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HacknPlan, the Trello for game development

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by chrisestevez, Nov 4, 2015.

  1. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Thanks for the suggestions!

    Some people ask me to add more stuff to the task cards, and other people ask me to remove info because it's too much xD One of the features I have in mind is a board configuration, where you can decide what to show and what not to show, so then if I add more stuff people have the power to hide it. The date of completion is already on the data model behind the task, it's just showing it.

    And about editing the cost of the task directly in the card, that is something we have in mind. We want to allow inline edition where possible, as it's far more productive than opening modals or forms. We'll get to that iteratively, as always :)
     
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  2. Dave-Carlile

    Dave-Carlile

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    This is some very solid work.

    I assume in the "reporting" part of the roadmap there will be a way to export all of the raw data for a project?

    And what do you use for the controls and such? Are they all custom, or some library? It's a very responsive and clean interface.
     
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  3. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Thanks! Yes, we will add that feature soon, the ability to export all your data into a csv or another kind of file.

    About the UI, it uses AngularJS and Bootstrap, but most of the components are custom. We also use a few external ones, like the drag and drop system (that I want to replace because it has some bugs and limitations) and the rich text editor (which I will replace by a custom one based on Markdown syntax).
     
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  4. Teila

    Teila

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    I would like to add more Game model categories. I notice it is under construction but you say you are not adding more features. Any idea when that will be available? The current ones are missing a few things, mainly administration and nothing that really suits Lore or Story development.
     
  5. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Actually, I had to dig around a bit, and I noticed that under the Writing category, there are numerous subcategories: Story, Conversation, Plot, UI text, Documentation, and Translation.

    An Administration category is definitely missing though.

    EDIT:
    I just tried adding a new Category and it seems to be implemented now. Oh sorry, not for the Game Model.. my bad...
     
  6. Teila

    Teila

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    LOL Yeah, that. :)
     
  7. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    When did I say I'm not adding more features? Of course I am! That will be available next month, we will add a lot of improvements for the game model: cloning, model type customization, integration of the task editor, due dates, filters... Sorry if I'm a bit slow, there's quite a lot of work to do :)
     
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  8. Teila

    Teila

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    I thought I saw it on your blog! But now I can't get there. Regardless, glad I am mistaken. :)
     
  9. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    We had a temporary issue at the site, should be back online. What I said in my blog is we are not adding new features this milestone, which lasts 2 weeks, because we wanted to fix some bugs and improve some existing features. But July will be full of new stuff, I promise :)
     
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  10. Ony

    Ony

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    I love HacknPlan (see my previous posts in this thread!), but... lately, perhaps because of the new additions and changes, things are slowing down for me and getting a little sluggish. Now, to add a task, it takes a few seconds for the box to load up, instead of instantly as it was before. A few seconds might not seem like a lot, but it's just enough to start getting noticeable as I work in the system. It's happening on several pages and windows in the system. It seems to be getting more sluggish with each new task I add.
     
  11. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Thanks for reporting the issue, we haven't noticed this or had any other report, except a few specific temporary issues. Is it like this all the time, or does it happen just sometimes? Could you give me more info, like which OS and browser are you using?

    Note: take into account the first load is a bit slower as it caches a lot of stuff, but the next actions should be fast.
     
  12. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    I think you are right @Ony. It's not really slow but the experience is not as smooth as it should. Some of the recent improvements affected the loading times of some screens, like the task creation modal window or the embedded task editor. We'll try to improve it for the next update.
     
    Ony likes this.
  13. Ony

    Ony

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    Pretty much all the time now. I'm using Windows 7 64, with Firefox browser.

    On the boards(?) screen where all the tasks are, I just clicked on the 'Art' link and it took about three seconds to load, with only 6 items in the "completed" category. Then I clicked on the 'Programming' link and it took 15 seconds to load, with roughly 130 tasks spread throughout the categories (110 in the "completed" category). Clicking back off of that, then back again it loads in about 5 seconds. Always a delay.
     
  14. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    That is definitely not normal. I have to admit that's a combination of OS and browser we haven't tested much. Do you have any other browser at hand to see if you perceive any difference? The first time you load the application it may take some time to warm up the cache, but after that everything should be smooth. For instance, going from "All Tasks" to "Programming" category containing 23 tasks took me around 300ms (I'm on a 30MB DSL connection).
     
