Thoughts on IT project listing appreciated
The following is what I'm looking to post to job sites like guru.com, eLance, and the like. I would appreciate feedback (especially from programmers) on how to improve it. Is it good or bad? Is something unclear that should be cleared up? Is there something I should add or subtract? Is there any wording that should be improved and, if so, what and how? As the job sites require you to pick between specific price ranges (see below) when listing a project, what price level should I list for this project on the job sites? If they were done individually or together, what price levels do you think I should list the design, website, and client application projects? The following are the price ranges on guru.com.
Less than $250
Between $250 and $500
Between $500 and $1,000
Between $1,000 and $2,500
Between $2,500 and $5,000
Between $5,000 and $10,000
Between $10,000 and $25,000
Over $25,000
Thanks in advance!
Scott Jensen
***
Project listing title: Analyst needed for Requirements Gathering for multiplayer web game
I am seeking an English-speaking analyst to help me with the requirements gathering stage for an online poker site and writing up the project listing for the design and implementation stages for placement on job sites like guru.com, eLance, and the like. The following is the current project listing for the combined design and implementation stages.
The poker site will be a NON-gambling totally-free freeroll poker-tournaments-only site. This means the public needs to only register with the poker site to play in its tournaments and win prizes. It will need a website and a downloadable client. The only form of poker played is No-Limit Texas Hold'em. All interested bidders go to and look at AbsolutePoker.com. The following is how I want mine to differ from AP.
WEBSITE
The homepage gives some text and then a button underneath. This button will start the download of the client and take the visitor through a registration process. No credit card processing needs to be done since no money deposits will be accepted. Before downloading the client, it has a check-off box for putting a start-up icon on the player's desktop and the default setting has it checked. The icon will be the poker site's logo.
The website will also contain an online forum for registered players only and the forum discussion threads will sport Google Adsense banner ads from which to generate revenue. There will be other standard webpages, such as "About Us", "For Advertisers", and "Contact".
The theme of the website will be sea blue, blood-in-the-water, and Great White Sharks. The Great White Sharks looking like the computer-animated grinning one in Pixar's "Finding Nemo", but leaner, less cute, and battle-scarred.
LOBBY INTERFACE
When starting up the client application, the client connects to the servers and an interface screen appears on their desktop. In comparison to AP's, my interface is to be very simple. Three prominent buttons. One for an every-ten-minute unlimited-players poker tournament, next one below for a 99-player tournament (eleven tables), and next one for a 9-player tournament (one table).
Underneath the above, there will be a treasure chest (overflowing with gold coins and other booty) icon button that will pop up a box and take them to their account. Players must give their user name and password to access their account. This account tells of the prizes they have won and when the order was made to have the prizes mailed/shipped to them.
Underneath the treasure chest button will be buttons for special tournaments, such as one for three every-eight-hours "Final 99" Saturday tournaments for all those that previously made it to the final 99 spots in any of the unlimited-players tournaments (including those that made the final 99 at a previous "Final 99" tournament) and one for three every-eight-hours Sunday tournaments for just volunteer helpers (forum moderators, programmers, etc.). When clicking on either of the above two buttons, they call up another box that has buttons for each of their next three tournaments and their start times. However, these box buttons will be gray and inactive until the player has won entry into such tournaments. Once the player has won entry, the buttons will change to gold and shine.
POKER TABLE INTERFACE
When the player clicks on one of the tournament buttons, it will take them to their table. For the every-time-minute unlimited-players and special tournaments, a countdown clock will be shown in the middle of the table to tell how long until the tournament starts. For the 99-player and 9-player tournaments, a countdown meter will show how many players are yet needed before the tournament can start.
Now it is important that you view the AbsolutePoker.com's table interface to understand the following.
+ The default setting is for the enlarged version of the table interface. Player can enlarge this one further and it will then fit their computer screen. No multiple table option will be given. Players cannot enter into more than one tournament at a time.
+ As is done at AP, the interface must move to the front of the screen when it is the player's turn to play. In other words, if the player is looking at a website and the poker table isn't in the foreground, it will move there when it is the player's turn to make a decision in their game.
+ Expanded chatbox. The chatbox will take up the left half of the interface. Unlike AP, chat will continue to be allowed when someone has gone all-in. By right-clicking on the player's table name in the table graphic, players can block chat from that player. If a player's chat has been blocked by ten players, the tenth and later blocks result in the last one hundred lines of the text in the chatbox being sent to moderators. Moderators can suspend players as set by a suspension policy and even permanently ban them. Suspensions and bans are of their user name and ISP number.
+ Reduced table graphic. The poker table graphic will be in the upper right quarter of the interface and will have a felt-green table on a sea-blue floor. It will not have any of AP's space fillers, such as the side tables for drinks, dealer chip tray, chairs, avatars (player table names only), or chip graphics (just numerical dollar amounts). Sound effects will give an audio assist to players on progress of hands and be the sounds of cards and chips. The player's cards will always be bottom center and much larger than the others. When a player folds their cards, their cards will shrink a bit and the white of the cards will go gray. When someone else at the table folds their cards, their cards disappear. Tables will seat a maximum of nine players. When a table loses a player, their "seat" disappears and players are automatically more equally spaced around the table. When a player is added to the table, they will be added on the "dealer button". When a side pot occurs, lines will be drawn to the players in that side pot so players know who is in which side pot. Different colored lines for different side pots. Newer side pot lines overlapping older side pot lines. Players can right-click on player's name and report what they consider to be an offensive player table name.
