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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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    Hi there,

    We have updated HacknPlan with a UI redesign, new sections for our premium Studio plan (formerly known as Professional, available for pre-order and early access), and other improvements and bug fixes, take a look:

    http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-19-sharpening-edges/

    Cheers!

     
    Ony, Shizola and Dave-Carlile like this.
  2. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Just noticed this yesterday, and I really like it. I'm a fan of the "keep-it-simple" rectangles, rather than the rounded rectangles, and I somehow associate the simplicity with increased speed/performance.
     
    chrisestevez likes this.
  3. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    A new update of HacknPlan is here. We had some incidents during this milestone but we managed to add a few features like GitHub auth, visual customization of tasks and categories for HacknPlan Studio, markdown editor enhancements and more. You can check the details at http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-20-shapes-colors/

    Cheers

     
    Ony, Dave-Carlile and Shizola like this.
  4. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    We updated HacknPlan again. This time we introduced an activity log that allows you to track all the lifecycle of tasks and other entities, as well as a new permission level with limited writing capabilities, among other improvements. Read more at http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-21/

     
    Dave-Carlile likes this.
  5. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Enjoying the updates, as usual.

    Question about Milestones... I've reached the deadline on my Milestone, and all the tasks are moved to the Completed column (but not all of them have 100% hour completion, because some tasks took less time to complete than estimated). The Milestone date still shows red, and also indicates "overdue". How can I get this to show something else, to indicate that I successfully completed the milestone?
     
  6. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    You need to close it:

     
  7. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi there,

    HacknPlan has been updated again. We finally released the GitHub integration for HacknPlan Studio, and also added a few very demanded features for everyone: time/effort logging instead of directly updating the cost and a CSV exporter for project data.

    http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-22/

     
  8. djweinbaum

    djweinbaum

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    @chrisestevez Hacknplan is shaping up to be really cool. Question: Your tasks show progress bars. Mine don't. How do I mark progress on a task?
     
  9. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    The progress bars are a feature of HacknPlan Studio, the premium version. They show the percentage of sub-tasks completed.
     
  10. djweinbaum

    djweinbaum

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    Ah, okay. Cool, that's a great way to do it. Is the progress of individual tasks reflected in the overall "task progress" in metrics?
     
  11. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi,

    The last update of the year is here!

    We have changed how milestones work to provide better estimations and metrics, added the possibility of assigning users to tasks on creation, project logo customization for HacknPlan Studio, and more. Get all the details at http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-23

    Also, remember our promotion to pre-order HacknPlan Studio at a 50% discount ends at the end of the year. We are planning the full release for March, and we will add two new tiers, Personal Plus and Academy (free Studio for educational institutions). Read more at http://hacknplan.com/hacknplan-studio-news.

    Happy Holidays!

     
  12. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Is anyone else unable to edit Current and Final Cost?
     
  13. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hey, I didn't see this message earlier. The current and final cost fields are no longer editable directly. You can now log the cost and it's automatically added. You can do so by clicking on the "Log work" button on the task editor or the context menu. More info here: http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-22/

    Happy New Year, by the way!
     
  14. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    A new update of HacknPlan is here! We added a burndown chart and an event calendar for premium users, user mentions for the markdown editor, defaults configuration, and many other improvements and bug fixes.

    http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-24/

    Besides that, we also started the early access program of HacknPlan Personal Plus, a premium tier for individual users who want some advanced features while working with other free users. We have a promotion for this week only, you can pre-order 1 year for just 24 EUR.

    http://hacknplan.com/personal-plus-available/



    Cheers
     
    aer0ace and Dave-Carlile like this.
  15. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Hmm, this might push me over the edge to switch to Personal Plus. This is a fantastic product/service.

    EDIT:
    I also like how the actual burndown graph is always above the trendline. Very realistic ;).
     