  15. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Anyway, @Ony, while we improve the performance you could try to create several milestones and distribute the tasks among them, if possible. That would reduce the loading times as the current problem is the most tasks you have, the bigger the loading times (our cards contain a lot of info so we have to gather a big load of data from the server).
     
  16. Ony

    Ony

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    I'll try it in Chrome and IE with no other tabs open and see how it goes. Might just be something with Firefox, but it didn't start happening until the latest 2-3 rounds of HacknPlan changes started going live.
     
  17. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey @Ony, we have optimized the boards a bit, you should notice an improvement on performance, let me know if you appreciate it.
     
  18. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    We have new updates for HacknPlan. This time, we haven't added new features, but several improvements to existing functionality, especially in performance and usability. We finally have a proper date picker that works in most browsers, and our boards are now updated in real-time. Read more at http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-14/
     
  19. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Need to report a bug, but I don't have time to formalize repro steps. But here's the use case.
    I wanted to set my milestone end dates to the first of the month for say, October, January, etc. But when I refresh, or navigate away and back, the end date changes to the second of the month. I originally was trying to set these dates to the last day of a month, but was also running into problems, as it would set the date to one day forward.

    Is this a known issue? And will be fixed soon if it isn't already?

    Actually, I just noticed the interface changed slightly, so I'll try updating and refreshing and logging out/in to see if it's fixed.

    EDIT:
    Arg. I should have tried it before posting. Even the release notes discuss it. Thanks for fixing! The date picker is great! Keep up the good work!
     
  20. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    No problem, thanks for reporting it anyway :)
     
  21. HyenaGamesDev

    HyenaGamesDev

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    This is AWESOME! I've been looking for something just like this, and just stumbled across it while googling for tips on using Trello for this. Good work!
     
  22. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Error establishing a database connection...

    EDIT:
    Well, I had luck with app.hacknplan.com
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2016
    Dave-Carlile likes this.
  23. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Yes, we had a problem with the website (which is completely separated from the application) and it has been fixed now. Thanks for reporting the issue.
     
  24. Dave-Carlile

    Dave-Carlile

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    Any plans for implementing SSL?
     
  25. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    SSL is supported. Not in the website and blog hacknplan.com (which is static and has no auth), but in the application itself app.hacknplan.com.
     
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  26. Dave-Carlile

    Dave-Carlile

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    Haha, should have logged on before asking. :$
     
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  27. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    No problem :)
     
  28. Dave-Carlile

    Dave-Carlile

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    One other question (and I checked this one thoroughly :)). Is there a way to have the Milestone remember the last one that was selected? I closed all but one milestone and it still always defaults to the very first one, which doesn't even show up in the dropdown.

    Edit: When I select the current milestone, then change to the Summary tab and back it goes back to the very first closed milestone.
     
  29. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Yes, you can click on the tick icon at the top right corner of the milestone card, and then it becomes the active milestone.

    EDIT: But when a milestone is closed shouldn't be the default one anymore, that's a bug that we will fix asap
     
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  30. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    HacknPlan has been updated! This milestone has been focused on the game model feature, with many UX improvements, element cloning and element type customization. We also added a solution for the context menu issues and an important enhancement of performance on task loading.

    Read more at http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-15-game-model-love/

     
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  31. Gekigengar

    Gekigengar

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    I haven't used this in a while, and when I came back, noticed a huge improvement in the performance :0

    Wow, amazing job in optimization!, its way faster and less clunkier!
     
    chrisestevez likes this.
  32. Kansus

    Kansus

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    Thanks for this great tool, keep up the good work!
     
  33. Perrydotto

    Perrydotto

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    I enjoy using Slack, but haven't really been happy with any of the task allocation/to do-list integrations I tried with it. I hope this is not too dumb/frivolous to ask, but does HacknPlan have/get Slack integration?
     
  34. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Not yet, but it's in our plans to integrate it, along with other services like GitHub, BitBucket, Google Docs.
     
  35. Perrydotto

    Perrydotto

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    @chrisestevez - That's awesome! Can't wait, I would definitely love to give HacknPlan a shot as part of our workflow.
     
  36. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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  37. Kedahan

    Kedahan

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    This looks really interesting. Going to try it out!
     
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  38. McMayhem

    McMayhem

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    @chrisestevez Thanks for working on this great tool! My team has just started using it for management.

