docs/01-proposed-solution/01-gd-team.md

@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ Traditionally, GDDs have been managed using Word, PowerPoint, or even informal c
 
 To ensure clarity, maintainability, and team-wide collaboration, the GD team must adopt modern, industry-standard tools designed specifically for collaborative game development.
 
+![Game-Design-With-Engine](../img/game-design-with-engine.png)
+
 ### ✅ Recommended Tools
 
 | Tool                          | Purpose                          | Benefits                                                                                     |

docs/01-proposed-solution/02-art-team.md

@@ -7,21 +7,23 @@ title: 'Art Team'
 
 The Art Team plays a vital role in shaping the player's visual experience. However, under the current workflow, the team’s involvement is largely limited to executing asset requests—drawing images/animations based on lists provided by the GD team—without deeper integration into the game design process. While this has sufficed for basic visual delivery, it introduces several critical problems that directly impact both game quality and performance.
 
+![Concept Art](../img/art-concept.png)
+
 ## ⚠️ Current Issues
 
-### Lack of Game-Centric Art Knowledge
-Art is created with little consideration for how it functions within the game engine or interacts with gameplay systems. As a result:
+### ❌ Lack of Game-Centric Art Knowledge
+Art assets are created with little consideration for how it functions within the game engine or interacts with gameplay systems. As a result:
 - Assets may be unoptimized, causing performance issues such as frame drops or memory overhead.
 - Elements may appear visually appealing in isolation but fail to communicate clearly or read well on actual game canvases, especially across varying screen sizes.
-- Animations may not conform to engine capabilities, requiring extra developer effort or rework.
+- Animations may not suit well to engine capabilities, requiring extra developer effort or rework.
 
-### Disconnected from Gameplay Context
+### ❌ Disconnected from Gameplay Context
 Artists often have no visibility into the player experience, level pacing, or interactive systems. This prevents them from:
 - Suggesting improvements to asset usability or feedback clarity.
 - Understanding how visual hierarchy affects UX/UI.
 - Adjusting the style to support gameplay mood or genre conventions.
 
-### Task-Only Mindset
+### ❌ Task-Only Mindset
 The current process fosters a task completion mentality, where the focus is on finishing the checklist rather than contributing to the visual identity of the game. This leads to:
 - Missed opportunities to propose stylistic direction or polish ideas.
 - Low creative engagement and undervaluing of the art team's potential.
@@ -29,13 +31,15 @@ The current process fosters a task completion mentality, where the focus is on f
 
 ## ✅ Proposed Improvements
 
-### Involve the Art Team in Pre-Production
+### 🤝 Involve the Art Team in Pre-Production
 
 - Include the Art Team in early concept meetings and kickoff sessions.
 - Encourage the team to contribute ideas for visual themes, UI/UX direction, and animation styles.
 - Allow artists to collaborate directly with GD and DEV to ensure alignment between artistic vision and gameplay systems.
 
-### Build Awareness of Technical Game Art Principles
+![Art and Code](../img/art-and-code.png)
+
+### 🤝 Build Awareness of Technical Game Art Principles
 
 - Provide internal training or documentation on how art assets affect game engine performance (e.g., texture size, draw calls, overdraw).
 - Introduce key optimization techniques such as:
@@ -46,10 +50,32 @@ The current process fosters a task completion mentality, where the focus is on f
     - Texture Compression Awareness for specific platform (WEBP, DXT, PVRTC)
 - Encourage artists to consider screen readability, resolution flexibility, and resource usage when creating assets.
 
-### Adopt Game Engine as a Collaborative Tool
+### ⚙️ Adopt Game Engine as a Collaborative Tool
 
 - Equip the Art Team to work directly with game engines (e.g., Cocos Creator, Unity) to test and review how their assets behave in-game.
 - Allow artists to preview scenes, animations, and UI within the engine to catch visual or functional issues early.
 - Encourage collaboration with developers and technical artists to optimize rendering and improve asset integration workflows.
 
