Celtx's Initial Dev Plan

[Ron Toland]

Heard back from Celtx soon after my last message. They had the time
for our first call wrong, but could meet at noon CST today, so I
called them back and took as many notes as I could.

Basically, they've come back round to the idea of expanding Celtx to
accommodate Game Writing needs, instead of pursuing a completely
separate application. They're no longer looking for funding from the
IGDA. They *do* want access to our expertise, our stamp of approval,
and promotion of the tool, all things we can offer.

Their current plan is to incorporate development of game writing
features into their regular Celtx schedule, starting with their Q1
2009 release. As an initial set of features to focus on, they thought
editing branching dialogue would be a good start. They would begin
focused work this fall, and have a version to ship early next year.
Throughout the process they'd need our initial thoughts, testing of
each iteration, and feedback.

I've asked them to put together a document of their own outlining the
dev plan their proposing. I'll post it here as soon as I get it so
everyone can review it. They're open to changing it, or altering the
feature-set they pursue initially.

They've also mentioned coming to the Austin GDC to meet us and talk
more about the toolset in person. Nothing's firm yet, but if they did
come, who in the Initiative (besides me) is going to the AGDC and
would like to meet them?

All in all they still seem very excited, and eager to see Celtx become
the industry-standard writing tool.

So, do we still want to partner exclusively with Celtx? If so, is
their proposed plan acceptable?

As an alternative, do we want to look into putting out a public RFP
for what IGDA funds we could get? Or see about doing this internally
(to the IGDA), with a part-time core team coordinating the work of a
set of volunteers (in true distributed-development open-source style)?

[Coray Seifert]

This is great news! I think if they're ready to move forward, we should see where this takes us, and work with them exclusively for the time being. That being said, if the energy on this project flags fro their end, we can pursue other options.

For their first feature, it seems like some of the more base functions, like being able to export from excel to WGA formatting, could get a ton of mileage and not be so labor intensive. As a "killer app" feature though, I can see the branching dialog tool being a great next step.

Good stuff!

- C

[Roane Beard]

Hey, that's awesome! It sounds like they've really cleared the path towards getting something done. Personally, I would love a branching dialogue tool, and it seems like a manageable, easily understood feature to launch with.

I agree with Coray that we should see where this takes us. I can't imagine we'd get traction like this looking for another partner at this stage.

Great work, Ron.

-Roane

[Corvus Elrod]

Wow! That's awesome news!

--
Corvus Elrod, Zakelro Story Studio
http://www.zakelro.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/corvus

[Stephen E. Dinehart]

Sweetness! Thanks for picking up for me Ron, and the great break down! Sorry I couldn't be there. I think we have a solid partner, and would like to see us move forward with them.

We don't exactly have a NDA with them, and the information created for our design doc is therein not very protected. And in so, I would think it best to continue forging ahead with Celtx. I also believe in the power of their tool.

Great job all,
Stephen

Corvus Elrod wrote:

[Tobias]

Great news.

Thanks for working that out with them.

I'll be at the AGDC and depending on the schedule I may able to join
talking with them.

So long

God bless you

On Aug 21, 3:32 pm, "Stephen E. Dinehart" <s...@flownaway.com> wrote:
> Sweetness! Thanks for picking up for me Ron, and the great break down!
> Sorry I couldn't be there. I think we have a solid partner, and would
> like to see us move forward with them.
>
> We don't exactly have a NDA with them, and the information created for
> our design doc is therein not very protected. And in so, I would think
> it best to continue forging ahead with Celtx. I also believe in the
> power of their tool.
>
> Great job all,
> Stephen
>
>
>
> Corvus Elrod wrote:
> >Wow! That's awesome news!
>
> >--
> >Corvus Elrod, Zakelro Story Studio
> >http://www.zakelro.com
> >http://www.linkedin.com/in/corvus
>

> >On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Roane Beard <roanebe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>Hey, that's awesome! It sounds like they've really cleared the path towards
> >>getting something done. Personally, I would love a branching dialogue tool,
> >>and it seems like a manageable, easily understood feature to launch with.
>
> >>I agree with Coray that we should see where this takes us. I can't imagine
> >>we'd get traction like this looking for another partner at this stage.
>
> >>Great work, Ron.
>
> >>-Roane
>

> >>On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 11:31 AM, Coray Seifert <seife...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>This is great news! I think if they're ready to move forward, we should
> >>>see where this takes us, and work with them exclusively for the time being.
> >>>That being said, if the energy on this project flags fro their end, we can
> >>>pursue other options.
>
> >>>For their first feature, it seems like some of the more base functions,
> >>>like being able to export from excel to WGA formatting, could get a ton of
> >>>mileage and not be so labor intensive. As a "killer app" feature though, I
> >>>can see the branching dialog tool being a great next step.
>
> >>>Good stuff!
>
> >>>- C
>

> >>>>set of volunteers (in true distributed-development open-source style)?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Drew McGee]

Hey guys! Again, great work on this. I will be heading up the Writers
SIG Booth at the AGDC, so I will be available to meet with Celtx. This
being said, I would definitely like to get on the phone with Stephen,
Ron and Corvus at some point before the convention to understand all
the details discussed so far with Celtx. I have been on one of the
calls with them as a silent party, but I would need more information
to speak with them intelligently.

Thanks and I hope to see most of you in Austin!

Drew McGee
www.MadeInMcGee.com
drewmcgee.wordpress.com

[Stephen E. Dinehart]

That would be great Drew. I know Corvus and I will not be there to rep, but I think Ron might be.... Ron?



Drew McGee wrote:

[Ron Toland]

I'm a little late posting this, but here's their write up of their current dev plan:

"In the past month having had much internal review and discussion and consultation with our local game development expert, we've arrived at a development process and plan which we believe will work.

Driven by the realities of budget and resources, our intent is to start by adding a new game writing editor into Celtx (as opposed to building a new application).   Much of the editor's structure is to be determined but we see it integrated with a visual and functional branching feature (much the same way that screenplays are presently integrated with index cards).  For now, it also makes sense to us to focus editor development on role playing games.  We see a longer term vision for the ability to be able to export reports and provide other integration functionality with popular game generation engines, but that will follow.

Timing wise, we're looking to start development this fall and plan to have a fully functional game writing editor built into a release scheduled for early 2009.  (As mentioned, our development focus remains on introducing commercial web services for this fall, after which we'll have opened up resources).  As we progress, we'd like to avail of your group's expertise through an iterative design and development process bringing you in for consultation before we code and throughout the process.  As we briefly discussed, we're looking at attending the Austin conference in September and hopefully we can arrange an initial round table with writers and developers then. 

Our expectation is that collectively we will build an editor that will receive IGDA sanctioning and endorsement, and that we'll achieve our common goal of building the new industry standard software for game writing."

[Ron Toland]

Thanks for volunteering, Drew! I'll also be at the AGDC, so we can team up when meeting with Celtx. I can also meet for a teleconference anytime this week save Monday morning or Wednesday. Stephen, Corvus, Drew: what are your schedules?

Stephen: if the group's agreed that moving forward with Celtx is our best bet, do you want to email them to tell them what we've decided and find out what our next steps should be (e.g., what they might need from us to start the design or pre-coding phase)?

Ron

[Drew McGee]

Monday mornings are the only time I can't meet. I am also home by
4:30pm CST each day, at which point, the call length is unrestricted.
You guys tell me when and I'll be there.

Drew McGee
www.MadeInMcGee.com
drewmcgee.wordpress.com