As I only have a maximum of 3 and a half months to produce this game, which equates to around 15 weeks or 75 working days, I will be unable to include absolutely everything that I would like. I must account for time to actually get to grips with Unity, to complete research, to prototype and playtest and finally to actually make the game, along with its assets. Therefore, I have conducted a scope analysis on the project and will only be producing that which is defined in the scope.
I have chosen to limit each civilisation to 2 module upgrades only, meaning that there is always going to be a clear linear correlation between the amount of civilisations implemented and the amount of modules in the game. Every time a civilisation is added, so are 2 more modules.
I estimate that each module will take on average 2 days to come up with the mechanic, playtest it and finally refine it; this also accounts for designing the upgrades, as these will be marginal increases in the module performance. I then estimate that I will need half a day for the art of each module, and another day to implement it into the code. By this estimate, each module will take 3.5 days to complete.
The civilisations themselves also need art to be produced and, along with research and implementation, I estimate each one will take 2 days to complete. This means that overall, each civilisation will take approximately 9 days to complete and implement.
I estimate that implementing, and testing, the core gameplay will take 10 days overall. This is because I will be teaching myself Unity at the same time. However, once this is up and running, I will be able to implement everything else faster.
Coming up with, and testing as well as implementing, fun patterns for the asteroids to come at the player will take half a day per pattern.
Designing the UI, both during the run and outside of the run (start button etc), will take approximately 2 days.
Other art will take time, such as the rocket cockpit and thrusters (1 day for NASA spaceship and 1 for Russian), the space stations (1 day), space and the asteroids (2 days). This equates to 5 days.
I estimate that I will need at least 2 days to produce the music/sfx, for which I will need to get someone else to create, and implement it.
I also plan to do a blog journal at the end of every 2 weeks, reviewing my progress. I estimate that each one will take a day, so this will take 7 days in total.
Finally, I would like to have a buffer of 5 days, in case anything goes wrong.
Overall, I estimate the development time to be 31 + 9 x (how many civilisations I choose to include) + 0.5 x (how many patterns for the asteroids I choose to include) days. I also need to allow for around 10 days for my other module in the semester.
Unfortunately, due to the time constraints, I have needed to cut some content that I initially planned. This is to ensure that my time is spent on the core experience of the game, rather than features that would be nice to have.
Here is a list of what I have cut from the game, and will not be working on during the development.