[Feedback needed] multiple developpers on the same project / team organisation

[haoujey]

Hi,

I'm looking for feedback and advices from experienced people here and clickteam members.

I'm launching my startup in few days and i built the app i'm working on for more than a year now with Fusion 2.5. (i wish it's not a mistake...). I hesitated for a long time between Fusion and Xamarin, but finally i choosed Fusion, as i wanted to build the full solution with no code (APP with Fusion , REST API with Talend, Database, Etc ...). And i want it to be cross-plateform with natif code.

I developped and tested my app for android for now, but i took into account it's future port to other systems, so i tried to minimize extensions use and i used only crossplatform extensions when possible... but today i'm working on the next steps. I'll have to hire developpers in the coming weeks to continue developing new features on android / ios / HTML 5.

Of course all these versions will be based on the same base code. So each feature will be developped once (for android), then ported to the other systems.

How do you organise your work so multiple developers work on the same project (MFA) ?
Do you use CVS (source control ) ?
Is porting to other plateforms like ios simple or difficult (for example are there bugs, compatibility issues, layout glitches ?, etc... )
Do you have formulas to estimate porting time ? ( example 1 day for 1000 code lines ? or 1 day per frame ? or other ?)

Can you give us some advices and hints and tell how you work on daily bases ?


Thanks you all for your help
Haoujey.

[Volnaiskra]

I don't have much experience with multiple programmers, so I don't have any advice for most of your questions. But I have people for a number of other roles (audio, writing,
Concept art, etc.) and I can recommend Asana as a project management tool.

I use it in a solo capacity everyday, to keep track of tasks and projects. I tried 10+ to-do-list apps beforehand, and Asana was the best I found. And it's particularly good for working in teams and/or with freelancers. You can assign tasks with due dates, discuss ideas, attach files, etc. It's all in one organised place, and you don't have to dig through old emails to find a particular conversation or an attached file.

PS - use the golden equation to determine how long things will take: first, ask your team member how many days they think something will take; then multiply that by pi.

[defisym]

Nearly impossible.
You can't compare differences and merge them easily.
Git, but only for backup. Several functions like branch/git blame almost don't work because of this reason.

[haoujey]

Thank you @Volnaiskra and @defisym for sharing with us your expérience.

Thanks also for sharing your daily tools. This could be helpful for many users here.

I'll take a look at Asana, i personnaly worked for years as senior project manager for big consulting companys so i am more familiar with tools like MSProject, HP QC etc... . But now these tools are too expensive and not adapted to the scale of my startup, so if you use testing tools etc... i'm interested to know too

This thread could be a good opportunity for we all to improve our global work quality and ease

Clickteam, @Yves , can you give us your recommandations and best practices for collaborative use of your software ? I suppose you're the more experienced in this !
For example how do you manages multiple incremental versions allongside with multiple target plateforms ?
Do you recommande CVS / Testing tools known to work smoothly with fusion ?
Do you automate tests (I suppose yes ) , do you have code covering tools compatible with fusion ?

thanks / Merci
Haoujey

[Volnaiskra]

The free version of asana has a pretty good feature set, and I think supports up to 5 team members

[izac]

There is no way to collaborate with Fusion as there is no support for source control - so you cannot use Git.

In terms of project management, I'd look at Atlassin products, specifically Jira.

[dsilvers]

For everyone saying there is no way to use source control in Fusion, this is somewhat false, but you have to think outside the box and change your work routine a little bit.

Set your game up as a project, not as a single MFA.

You will have an overarching MFA at the top, and smaller sub-MFA's underneath, each one numbered to correspond to its location in your Storyboard Editor. The sub-MFA's will have only one frame each, corresponding to a level, menu, or other kind of scene that goes into your game. THESE are the ones your team will be committing changes to on your Git/SVN/etc. source control. The top-level MFA will have every sub-MFA in it as a separate frame. While you can't automatically merge these into your top level MFA, at the very least when you merge changes, you can copy the modified frames from the sub-MFA's into the top level MFA, deleting the old frame, and replacing it with the new one. Then, when it's time to build, you'll build the top-level MFA.

Make sure to always reject changes to the top level MFA unless you commit them. If they worked in the top level by accident, they can copy-paste their work into the corresponding sub-MFA and commit that.

Secondly, you must ALWAYS set your Jump to Frame functions as Values instead of looking for specific scenes. If you keep them looking for frame names, they will break the moment you replace the frames. Make sure they always get pasted into the correct location on the Storyboard Editor (this is why you number your sub-MFA's).

Otherwise you just need to use a traditional check-in/check-out system. It's true that you can't "merge" changes in a frame, but the same goes for scene files in Unity, or even graphics in Photoshop. When one person is working on a specific sub-MFA, nobody else can touch it until it is checked out and changes are committed back to the project. Commits to the top-level MFA cannot be made except by the project manager.

As for task tracking, Asana is okay, but can be cumbersome. These days I've switched over to Trello. Much more flowy and flexible, with a cleaner interface, the same (and more) management features, and no team-size limits.

[haoujey]

very interesting solution @dsilvers . thanks !