    ShawnWignall and Dave-Carlile like this.
  16. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Just to clarify, the calendar is available for Personal Plus, but the burndown chart is for Studio only. By the way, the burndown chart is realistic because is real, it's the one for the latest HacknPlan milestone :)
     
    Dave-Carlile likes this.
  17. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Aw. Well, it's still great that you got it in there.
     
  18. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi there,

    A new version of HacknPlan has been released! We introduce some of our announced premium features like the time tracker, batch operations for tasks and project templating. We also add some core improvements such as task relocation for finishing milestones, platform customization, and a storage manager.

    Read more at http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-25/

     
  19. CarterG81

    CarterG81

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    Thank you for this tool. It is well made and very useful.

    I've been using it for the last few weeks and it has helped me realize how little must be done for each milestone. Before, it felt a lot more overwhelming as multiple milestones seamlessly blended in my mind.

    With HacknPlan, I can manage tasks with the team alot better too, see where others are in the milestone, etc.

    Useful.
     
  20. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Thanks! Glad to hear is helping you :)
     
    CarterG81 likes this.
  21. Schneider21

    Schneider21

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    Seems like a great tool, and looks fantastic! I'm signing up now to try getting my time management better under control.
     
    chrisestevez likes this.
  22. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    I think it's a fantastic tool. I haven't used any other online project management tools like Trello, but for the longest time I was using a MantisBT database on a local server, and was using that to manage my tasks along with my bugs. I occasionally use Google Sheets as well, for more high-level planning. It was just very cumbersome.

    What ultimately sold me on HackNPlan is that they introduced export of your entire project db. With that, you can easily keep backups, or potentially port to another system if anything was ever to happen to HackNPlan. But as it is, the tool just keeps getting better and better, and I love using it, and I hope they will remain operational for many years and/or decades moving forward.
     
    chrisestevez likes this.
  23. Schneider21

    Schneider21

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    @aer0ace I generally use Google Sheets for planning / ToDo management, but as you said, it gets cumbersome. I like having to give a number for how much time a task will take, which makes me think more about what's involved.

    I'm fairly certain I'm using the Game Design Model in HackNPlan incorrectly, but like anything, I imagine I'll figure it out as I go.
     
  24. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    The Game Design Model is meant to be a more dynamic and integrated GDD, so you define the design of your game in a structured way and, at the same time, you can attach tasks to it. This way, the design gives a lot of context to your tasks, and the tasks give progress and details to the design. Everything gets a bit more under control this way. An example:

     
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  25. Schneider21

    Schneider21

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    That makes sense! It's definitely going to be some training to get me to create and define things at this detailed of a level. I tend to make ToDo items like "Make player object movable across map" and just work away at that single task for dozens of untracked hours.
     
  26. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    I noticed that Remaining Hours on the Metrics page accounts for all hours that are unaccounted for in respect to the Estimates provided for each task. The problem I'm seeing is that I have some tasks in the Completed column that didn't require as much time to complete as I had estimated, so they fall under that time required to finish, and I think those hours are being counted on the Metrics page. So, if the Metrics page shows 41 hours, and I have tasks in the Completed column that took 17 hours less than estimated, I really only have 24 hours left in remaining tasks.

    Is this "issue" going to be addressed in the future, or is this going to remain "As Designed"?
     
  27. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Mmm, so, if I understood correctly, you'd rather show the sum of the remaining hours of the currently open tasks? I guess that would make sense or not depending on the nature of your milestones, if they are time-boxed like agile iterations, or if they are based on features.

    The current method works well with time-boxed milestones, since we are heavily influenced by the agile way of managing projects. Let's say you estimate 40 hours of work for a week long milestone; if a task takes 10 less than expected, they are shown as remaining because it assumes the milestone is gonna last that long regardless of how much time tasks take. In this case, it would be saying you have 10 hours left to spend on other stuff.

    However, if your milestone is feature based, with variable time, then it would make more sense to take all estimated time from the remaining when you complete a task, used or not.

    We have to think about it, maybe is worth to separate the concept of milestone from iteration and make them work differently.
     