-By embedding the Art Team into the full development cycle and building their technical capabilities, the studio can achieve a more cohesive, scalable, and high-quality visual standard across all projects.
+### 🎮 Expanding the Artist Skillset for Game Development
+
+In game development, the role of an artist goes far beyond just creating concepts, animations, or UI/UX elements. Modern games require a wide array of specialized art roles—each contributing to a different part of the player experience and the technical pipeline.
+
+![Game Art Design](../img/game-art-design.png)
+
+To meet the standards of professional game production, artists should be aware of and encouraged to explore these specialized paths, such as:
+
+- Environment Artist – Builds immersive 3D worlds and landscapes
+- Level Artist – Designs and assembles gameplay spaces using art assets
+- Lighting Artist – Creates mood, atmosphere, and visual focus through lighting
+- Creature Artist – Crafts fantasy or sci-fi creatures with anatomical precision
+- Character Rigger – Prepares characters for animation with skeletal and control systems
+- Prop Artist – Models detailed in-game objects like weapons, tools, and furniture
+- Vehicle Artist – Designs complex mechanical assets such as cars, ships, or robots
+- VFX Artist – Creates particle effects, spells, explosions, and weather effects
+- Shader Artist – Develops custom visual effects through material and shader code
+
+...and many more.
+
+---
+
+Encouraging the team to understand and specialize in these roles not only improves overall asset quality and production efficiency, but also opens the door for more diverse and ambitious game projects.

docs/01-proposed-solution/03-qc-team.md

@@ -7,17 +7,19 @@ title: 'QC Team'
 
 The Quality Control (QC) team is responsible for validating the quality, stability, and correctness of the final game build before release. However, in the current workflow, their role is often limited to final-stage testing, relying heavily on the GDD and art previews to create test cases. This narrow scope significantly limits the effectiveness and depth of QA coverage.
 
+![Game Testing Cycle](../img/game-testing-cycle.png)
+
 ## ⚠️ Current Issues
 
-### Late Involvement in the Development Cycle
+### ❌ Late Involvement in the Development Cycle
 - The QC team is brought into the project only after the game is nearly complete.
 - By this time, most design and technical decisions are already locked in, leaving little room for early detection of system-wide issues or usability flaws.
 
-### Over-Reliance on GDD and Art Previews
+### ❌ Over-Reliance on GDD and Art Previews
 - Test planning is based almost entirely on the GDD and static visual references, which are often incomplete or outdated by the time testing begins.
 - This results in missed edge cases, incomplete test coverage, and delays caused by last-minute clarification requests.
 
-### Lack of Proactive QA Practices
+### ❌ Lack of Proactive QA Practices
 - The team often focuses only on end-user experience testing (e.g., basic functionality, navigation, or win conditions).
 - There is minimal use of structured QA methodologies such as:
     - Regression testing
@@ -27,16 +29,24 @@ The Quality Control (QC) team is responsible for validating the quality, stabili
 
 ## ✅ Proposed Improvements
 
-### Involve QC from Pre-Production Phase
+### 🤝 Involve QC from Pre-Production Phase
+
+![preproduction-phase](../img/pre-production-phase.png)
+
 - Include QA representatives in early design discussions and kickoff meetings.
 - Enable them to understand feature intentions, risk areas, and gameplay logic from the start.
 - Allow the team to begin drafting test strategies and scenarios early, not just test cases after implementation.
 
-### Establish Internal Test Documentation
+### 📝 Establish Internal Test Documentation
+
+![test-document](../img/test-document.png)
+
 - Encourage QC to build and maintain their own living Test Plan and Test Specification documents based on direct project participation, not just GDD handoffs.
 - Track bugs, testing scenarios, and coverage status using industry standard format
 
-### Adopt Broader Testing Methodologies
+### 🔎 Adopt Broader Testing Methodologies
+
+![test-method](../img/test-method.png)
 
 Train and assign the team to cover various QA techniques beyond user experience, including:
 - Functional, non-functional, and exploratory testing
@@ -44,4 +54,11 @@ Train and assign the team to cover various QA techniques beyond user experience,
 - Stress/load testing (FPS, memory, asset loads)
 - Multi-platform compatibility validation
 
