cog-d-f

=Cog=

Design Doc Feedback

 * opening sentence clear
 * it gradually appears that a/the USP is that you are targetting everyone on anything; this raises issues of game size, dev team, time, etc. => major planning issues.
 * order of pages/document is unclear; don't rely on wikispace alpha ordering
 * you have put this doc as creative commons, surely some mistake, this gives away all your IP potentially
 * 'race' has, as a word, too many meanings for this context
 * that's a huge backstory, and I haven't had time to check it for consistency, I assume you have. The dates, if the correspond to our calendar, seem a rather long way away in the future.
 * its difficult to work out how playable this would be; in your tech doc I'd (John!) expect to see some discussion of how the database back-end would work.
 * controls?
 * how much back-story does a player need to know to play the game?

General - the detail is copious in places, and may be making it difficult to complete the document with a consistent amount of stuff per section. Decide whether you have too much in some places, and need more in others. For example, imagery, sounds, levels, ...

Looks like 40% right now.

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Team feedback on John's feedback:-

> The game isn't creative commons, but an image used was. Only the cited image was creative commons, the rest is all private IP. //This is now clearly stated.// > The calendar is comparable to the current one in use. The dates are far flung, but not as far as some sci-fi (in particular take the Warhammer 40,000 setting and Asimovs Foundation series takes place 50,000 years in the future putting it about the same time) There is alot of backstory, yes. > Race is a perfectly acceptable term to use when describing different peoples even in this setting. //There are many, many examples of this.// > Eve-Online is the game that shows most similarity to this. This takes that concept further in some ways and less in others. It puts complete emphasis into combat with none on industry. This is do-able. It just needs to be done right. > The database will be....problematic and require alot of thought for the tech-doc. That aspect may not feature in the draft, if it does, it may not be complete.
 * **__it gradually appears that a/the USP is that you are targetting everyone on anything; this raises issues of game size, dev team, time, etc. => major planning issues.__**
 * Yes this is a game that we're trying to market to anyone who likes Sci-fi and space ships, this does make it vast and huge, but it is an MMO. An MMO that doesn't appeal to a large player base is automatically a failure.
 * **__order of pages/document is unclear; don't rely on wikispace alpha ordering__**
 * Page order will be fixed by next iteration.
 * **__you have put this doc as creative commons, surely some mistake, this gives away all your IP potentially__**
 * **__The dates, if the correspond to our calendar, seem a rather long way away in the future.__**
 * **__'race' has, as a word, too many meanings for this context__**
 * **__its difficult to work out how playable this would be; in your tech doc I'd (John!) expect to see some discussion of how the database back-end would work.__**
 * **__controls?__**
 * Controls, well given this is primarily a PC release and we have no idea how the playerbase would want to control their ships/what would be sensible, it's a safe bet that it'll be a keyboard/mouse control system. Consoles are likewise limited in their control systems for if/when it was ported. Simply put: It was too obvious to bother with.
 * **__how much back-story does a player need to know to play the game?__**
 * The player will //need// to know minimal backstory, however having lots is preferable to none. Essentially, there are four races warring, here's a brief overview of them, pick a side.
 * **__Levels, imagery, sounds?__**
 * It takes place in space, there are no 'levels' just territory that players control. There may be a random collection of planets, moons, asteroid belts and maybe particularly large celestial phenomena but in general you can't design 'levels' as per Super Mario.
 * Imagery/concept are is in the pipe as stated in the document.
 * Sounds are being considered and almost completed.

Appologies if this seems flippant, but some of your points bemused us.

-Durandal Representing Cogs This has been viewed by both members and agreed with.

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Final Marking:-

It's a rich pile of text and might well become a great game. The issues I have is that it is still very texty, and so hard to confirm it makes entire sense. It still looks like the back story to a book / movie / game. So, how to bridge that final gap? I suggest more pictures. Games are very pictorial, so you do need to have some sketches, storyboards, drawings and vidcaps to allow the read to have an A-HA moment. Don't think I am slagging off your idea, far from it, but you do need to sell it, make the USP (unique selling point(s)) clear.

So, less text, more pictures, and a clear idea of what makes this game *teh* one that must be built. of course, I may be wrong - prove this is so by going ahead, deving the game and selling it!

Final mark: 55%