadiums prettier we need the graphical artists and c++ programmers to create new objects and modify the code accordingly, and the web/interface designers to keep it all together on the surface. The new objects and code have to work together with all the rest, not causing any conflicts and not add too much to the size of the game - we have to keep it small.

So what or who decides WHEN it’s time to start with a new feature? Again, it’s a lot to do with the Product Owner - with some cooperation/negotiation with the producer, who in his/her turn hands the feature over to the team do decide HOW. What do we want to achieve? What do we need to get there? How long will it take? Questions that bring us features that bring us pretty slices on the scrumboard. (pardon my project manager language) Ideas - suggestions - features - slices. Dreams - reality.

That was one example. There are literally hundreds of features, broken down in to bite sized backlog items just waiting to be built. And it’s all a juggling act, deciding what the next step should be, showing investors good results, making games we’re proud of, being the best employers in the world… Keeping everybody happy.

Is that really what good games are all about? Happiness in less than 10 MB?

Time to stop writing for today. Sorry if the fast lesson in scrum and our way of work was too long, yet too shallow. Tell me what I missed and I’ll fill in the gaps.

// Linda

So. Where was I? Oh yeah, that’s right. We were supposed to cover the subject of “where do the new features come from”. Well - let’s!

If you read this blog you probably have some sort of connection to Power Soccer. You might have played the game once or never or for two years, but you most likely found this place through powerchallenge.com. Anyway, a lot has happened with this game for the last year. Or even the last 6 months. Actually it happens quite a lot all the time, but let’s stick to what you, the users, see and notice.

A year ago we were just getting started, we’d just signed up all the developers. The game as it was then had been developed by two programmers and one graphical artist. That was pretty much it. It was one of those many “basement” games, created by a handful people in a windowless corner - if one’s lucky - of some office building. Someone had a good idea and managed to find the talented people to turn that idea into reality.

And here we are. Some odd 25 people and 15 months later. Still coming up with thousands of ideas, pushing the game forward, struggling every day to make the right decisions to keep as many people as possible happy. The investors, the users, the CEO, the Executive producer…and ourselves. It’s not easy but it’s something we truly enjoy doing and we’re happy to go to work every day. Ok, most days. I guess some days you wake up and you just know that the code you write will have to be re-written, the schedule your juggling will crash to the floor and the mock-ups you design just won’t do. The inspiration is not always there, but 9½ days out of 10 I’d say it is.

The ideas… Where do they come from? Well, there are a few main suppliers of ideas of how to improve the game.

1. You - the users. We get so much invaluable feedback, comments and ideas from you, in forum posts or e-mails. It’s an extremely important source of inspiration to us.

2. Product Owner. This is the person responsible for the product = the game. Has it the right “feel”? Is it difficult enough, too tricky, do newbies get lost or should we add an extra layer of complexity? Why? What does our main target group look like? Should we have 3D hot dogs spinning around in the arena as advertising spots? All sorts, high and low.

3. Game designers. They make sure all the tiny elements and different aspects of the game fit together, that the sum of the parts is a well functioning game. A lot of times they work close to the other developers. Gamedesigners calculate variables in worksheets, decide the accuracy and speed of the through pass, design league systems, write specifications of features to come and spend a lot of time testing.

4. Other developers. Most people working here are gamers and have been for years. It comes pretty natural for them to analyze and think and talk about games. So the actual 3D part of the game is pretty well covered, so to speak. Those of us who aren’t really gamers still love games in one way or another. Or sport. Or programming. We have meetings, we talk over lunch, we get into discussions wherever we are… The air is filled with a passion for games and every step we take is towards making the game even greater.

5. Powdersnow. Say no more.

Did I acually write all this managing to still not address the subject of how we introduce new features? Oh my. I’m such a sucker for writing about stuff that has to do with games, but sometimes I find it hard to get to the point.

Same time and place tomorrow? Let me continue my story then

See you!

/ Linda

So, the skies are grey and it’s Monday. What do you do? After leaving the car at the garage (yes, needs to be fixed yet again) and managing to do the daily sprint meeting in about three minutes - what’s next? Logging in, spending some time reading more or less important e-mails, putting the not-so-groovy headset on and then tuning into a very casual easy-listened to station at shoutcast.com. After they had to shut Pandora down for everybody outside the U.S. what’s a girl to do? Shoutcast is the second best thing, keeps you surprised through the entire working day. Variato delectat, as the romans used to say. And when you’re in the mood for something, but still nothing in particular, it’s the easiest way.

Trying to focus but it seems to be one of those days when everything is equally important yet elusive. Some documents to read through. Some planning to do, statistics to move from one place to another, phone calls to make.

But what I really really wanna do is gather my entire fantastic fanatic team around me, steel them back from soccer and talk about how to make Power Racing the coolest gaming experience online today. Talk and interrupt and get annoyed and get cool ideas that could never work and do some mockups and sketches and declare them all to be nuts and then come to my senses, re-consider and continue. Moving the game forward, developing, evolving. I want to discuss and laugh and eat chocolate and make great plans. Great Game Plans.

Because, as you know, I’m one of those that rarely is impressed, hardly ever find a game addicting. I’m just not “gamy” enough. So imagine the challenge in making this a racing game that even I take pleasure in playing! Not just find interesting from an academic, media perspective, but really enjoy. A new favourite waste of time. That would/will be so cool…

So, yes. I miss my team, miss the clutter, the mishaps, the endless discussions. Our Big Meetings seem to be filled with creative - and candy. They work so well together.

Soon. Any day now, we’re gonna be a big noisy malfunctional family again. I can’t wait. And in the meantime, well, Excel is also fun!

// Linda