  28. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    This is the last update before we leave the beta phase and release HacknPlan 1.0, scheduled for March 27th. We will hide in a cave for around a month to complete our roadmap, finish the documentation and perform an extensive QA of the system.

    This update comes with many new features for premium users like Slack integration, Gantt chart, roles and advanced filters. We also include some improvements for free users too, like filters for design element tasks, comments with work logs and some others. Read more:

    DEV DIARY 26 - SLACK MY GANTT CHART



    Cheers!
     
  29. Teila

    Teila

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    I really like Hack n Plan! I used it steadily for a while but then had issues logging in. Seems that is fixed now. I do have some questions.

    Can a small indie team use the personal edition? I wouldn't mind having the Personal Plus for myself but how does this work if the rest of the team has personal editions? Currently, I have just added as members and they can access my account. Will this be gone with the new subscriptions? Can they still access my account to see what I have assigned?

    I am still confused about all this will work now that the Studio accounts are coming out. I am afraid that is a bit to much for our family team to dish out each month. We are looking at other options but I have been happy with Hack n Plan as it is so wouldn't mind continuing.

    Okay, just read that we won't be able to access it as a team anymore. Oh well. Great job and good luck to you!
     
    Ony likes this.
  30. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Of course you can access as a team after 1.0, where did you read the opposite? The free account keeps working as it is, nothing will change. We are a freemium service, so the premium plans we are offering are on top of the free one.

    There are 3 different plans:
    • Personal (free): The one you've been using so far, which will continue as it is, free forever.
    • Personal Plus: Advanced features for individual users. You can work on the same project than free users, they won't enjoy the extra features but you will.
    • Studio: Advanced features for studios, paid per team seat.
    http://hacknplan.com/#pricing
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2017
  31. Teila

    Teila

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    Excellent. I saw it somewhere or thought I did. But I am sick and maybe my feverish mind thought I saw something I didn't. lol

    Anyway, glad to know. Thanks. I will probably buy Personal Plus to support the project.
     
    chrisestevez likes this.
  32. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    We haven't posted anything here in a while, and the reason is we are preparing the release of HacknPlan 1.0 that will take place on April 3rd. This major update will include most of the features announced on our roadmap plus some other improvements, a full documentation and the subscription system for the premium plans that will allow monthly and yearly cycles and a 2-week trial.

    On the other side, pre-orders at a 33% discount are available until March 31st.

    Cheers
     
    Dave-Carlile likes this.
  33. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys!

    We have released the first update since the delivery of HacknPlan 1.0 at the beginning of April. We haven't added many new features this time, we focused on stability and performance issues instead, as well as bug fixing. However, we released a very important feature for our Studio users: the customization of kanban columns.

    Read more about these and other improvements on our blog: DEV DIARY 27 - STAGE CLEAR!

     
  34. jc_lvngstn

    jc_lvngstn

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    I'm enjoying using HacknPlan for our project, so far it seems easy to use doesn't do too much or too little. Granted, the definition of too much and too little would vary by project :)
     
    chrisestevez likes this.
  35. jc_lvngstn

    jc_lvngstn

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    Let me add some more. That brief blurb probably wasn't that informative.

    The sample project you could view was very useful, it showed how they used the various systems to manage the overall project.
    We were initially confused by the Game Design (that right? I'm not at a place where I can view the site) model and its purpose. I asked support basically they said THAT is your design document/wiki. I've enjoyed using it.

    I would like the ability to assign time or % complete to subtasks. I see how they are the smallest unit of work, but even those at times can take some time or extra effort. Either that, or the ability to organize your tasks view like the game design document...have tasks as children of tasks and so on. I suppose that would pretty much give people as much flexibility as they want in breaking down tasks.

    So far...it's been very well suited for our small project in its beginnings.
     
  36. Shizola

    Shizola

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    Been using this for a new project and it's great so far. Only thing that is annoying is that boards area always reverts to the backlog. Is there anyway to change this?
     