+### 🐞 Standardize Bug Reporting with Modern Practices
+
+- Adopt a consistent bug report format inspired by widely used systems like GitHub Issues, Jira, or Unity Bug Reports.
+- Encourage the use of AI tools to help analyze and format bug reports.
+
+---
+
 By embedding the Art Team into the full development cycle and building their technical capabilities, the studio can achieve a more cohesive, scalable, and high-quality visual standard across all projects.

docs/01-proposed-solution/04-game-dev-team.md

@@ -6,19 +6,20 @@ title: 'Game Dev Team'
 # Game Developer Team
 
 The Development team is responsible for implementing game features, integrating assets, and building the final product experience. While the current workflow supports small-scale casino-style games, it has become increasingly outdated and limiting—both in terms of team growth and technological capability. To evolve with industry standards and scale to more complex projects, the DEV team must adopt better tools, practices, and collaboration models.
+![game-dev](../img/game-dev.png)
 
 ## ⚠️ Current Issues
 
-### 1. Improper Use of Project Management Tools
+### ❌ Improper Use of Project Management Tools
 - Development tasks are currently managed through **OpenProject**, which is more suitable for PMs than for developers.
 - This results in disjointed workflows, weak integration with version control, and lack of proper branching or merge request tracking.
 
-### 2. Technological Stagnation
+### ❌ Technological Stagnation
 - The tech stack remains focused on traditional web-based casino game development.
 - There's minimal effort to explore newer tools, platforms, or game engine advancements.
 - Modern game architecture and optimization practices are underutilized.
 
-### 3. Single-Developer Workflow Model
+### ❌ Single-Developer Workflow Model
 - Most games are built by a single developer from start to finish.
 - There is limited collaboration, peer review, or code reuse.
 - Knowledge silos form, and shared technical standards are difficult to enforce.
@@ -27,7 +28,10 @@ The Development team is responsible for implementing game features, integrating
 
 ## ✅ Proposed Improvements
 
-### 1. Use Gitea for Development-Centric Project Management
+### 🔨 Use Gitea for Development-Centric Project Management
+
+![git-report](../img/git-report.png)
+
 - Replace OpenProject with **Gitea** for handling:
   - Git repositories
   - Issue tracking
@@ -35,14 +39,16 @@ The Development team is responsible for implementing game features, integrating
   - Pull requests and code reviews
 - This enables a more efficient and transparent development workflow.
 
-### 2. Modernize Game Development Practices
+### ⚙️ Modernize Game Development Practices
 - Encourage the team to:
   - Stay updated on current engine and framework capabilities (e.g., Unity, Cocos Creator, WebAssembly)
   - Learn and apply advanced architecture patterns: modularity, ECS, DI, plugin systems
   - Utilize tooling like **profilers**, **linting**, **CI/CD**, and **debugging environments**
 - Dedicate R&D time to explore new platforms and technologies (e.g., mobile-native, multiplayer systems)
 
-### 3. Shift Toward Collaborative Game Development
+![engines](../img/engines.png)
+
+### 🤝 Shift Toward Collaborative Game Development
 - Build small, multi-developer teams for selected projects.
 - Promote practices such as:
   - Code review and pair programming
@@ -50,6 +56,8 @@ The Development team is responsible for implementing game features, integrating
   - Technical leadership and mentoring roles
 - This encourages long-term scalability and continuous team learning.
 
+![game-dev-team](../img/game-dev-team.jpg)
+
 ---
 
 By transforming the Development team’s process, toolset, and structure, the studio can better adapt to changing market needs, improve internal efficiency, and prepare for larger and more ambitious titles.

docs/07-references.md

@@ -1,129 +1,197 @@
 ---
-sidebar_position: 6
----
 
-# References
+## sidebar\_position: 6
+
+# 📚 References
 
 The following sources and case studies support the concepts and challenges discussed in this proposal. They highlight real-world examples where workflow, collaboration, or documentation practices had a significant impact on project success or failure.
 
