Workflow

From Post-Apocalyptic RPG wiki

The workflow article explains how the transformation process from simple proposals to implemented game concepts happens. Furthermore it covers how the decision making process on the team works.

The flow

1. Brainstorming on the IRC channel and/or the forums.
2. Developers create proposals at the wiki.
3. Proposal links gets posted at the forums and get discussed.
4. Proposals get improved through feedback and agreed upon points of the proposals are moved to a draft. Drafts can incorporate external feedback as well.
5. After feedback has been taken into account, the drafts reside at wiki and are waiting to get implemented in the game.
6. Additional tweaks to the draft based on in-game testing experience.

Decision making

The following points are meant as a preferred order of decision making. That means if an agreement can be reached with methods listed at the top, there is no need to resort to methods listed below:

1. Discussion among the developers of the specific department.
2. Additional consultation by developers of the other departments if needed.
3. Final decision by key developers of the relevant department in case all kind of feedback was already taken into account and reaching an agreement seems not possible. This is meant to be a rare case and not the standard prodecure of decision making. Maturity and professionalism should help us to decide about the vast majority of aspects based on rational discussion rather than decisionism.

Notes

• Discussion will help us to understand the topic better. Pros and cons of each proposal will become clearer.
• Links to internal as well as external proposals should be collected for each development department to have an overview of currently discussed topics. Furthermore it will ease creating a draft later as all relevant information is already available at one central place.
• While it's often impossible to agree on a complicated topic right away, it's often possible to agree on smaller, less wide agreements. These small steps will lead the discussion into a direction until we can hopefully agree on larger terms as well.
• Reached agreements shouldn't be questioned again later without _good reason_. Otherwhise there is the potential pitfall of endless discussion that paralyses the team.