#scope creep

[askagamedev]

Harder Than You Think: Swimming

Welcome to Harder Than You Think, a series about things that seem fairly easy to an outsider but can rapidly spiral into extremely complicated or expensive behaviors. Today, we’ll discuss swimming - that thing you do when you get into water that isn’t dying. Swimming is something most of us are familiar with to some extent - humans can navigate water and don’t instantaneously die when we get wet. So why do so few games support swimming?

Transitions Are Hard

If you remember my post about [why ladders are hard], transitioning into and out of the swimming state is hard for the same reasons. Swimming isn’t just a single state though, it’s actually usually two states - swimming on the surface (swimming in 2 dimensions), and swimming completely submerged (swimming in 3 dimensions). This means that we would need to potentially handle several transitions from expected player states:

Walking to swimming on the surface

Falling to swimming on the surface

Falling to submerged

Swimming on the surface to submerged

Submerged to swimming on the surface

The problem here is that a missing transition from one state to another could result in the player getting stuck in that state in a place she should not (e.g. swimming while on land). The nightmare scenario is the submerged swimming on land, because movement in 3 dimensions that isn’t constrained to water means the player can fly, which breaks most game environments that aren’t designed for flight. 

Animation Scope Explosion

Two different swimming states by default already greatly expands the necessity of animations within the game. Swimming in each direction, idling, drowning, dying, and transitioning from state to state (e.g. diving, surfacing, climbing out of water, etc.) are the minimum, and this is only for locomotion. If players can swim, what else will they expect to do while swimming? The two most common I would expect are looting items and combat. Would we need additional looting animations while swimming? Would we need a whole suite of different animations depending on the weapon while swimming?

Tradeoffs

There’s a lot of ways to interact with water, especially because it can be at variable depths. Swimming is often only one possible option - we can also wade through it or duck under the surface to hide. Projectiles and explosions behave differently underwater. How would magic work underwater? How would super powers work? Would your normal suite of abilities change? Would equipment change? How would AI deal with navigation into, out of, and under water? How would AI deal with water in combat? Think of how much work would have to go into building all of these interactions. Think about the test plan for QA to test and validate all of these different interactions. Unless a significant portion of the game would take place in or under water, it’s a huge amount of work for very little gain. These are just a few reasons why making swimming work in games is harder than you think.

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[harthofaether]

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[cyber-soul-smartz]

21st Century Time Management Techniques for Project Managers

Discover essential time management strategies for project managers to meet deadlines and stay within budget! Learn from Hafsa Reasoner on Empowered Journey. Don't miss out—subscribe now for more insights on mastering project management in the 21st Century

[unfamiliarize]

The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. — Oscar Wilde

[atozofsoftwareengineering]

Navigating the Waters of Sudden Scope Creep in IT Projects: A Comprehensive Guide

Unlock the secrets to successfully managing sudden scope creep in IT projects! 🚀 Learn essential strategies for project success. #ProjectManagement #ScopeCreep #ITProjects #Agile #RiskManagement

Introduction: Scope creep, the sneaky and relentless enemy of project managers, lies in wait to ambush even the most carefully orchestrated IT projects. This insidious occurrence rears its head when project requirements bloat beyond their initial confines, paving the way for unforeseen hurdles and entanglements. This article will plunge into the complexities of managing abrupt scope creep in IT…

[mitsdedistance]

[smalltofedsblog]

Stay in front of “Scope Creep” by communicating positively with the customer to control a baseline, keeping cost, schedule and technical performance integrated and synchronous.

[cjjasp]

Maps—Managing Scope Creep #amwriting #worldbuilding

Scope creep (aka project creep, requirement creep, or kitchen sink syndrome) in project management refers to ongoing changes and continuous (or uncontrolled) growth of a project. This can occur at any point after the project commences. In writing, this happens when the narrative keeps expanding, and expanding, and expanding … and what was canon in chapter 4 is contradicted in chapter 44. The…

[xbsoftware]

Clearly defined tasks and transparent communication between stakeholders are some of the key factors that determine success of a project. In an ideal scenario, a software project that you have in mind or the one that is already in progress runs buttery smooth and each project participant is satisfied with the results. However, possible project risks are always around the corner. To know how to act when you run into scope creep in project management, you need to have a detailed look at it.

[code-chaos]

Scope Creep

Dear Anyone Doing a Code Review,

I do not care about what you want, if it isn’t on the ticket, I am not writing it. Get a new ticket made.

Also, fuck you. You know how things work.

Sincerely,

Me 😑

[animatedjen]

Cal Kestis | Jedi Survivor

[vynnyal]

Actually you know what, I'm gonna post this. Check it out, I'm fiddling with this PMV. Spoils the whole game ofc. And the name of the song is pure imagination by Fiona Apple!

Also I'm apparently a big fan of drawing moon laying down 😂 total count including scrapped drawings is 5 (technically 6)

[ambrosiagourmet]

Okay I’m gonna hold myself accountable I really want to write up a short (lol) analysis about the flawed conclusion Marcille comes to in 28 and how her growth & Laios’ growth are tied together and how important that growth is and how it’s all reflected in the speech he gives in 85.

I’m gonna do it everyone has permission to throw tomatoes at me if I don’t.

[ryuucae]

Lunar envoy