 ---
 
-## 1. **Final Fantasy XIV – The Flower Pot Performance Issue**  
-**Topic:** Technical misalignment between teams leading to unintended performance problems  
+## 1. 🌸 **Final Fantasy XIV – The Flower Pot Performance Issue**
 
-**Summary:**  
-In Final Fantasy XIV, a seemingly simple feature—adding decorative flower pots to player housing—caused unexpected performance drops. The root cause was a lack of technical alignment between the **UI team** and the **engine/rendering team**. Each flower pot used the **same high-complexity shader** originally designed for **player characters**, drastically increasing the rendering load when multiple pots were placed.  
+![ffixv](./img/ffxiv.png)
+
+**🔧 Topic:** Technical misalignment between teams leading to unintended performance problems
+
+**📝 Summary:**
+In Final Fantasy XIV, a seemingly simple feature—adding decorative flower pots to player housing—caused unexpected performance drops. The root cause was a lack of technical alignment between the **UI team** and the **engine/rendering team**. Each flower pot used the **same high-complexity shader** originally designed for **player characters**, drastically increasing the rendering load when multiple pots were placed.
 
 Although both teams produced high-quality work independently, their lack of shared technical constraints or collaborative review caused a massive increase in draw calls and shader complexity—resulting in degraded performance.
 
-**Lesson:**  
+**💡 Lesson:**
 This case illustrates that **two well-executed features built in isolation can combine to create a major issue**. Without shared technical planning, documentation alignment, or early review, even simple systems can clash in costly ways. Cross-team collaboration and engine-awareness are critical, especially when reusing core systems.
 
-## 2. **Anthem – Design Vision vs. Technical Reality**  
-**Topic:** Unrealistic design expectations and lack of technical alignment  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 2. 🚀 **Anthem – Design Vision vs. Technical Reality**
+
+![anthem](./img/anthem.png)
+
+**🎯 Topic:** Unrealistic design expectations and lack of technical alignment
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 During early development, the design team for *Anthem* envisioned a world with **four large explorable cities**, each with unique environments, quests, and NPC ecosystems. This was part of their ambition to create a living, dynamic sci-fi world. However, the team failed to properly validate whether this vision was technically feasible in the chosen engine (Frostbite)—an engine known to be inflexible and poorly suited for large-scale RPG world-building.
 
 As development progressed, it became clear that:
-- The engine **could not support multiple large city hubs** due to memory constraints, loading issues, and performance bottlenecks.
-- There was **no clear communication** between designers and engine programmers early enough to adapt the design accordingly.
-- Instead of iterating or compromising gradually, the team had to **cut the entire plan down to a single city (Fort Tarsis)** late in development.
+
+* The engine **could not support multiple large city hubs** due to memory constraints, loading issues, and performance bottlenecks.
+* There was **no clear communication** between designers and engine programmers early enough to adapt the design accordingly.
+* Instead of iterating or compromising gradually, the team had to **cut the entire plan down to a single city (Fort Tarsis)** late in development.
 
 This resulted in:
-- Wasted development time and resources
-- Broken expectations for both the design team and leadership
-- A final product that felt much smaller and more static than initially promised
 
-**Lesson:**  
+* Wasted development time and resources
+* Broken expectations for both the design team and leadership
+* A final product that felt much smaller and more static than initially promised
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
 This highlights the risk of building ambitious game designs in isolation without consulting engineering or testing feasibility early. **Good design ideas are only successful when grounded in technical reality and validated collaboratively** across departments.
 
-## 3. **Hades – Success Through Iteration and Cross-Team Collaboration**  
-**Topic:** Effective design-development alignment and agile workflow  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 3. 🔥 **Hades – Success Through Iteration and Cross-Team Collaboration**
+
+![hades](./img/hades.jpg)
+
+**🔄 Topic:** Effective design-development alignment and agile workflow
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 *Hades*, developed by Supergiant Games, is widely regarded as a model of modern indie game development. Despite its smaller team size and budget, Hades achieved critical acclaim through an **iterative, transparent, and collaborative development process**.
 
