(c) Copyright 2003-2004 by Pontus Munck, Spinrock Productions
This document contains an overview of the Port of Haven project and a summary of artifacts that will be produced. This document can be read as an introduction to the project as it shows what documents that are available and what information they contain.
Note: This is work in progress! The document is constantly refined and filled with new information during the development. This means that some portions may be inadequate and even incorrect.
This chapter describes the artifacts produced in the project. Artifacts are things like documents, game assets, code modules and other things needed to complete the project successfully.
In a large project it is important to document as much as possible and make the information available to all the project members. With good documentation the project is more likely to succeed as everyone is working towards a common goal.
In Port of Haven, the artifacts are split in several categories. The categories are project, design, art, music, code, support and marketing. The artifacts for each category are listed below.
For each artifacts, there is a status shown in parentheses. The statuses identified are:
The project artifacts are items needed to run the project successfully.
A brief description of the project members along with contact information and their role. The list also contains a description of vacant roles that have not yet been filled by anyone.
The milestone plan is a rough time plan showing the features scheduled for a certain milestone release.
The project schedule is a more detailed plan that focuses on what needs to be done next, who should do it and in what order it should be done. The schedule is only laid out for the following 4-8 weeks. This way the schedule is flexible and can be adjusted without too much work when required by the circumstances.
A guide listing the tools required by all project members.
The design artifacts are items needed to describe the design of the game. The design artifacts are important to make sure that everyone involved in the project knows how the game is supposed to work.
The game design document contains information about the rules, mechanics and elements of the game that forms the gameplay.
The code artifacts are the items needed to produce the binary executables and components that are required for the game.
A guide listing the tools needed by developers for various things.
A document describing the coding conventions for the project.
This document presents the underlying philosophies and thoughts behind the code architecture and the choice of technology. This document is useful if you want to understand the analysis and design phase of the software development in the project.
The application summary lists all the programs and tools developed for the game. This includes both applications directly related to running the game such as the game server/client and applications needed for maintenance work such as monitoring tools (for viewing the state of the game, catching cheaters etc.), report generators (for game statistics), backup utitilities and patching tools. It also includes applications needed for creating, updating and importing game content.
Gives an overview of the architectural design used in the game.
The database model describes the contents and rules of the database.
Various UML models (e.g. class diagrams) for the client and server components. These models only provide an overview of the design and the initial structure that will help getting started with the code.
A document describing the network protocol used in the game. This may not be needed if we choose to adapt an already defined standard.
Detailed documentation for all methods and properties in all components. This documentation is generated directly from the code and is thus meant to provide an up-to-date view of the game software.