    Just a quick question, and I apologize if this has been asked somewhere else already, but is Is there a way to import existing tasks lists, or does everything have to be added on a one-by-one basis at the moment?

    One of my guys is trying to migrate our current backlog/task list from Excel to this and wanted to know if there was a quicker way to move it over.

    Thanks so much for supporting the community with this awesome tool!
     
  39. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey, thanks for using HacknPlan!

    We don't have that functionality yet, I'm afraid. It's something we want to add as soon as we can, so people that are using common formats like Excel, Google spreadsheets or other popular services like Trello can migrate easily. We also plan to release a public API (probably at the beginning of next year) that will allow people to create scripts and automatize certain tasks.
     
  40. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi there,

    A new update of HacknPlan is here! This time, we have focused on our brand new demo project, which will help you understand how the application works and how an organized project looks like without having to read long guides or tutorials. Check it out!

    http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-17-smoothing-learning-curve/
     
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  41. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    I just ran into a bug. I moved one of my tasks to the Completed column on the Kanban board, and the Planned cost is 2 hours. I updated Total Cost to 1 hour. The card on the Kanban view shows 0/2 hours.

    Additionally, from a design point of view, what should happen if the task took less than the planned cost to complete? As it is, the x/y remains grayed out as if it was "incomplete", when it should actually reflect that that task took less time to complete than planned. The over budget ratio shows up red, but the under budget stays gray. Are there any plans to make this more clear?

    EDIT:
    Update on the bug. After readjusting the total cost, the value updated correctly. It probably occurred on the initial drag to the Completed column, when the user is prompted to select the total cost.
     
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  42. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi,

    Thanks for reporting the bug, we already noticed it and we will fix it soon. About what you say regarding the overestimation of a task, it was initially shown red as well as the underestimation, but people complained as, for them, a task that took less than expected is ok. For me is not a green either, that's why I kept it gray, but maybe a yellow or orange color after the task is completed would be better in this case.
     
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  43. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey, we reached 10K registered users yesterday! Thanks to everyone who is using or has tried HacknPlan, and thanks for your constant feedback and support, you rock :)
     
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  44. nfantone

    nfantone

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    We are starting a new game project and found this thread by accident. I must say, I was surprised to see something like Hacknplan even existed. Kudos to @chrisestevez and the team behind it. Already created an account and played around. Amazing stuff.

    Integration with Slack would be awesome, though. This is not open source, am I right? Because, I bet things like that could be built by the community in no time.
     
  45. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey, thanks!

    No, it's not open source. Our business model is based on cloud freemium, like Slack itself or Trello, so we need to save some features to be offered as part of premium plans. I think we already offer quite a lot of features for free, and the premium ones will be very good for teams and companies which use the tool a lot on a daily basis. Integrations, team management, advanced operations like bulk processing, visual customization, and others will be premium. We will announce all the details soon.

    What we want to do asap is exposing a public API to interact with the application and its data. The community will be able to develop a lot of tools and utilities around HacknPlan, like importers, exporters, clients, automation...
     
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  46. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Ooh, clients. Sounds awesome. I was just about to request a low priority feature about being able to change skins to "low profile" looks, like primitive shapes and colors. Providing an API for client development sounds like something towards this, in an indirect sort of way.
     
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  47. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey guys, HacknPlan has been updated!

    We have replaced our (ugly) old text editor with a brand new one using GitHub-flavored markdown syntax, among other improvements. You can take a look at the changes here.

     
    ikazrima likes this.
  48. ikazrima

    ikazrima

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    I've used your app for a month now (just noticed you have a post here) and I love it. Awesome work.

    Will be able to host it locally in the future? Free or premium are fine.
     
  49. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey, thanks for using HacknPlan, I'm glad you like it. Yes, we plan to provide a version you can install on your own servers at some point. I can't say when yet, it's not short term, but it's definitely on our roadmap.
     
  50. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys!

    Today is HacknPlan's first birthday! We would like to say thanks to all of you for using HacknPlan, giving feedback and show a lot of interest in what we're doing.

    We want to celebrate it by announcing HacknPlan Professional, our first premium plan that offers many features and enhancements for teams and studios that use the tool on a daily basis. You can check all the details, including features, pricing and more at http://hacknplan.com/professional-plan-announced/. We, of course, keep our HacknPlan Personal plan for free as it is now :)

    Please take some time to read the post and fill out a quick survey to know what you think about it.

    Cheers
     
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