 Key success factors included:
-- **Tight collaboration between design, art, narrative, and engineering**, with regular feedback loops
-- Early and ongoing use of **playable prototypes** to validate mechanics and pacing
-- Clear, living documentation for gameplay systems, character dialogue structure, and progression logic
-- A deliberately scoped, modular design that allowed gradual content expansion without risking system collapse
-- Use of **early access** as a structured feedback and testing phase, enabling the team to refine systems in real time
+
+* **Tight collaboration between design, art, narrative, and engineering**, with regular feedback loops
+* Early and ongoing use of **playable prototypes** to validate mechanics and pacing
+* Clear, living documentation for gameplay systems, character dialogue structure, and progression logic
+* A deliberately scoped, modular design that allowed gradual content expansion without risking system collapse
+* Use of **early access** as a structured feedback and testing phase, enabling the team to refine systems in real time
 
 Unlike large AAA productions, the Hades team did not rely on isolated handoffs or waterfall-style pipelines. Instead, they embraced a **shared responsibility model**, where all departments were involved in shaping and refining the game throughout development.
 
-**Lesson:**  
+**💡 Lesson:**
 Hades demonstrates that **small, well-aligned teams with open communication and flexible planning can outperform larger studios** when the workflow encourages iteration, ownership, and cross-discipline collaboration.
 
-## 4. **Cyberpunk 2077 – Broken Integration from Siloed Development**  
-**Topic:** Teams worked in parallel without cohesive integration planning  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 4. 🧩 **Cyberpunk 2077 – Broken Integration from Siloed Development**
+
+![2077](./img/2077.png)
+
+**⚠️ Topic:** Teams worked in parallel without cohesive integration planning
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 CD Projekt Red developed Cyberpunk 2077 with multiple teams working on quests, AI, open world, and cinematic systems—but in silos. These teams often lacked synchronization, resulting in systems that didn’t align or integrate properly.
 
-**Issues:**  
-- AI and quest logic didn't cooperate  
-- Mid-project engine upgrades broke existing features  
-- QA was brought in late, unable to test systems holistically  
+**⚠️ Issues:**
 
-**Lesson:**  
+* AI and quest logic didn't cooperate
+* Mid-project engine upgrades broke existing features
+* QA was brought in late, unable to test systems holistically
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
 Cross-department collaboration and technical validation are essential throughout development—not just at the end. Integration must be a continuous process.
 
-## 5. **Destiny – Tooling and Team Isolation**  
-**Topic:** Technical silos caused by poor documentation and disconnected pipelines  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 5. 🛠️ **Destiny – Tooling and Team Isolation**
+
+![destiny](./img/destiny.png)
+
+**🧰 Topic:** Technical silos caused by poor documentation and disconnected pipelines
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 During Destiny's development, different departments at Bungie created custom tools for world-building, scripting, and narrative. These tools were incompatible, and teams lacked shared documentation.
 
-**Issues:**  
-- Writers and level designers could not see how content interacted  
-- Integration only happened late in production  
-- Bugs and mismatches emerged due to isolated testing  
+**⚠️ Issues:**
 
-**Lesson:**  
+* Writers and level designers could not see how content interacted
+* Integration only happened late in production
+* Bugs and mismatches emerged due to isolated testing
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
 Tool fragmentation is a form of siloing. Cross-functional infrastructure and shared documentation are vital to avoid disconnects.
 
-## 6. **Mass Effect: Andromeda – Lack of Shared Animation Direction**  
-**Topic:** Disconnected animation, mocap, and narrative pipelines  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 6. 🎭 **Mass Effect: Andromeda – Lack of Shared Animation Direction**
+
+![andromeda](./img/andromeda.png)
+
+**🎙️ Topic:** Disconnected animation, mocap, and narrative pipelines
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 Andromeda's awkward facial animations stemmed from narrative, mocap, and animation teams working in isolation. Voice work was recorded before final scripts, and there was no cohesive review process.
 
