Restitched: Dev Diary | Team Workflow

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another Restitched: Dev Diary!

This month we'll be looking over our development processes for Restitched - what tools we use, how we use them, and more!

Our Platforms & Team Portal

We use a variety of platforms for our development on Restitched. We host most of our assets on Microsoft OneDrive, control our code through GitHub, and organise our tasks on Trello. We also onboard our team members via the Trixel Creative Team Portal, which is hosted on the Trixel Creative website. That's right - there's a whole section of the Trixel Creative website hidden behind the public view!

This area is open to all Trixel Creative members. Not just Restitched developers, but Trixel Creative Discord Moderators too (though, access to specific areas is restricted to those with relevant interests).

The 'Team Resources' section provides helpful links to things like texture libraries, color palette references, normal map/texture generators, along with well-being resources. The 'Restitched' area contains our Steamworks and OneDrive links, as well as links to the Story document and other helpful tools.

'Trixel Lounge' is a special area where we host our team member onboarding modules and agreements, as well as Trixel+ Team Access, and other team announcements. Another important area of the Team Lounge is the 'Restitched Documentation' hub, where important internal information about how to work on specific areas of the game is kept.

As a result, the Team Portal is a vital resource for developers when it comes to actually developing for the game itself and understanding its various systems.

Trello? Anyone There?

Trello is the first-stop for our developers when it comes to individual responsibilities. Here we list different departments' to-do lists, deadlines, assign specific developers, and more. Trello is a Trixel-Creative-wide platform, meaning that we don't just use it for Restitched - our Trixel Creative Directors have a dedicated board for big-picture stuff, too!

Here's a little insight into some of our Restitched Trello posts:

Checking-In

Although Trello is our first-stop, Discord is potentially the most important platform that we use, especially when it comes to team communication. Nearly all communications to and between team members happen here, and every development channel is open to every developer role. We do this so that people from any aspect can comment on and provide constructive criticism towards different areas of development.

Here's a preview of some of the channels that we have:

One of the many channels that aren't listed on here, though, is a channel titled #check-ins. Every Sunday, we ask our devs what their plans are for this week. There's no pressure here, as Restitched continues to be a passion project that we are all volunteering time towards, but it's important that we keep tabs on all aspects of development.

We ask our developers to check the Trello (and any other responsibilities or areas outlined in the other Discord channels) before considering what's on their to-do list for the week.

These check-ins are then... uh... checked by a Project Lead. At this time, this is Billy, who responds to each check-in with an emoji reaction, which is either a ✔️ or a 🔩 to clearly state that their message has been understood. Project Leads will reference the check-in list to ensure that team members are active and meeting their commitments.

Any progress made is then published in the appropriate Discord channel by the responsible developer. As aforementioned, this is where the rest of the team will provide encouragement, feedback, and the like. We provide an extremely collaborative workflow and atmosphere and treat every developer and their opinions equally. Further progress is then, again, shared in these channels.

Tools To Create

We use a variety of different programs to build our game. The game itself runs within Unity, where a lot of the development is made. Our developers also utilise programs such as GIMP, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Blender, and several others in order to help us fulfill our needs. Developers are free to use their programs of choice in order to get the job done as needed, provided that licensing is valid.

'Git'-ting Things Together

Once an asset is created, it's then ported into the game (via several methods, such as those outlined in 'Restitched: Dev Diary | Asset Import #1') and added to the source code via GitHub.

Our GitHub commits push a message to the development Discord server in a channel titled #git. If you've ever read a Restitched: Recapped!, this is where screenshots of new commits come from!

Additionally, at this stage, new assets, etc. are uploaded to our OneDrive storage space. This is mostly for ease of use, especially when it comes to assembling promotional content and the like!

This OneDrive is, again, open to all developers. If anyone needs anything for any reason - it's mostly all in there!

Rinse and Repeat!

And that's about it! This is part of the process we go through in order to work on the game that we are all so incredibly excited to get into your hands as soon as possible. We're still quite a ways off, but we hope that updates like these Dev Diaries, Recapped! posts and Developer Livestreams help to make the wait a little bit easier.

In the meantime - stay creative and stay tuned!