DevLog #3: Team technical capacity analysis

Once we have clear what defines a game of the type we want to develop, it is necessary to ask ourselves many questions to choose the next steps to take clearly.

Developing a video game is not as idyllic as initially thought. It takes a lot of effort on many different fronts, and simply finishing a game is already an achievement.

In this DevLog we are going to analyze the technical capacity of our team to identify what resources we will need clearly and concisely in order to make the best decisions that allow us to move forward in development.

Technical Capacity of the Team

Once we have identified the key features that we will need to implement in our game, we have to think about what we can do ourselves, and what we will need to do with external resources, or by hiring someone for the job.

Evaluating technical capacity to know if we have the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to successfully carry out the development of the video game is not simple. It requires an objective self-assessment to avoid falling into excessive optimism that leads us to try to do things beyond our reach and possibilities, but it is not advisable to be too conservative either since it will allow us to learn new things during the process that will help us improve both individually and as a team, and that will help us innovate during the creative process.

The first thing is to identify the areas of work that will be needed for the development of the game, and in each one, analyze if we have the necessary skills to carry out those tasks or if we prefer to seek external resources to perform them:

• Writing of the story: Since in visual novels one of the most important pillars is the story, we need to dedicate many resources to this area. Both Yolanda and I read a lot, I used to play a lot and play role-playing games, board games, and gamebooks, so I am quite familiar with non-linear narratives. In addition, I am a fan of H.P. Lovecraft's stories and I have read the vast majority of his stories. I have also written some stories on my own, although I never got them published, so we have decided that at least for now, we will be in charge of preparing and adapting the story internally.
• Background design: In order for the story to have a good setting, the background design has to be detailed and worked on. We need to have control over the content of the backgrounds, which does not allow us to use pre-designed backgrounds or stock images. Luckily, Yolanda's experience in interior design allows her to design all kinds of spaces in a variety of 3D design software.
• Character design: Characters are also an important part of the game that we must dedicate a lot of work to. Unfortunately, neither Yolanda nor I have a notable ability for drawing characters, so we have decided to try alternatives such as designing them in 3D and generating images from a model, and if we see that we are not able to obtain decent results, we will have to subcontract the design of the characters to an external party.
• User interface design: This is a very important aspect of any game and is usually taken lightly. For a player to want to play our game, the player's interaction with the game must be smooth and comfortable. The interface has to be intuitive for the player, and it must be simple while aesthetically integrated with the rest of the game. Due to the shortage of resources and the fact that both Yolanda and I have knowledge and skills in graphic design, we will try to take care of the interface ourselves.
• Soundtrack: Although I am addicted to soundtracks, one thing is to listen to them and another very different thing is to compose them. My musical composition knowledge is limited to having dabbled in the old Scream Tracker 3 (yes, I am that old), so we cannot rely on that knowledge. Luckily, a few months ago I started learning to play the violin, and my teacher knows someone who can help us in this front. Therefore, this aspect of the game will be subcontracted.
• Sound effects: Sound effects are an important part of a video game. Fortunately, there are extensive libraries of sound effects of all kinds as well as software to generate sound effects and apply filters to adapt them to all kinds of situations, so we believe we can manage it internally without major problems.
• Visual effects: Visual effects are a very interesting and crucial part in this case, as these effects will make the player's immersion much greater than if we only used completely static images. I have been making small games for many years and applying different effects through technologies such as shaders, image processing, animations ... and besides, it is perhaps one of the things that motivates me the most in game development, so I want to personally take charge of this area to keep learning. In addition, I have Yolanda's help to create the necessary graphic resources to generate the effects.
• Programming: Programming is like the glue that will make all parts of the game behave as expected and give us a coherent final product. My professional career has always been oriented towards software development, so this is the area most in line with my skills, and therefore, one of my main tasks in development.

And surely there are more things that we will discover as the development progresses.

There are other more "administrative" areas that also require our attention, as they will take time and resources away from the technical tasks we identified earlier.

• Development planning
• Management and coordination of the development team
• Marketing
• Business administration

In this case, development planning and team management will be something we will handle internally, as we have to coordinate the efforts among all team members.

Marketing is crucial for the game to be a success financially, as without money and resources developing a decent video game is almost impossible, so when the time comes we will have to invest in that area.

And as expected, game development is a business, and as such, it requires management and administration, and has associated costs. Due to the vast amount of information to handle between laws and administrative issues, we will hire an agency to help us with all this.

These have been the choices we have made so far, and as we progress in the project we will see if they are good enough or if we need to make adjustments. We can always hire someone in the future for some tasks if necessary, but it is advisable to consider from the beginning what the weak points of our team are in order to have alternatives or anticipate possible problems and know how to react in time when they arise.