-**Issues:**  
-- Animations looked robotic and lacked emotional tone  
-- Scenes lacked consistency across performance layers  
-- Rework was minimal due to time pressure and workflow friction  
+**⚠️ Issues:**
 
-**Lesson:**  
+* Animations looked robotic and lacked emotional tone
+* Scenes lacked consistency across performance layers
+* Rework was minimal due to time pressure and workflow friction
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
 Narrative-heavy games require real-time collaboration between performance teams. Emotion, timing, and scene context must be shared.
 
-## 7. **Battlefield 2042 – Disconnected Studio Teams and Late QA**  
-**Topic:** Cross-studio development with poor synchronization  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 7. 🌍 **Battlefield 2042 – Disconnected Studio Teams and Late QA**
+
+![2042](./img/2042.png)
+
+**🌐 Topic:** Cross-studio development with poor synchronization
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 Battlefield 2042 was developed across multiple global studios. Each worked on isolated systems—vehicles, maps, backend—without aligned testing or documentation standards.
 
-**Issues:**  
-- QA joined late and couldn’t test integration properly  
-- Features built in silos didn’t mesh (e.g., scale vs. pacing)  
-- Bugs and performance issues overwhelmed the launch  
+**⚠️ Issues:**
 
-**Lesson:**  
+* QA joined late and couldn’t test integration properly
+* Features built in silos didn’t mesh (e.g., scale vs. pacing)
+* Bugs and performance issues overwhelmed the launch
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
 Cross-studio projects demand tight coordination, aligned pipelines, and early QA involvement. Silos at this scale are extremely costly.
 
-## 8. **God of War (2018) – Unified Creative Vision and Technical Collaboration**  
-**Studio:** Santa Monica Studio  
-**Topic:** Cross-departmental cohesion and long-term planning  
+---
 
-**Summary:**  
+## 8. ⚔️ **God of War (2018) – Unified Creative Vision and Technical Collaboration**
+
+![gow](./img/gow.png)
+
+**🏆 Studio:** Santa Monica Studio
+**🎨 Topic:** Cross-departmental cohesion and long-term planning
+
+**📝 Summary:**
 God of War's reboot was a massive technical and creative success. The project succeeded because of a **strong creative director (Cory Barlog)**, early alignment between departments, and a clear long-term vision shared by everyone.
 
-**Success Factors:**  
-- Cinematic, level, and gameplay teams met regularly  
-- The engine team worked closely with animation and camera designers  
-- A living design document guided production across all stages  
-- Team retrospectives were used frequently to resolve tension and misalignment  
+**🏅 Success Factors:**
 
-**Lesson:**  
+* Cinematic, level, and gameplay teams met regularly
+* The engine team worked closely with animation and camera designers
+* A living design document guided production across all stages
+* Team retrospectives were used frequently to resolve tension and misalignment
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
 A strong unifying vision and proactive collaboration between disciplines allow for ambitious features (like the no-cut camera) to be executed successfully.
+
+---
+
+## 9. 🧠 **Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Build the Team Before the Game**
+
+![sandfall](./img/sandfall.png)
+
+**🎮 Studio:** Sandfall Interactive
+**👥 Topic:** Team-first approach to pre-production and creative alignment
+
+**📝 Summary:**
+Before writing code or producing content, Sandfall Interactive focused on **building the right team culture and shared vision** for *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33*. The studio spent a significant portion of pre-production on hiring, team alignment, and defining the creative identity of the project—ensuring everyone understood not just the tasks, but the game’s emotional and thematic goals.
+
+**🏅 Success Factors:**
+
+* Hired staff based on shared creative direction and long-term fit
+* Defined the vision and tone of the game collaboratively before full development
+* Aligned design, art, and engineering on what kind of experience they wanted to create
+* Reduced rework by starting with a unified foundation
+
+**💡 Lesson:**
+Establishing shared purpose and creative clarity across all departments **before development begins** creates long-term stability, faster iteration, and fewer directional shifts mid-project.