  37. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Yes! You just need to click on the star icon next to the title of the milestone you are working on. That will make that the default one. We notice this happens to many people and is not intuitive, so we are adding a way to automatically set a milestone as default based on dates and order.
     
    Shizola likes this.
  38. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    A new update of HacknPlan has been released! The main feature we have implemented is the integration with GitLab, but we have also added many improvements, like task references in Markdown descriptions (with autocomplete), easier dependency definitions, weekday config for the burndown chart, performance improvements... We also fixed a ton of bugs!

    Read more here: http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-28/

     
  39. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    I noticed a couple of small changes, namely the description field for milestones. HackNPlan just continues to get better and better when you think that it's already as good as it can be!
     
    QFSW likes this.
  40. QFSW

    QFSW

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    Agreed, its honestly great stuff, i use it so much, got hundreds of tasks on it :)
    If you guys dont already, make sure you take a day to just give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back
     
  41. QFSW

    QFSW

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    One thing I may ask:
    upload_2017-6-5_18-20-37.png
    I assume you changed the way descriptions on milestones work, is there any way to upgrade all my old ones to the new system?
     
  42. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    We keep both descriptions, a brief one without formatting with the purpose of helping identify the milestone on the list (the classic one), and the extended one, which supports markdown and is a place to define helpful information, guidelines, links and such things. The only way of moving the normal description to the info field is by copying it manually.
     
  43. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Just to give you guys another use-case, I'm using the new description field for storing old versions of milestone targets. As the game progresses, targets change, tasks get deferred, schedules get pushed. I like keeping a log of what the original targets were before updating. Not sure if the premium tiers provide this sort of "revision history" on milestone targets, but this is the way I'm doing it for the free tier.
     
    Teila likes this.
  44. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi guys,

    HacknPlan has been updated! We have improved how the time-based costs are entered and displayed, added comments to the game design model, and some other improvements, check them out:

    http://hacknplan.com/dev-diary-29/

    Also, HacknPlan yearly subscriptions and upgrades are at a 50% discount until June 30th:

    http://hacknplan.com/summer-sale/


     
  45. Teila

    Teila

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    This is confusing.

    So I have been thinking of subscribing to the Plus version for a bit now but when I went to subscribe, I get this comment that I would get the discount on my next payment. Does that mean in a year? :) Or does that mean on my first payment.

    Also, what is the regular price? I cannot find that information anyway so I have no idea if the regular price is showing or the discount price.

    Could you clarify please? It would be nice to have a link in the upgrade within HacknPlan to show the differences between versions and the prices per year and per month without a discount.

    Edited to say: I did find the price but the discount is not showing up when I got to subscribe to the Plus version and I am instead seeing the full price. Will this change in my cart or do I need a discount code?
     
  46. Teila

    Teila

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    I need this too.
     
  47. wccrawford

    wccrawford

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    I don't actually plan on subscribing yet, but I wanted to confirm what Teila's seeing: The page mentions that there is a sale going on, but that sale is not reflected in the prices shown. The comments on the blog post about the sale say there should be a green badge if the sale applies, and there is no green badge for my account.
     
  48. Teila

    Teila

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    I guess they a really do not want us to subscribe! :) I can live without Plus but it would be nice to try it.
     
  49. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Hi,

    Sorry for the delay in answering. The normal prices are these:

    http://hacknplan.com/#pricing
    http://hacknplan.com/comparison/

    The prices shown are without discount, and since only yearly subscriptions are included in the promotion, the 50% discount in the next payment means 50% discount on all the subscriptions or updates done this week, any seat upgrade or payment after June 30th will be at a regular price. This is a subscription, not a single payment, that's why we don't show you the price with a discount, that could make you think that would be the price applied next year too.

    Also, bear in mind the promotion is for yearly subscriptions only, if you don't see a green badge is most likely because you are selecting monthly.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2017
  50. chrisestevez

    chrisestevez

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    Sorry, we were busy today and couldn't answer earlier, that doesn't mean we don't want people to subscribe.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2017