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Need tips for CS project management on game/application development

Thompson Lee · 2012-01-23T18:46:17

For my winter vacation assignment, I plan on creating a project scheme for me and two colleagues. Our job is to create a 1-year project in which we can plan, develop, and produce a product for everyone to see at a small convention held next year in Spring. It's something that we have to do in order to graduate in CS. Our main problem is that our project planning scheme is very poorly designed, and we're not good at project planning. My professor asks for a solid project scheme that lasts for 1 full year to 1.3 years, then we can edit it off based on everyone's opinions. Currently, we're wasting time due to both of my colleagues have full-time jobs and I'm left to do most of the planning. I hate to admit it, but this is the best we can do. Right now, I have planned out a small 6-week schedule, separated into 3 2-week groups, as we also have classes in-between these schedules. Initial Planning 2/13 ~ 2/24: Design game genre, game type, story plots. Graphical layout, on what language, and on what platform. Preproduction 2/27 ~ 3/9: Plan out the basis on the game Decide upon game controls Program 3/12 ~ 3/23: Program the basis. Add the game controls This is all I can think of. I know that this is very short, when compared to a full year, but since I haven't been able to grasp some aspects of project management, I decide on planning things from the small scale, learn a few things, and then slowly jump towards the full scale. I would like to ask for tips/advices on how to create a project scheme that lasts for a year, based on game development; Or, in a general sense, based on an application development. One unusual task my colleague gave me before he goes abroad, is that I need to create at least 3 project schemes, so that we can have at least 2 projects to fall back upon, in case our first project fails to meet expectations. I liked to think of this as a practice, and not a burden, unlike what my colleague thought when he told me. Thanks in advance. If you need more info, please let me know.