+ Recall button. In the upper left corner of the table graphic, there will be a "R" button. Just like with AP, it will call up a table interface that will show the last finished hand. Unlike AP, there will be two rows of control buttons. Like AP, the top row will advance the player through the hands. Unlike AP, there will be a bottom row and these buttons will advance the player through the bids and folds within each hand. This information is to be gathered by the client on the player's computer as play progresses without need to get anything special from the servers. When the player gets knocked out of or wins a tournament, the player will be asked if they want their tournament history stored. If so, it will be saved and an icon for it put on their desktop. When viewing a recorded tournament history file, players can view it using the recall table interface or a text version of their tournament play. The text version copied so they can post portions of it on the online forums.
+ Card controls. In the lower right quarter of the interface will be the card controls. These will be like AP's except there will also be buttons for "Half Pot", "Pot", and "All-in". Underneath the buttons, there will be a card odds calculator and a pot odds calculator that will always give the current odds at that moment in the hand. For unlimited, special, and 99-player tournaments before they are reduced down to a final table, players will be informed of the average chip stack in their tournament, number of players left in tournament, and, for only unlimited and special tournaments, number of players left until next prize level. Underneath these tournament stats will be a separate scroll-able chatbox-like display that will give the table history since the player has joined that table ... unlike AP which gives table history in their players' chatbox. Underneath the table history box and only for unlimited and special tournaments, there will be a button that will call up a box that will tell the prizes given away in that tournament.
+ Banner ads. When a player folds their cards in a hand, everything in the above paragraph about card controls will disappear. This is a common idiot-proof feature that AP and all other poker sites use to prevent players from thinking they are still in a hand. However, mine will not show a blank spot but show banner ads. The banner ads will be downloaded into a special file in the client program and then the ads will rotate being displayed each time the player folds their cards. I must have the ability to move such ads into and out of the folder and this activity done when a player starts up the client and connects to the network. In addition to normal banner ads, there needs to be ones that automatically polls the forums to advertise a random selection of the hottest threads and latest still-active polls with their titles hyperlinked, which if clicked on will call up their web browser and take them to the thread or poll. For 99-player and 9-player tournaments, I must have the ability to exempt certain banner ads from appearing in them.
+ Prizes given for the every-ten-minute unlimited-players tournaments will be additional starting chips for their next every-ten-minute unlimited-players tournament and, if they are one of the remaining 99 players, free entry into a future special "Final 99" Saturday tournament. More additional starting chips given with each prize level achieved. If they make the final 99 in an every-ten-minute unlimited-players tournament again before entering a special "Final 99" Saturday tournament, they get an another entry into still another future special "Final 99" Saturday tournament. Players with "Final 99" entries do not have to use them up that coming Saturday but can save them for later use.
+ When a player is knocked out of a tournament, a box will pop up that tells their rank placement and, for those in unlimited and special tournaments, any prize(s) they have won.
BACK-END
I am seeking an ease-of-use behind-the-scene infrastructure. Something along a fill-in-the-form and check-the-box type of system. Easy for a layman to do things like change website content, change prize levels, prizes, add/subtract banner ads on the client application, add/subtract special tournaments, etc. When players report an offensive player's table name, an alert will be sent to moderators. Moderators can suspend a player's account until the player changes their table name. The back-end also needs to automatically extracts demographics and psychographics from player registration and compile them into marketing data. It also needs to automatically send a simple email to product placement advertisers to inform them to mail/ship specific prizes to specific players.
NETWORK
It must be a secure network. During its beta, the network will be relatively small. When it moves out of beta, it must be able to handle potentially tens (if not hundreds) of millions of players for the unlimited-players tournaments.
DOCUMENTATION
Everything must be thoroughly documented so later programmers will have an easy time developing the poker site further.
PAYMENT
20% upon acceptance of bid, 20% upon acceptance of designs, 20% upon acceptance of website, 20% upon acceptance of client application, and 20% upon conclusion of beta.
Employer questions:
(1) What have you done along these lines before? Please give links.
(2) How would you do this job?
(3) How long will each stage take and what penalty will you agree to if those deadlines are not met?
***
As for specifically in regards to the requirements gathering job...
CONSTRUCTION
It has been suggested that the above can be all done in Flash and embedded in a Drupal site for ease of editing the website content. I am open to this and other suggestions on how to best do the above.
Another suggestion has been to break the project down into two or three smaller projects. One for the design stage, one for the website, and one for the downloadable client. If broken down into more than one project, I will need a project listing for each.
PAYMENT
50% upon acceptance of bid for this requirements gathering job and 50% upon acceptance of enhanced project listing(s).
Less than $250
Between $250 and $500
Between $500 and $1,000
Between $1,000 and $2,500
Between $2,500 and $5,000
Between $5,000 and $10,000
Between $10,000 and $25,000
Over $25,000
Thanks in advance!
Scott Jensen
***
Project listing title: Analyst needed for Requirements Gathering for multiplayer web game
I am seeking an English-speaking analyst to help me with the requirements gathering stage for an online poker site and writing up the project listing for the design and implementation stages for placement on job sites like guru.com, eLance, and the like. The following is the current project listing for the combined design and implementation stages.
The poker site will be a NON-gambling totally-free freeroll poker-tournaments-only site. This means the public needs to only register with the poker site to play in its tournaments and win prizes. It will need a website and a downloadable client. The only form of poker played is No-Limit Texas Hold'em. All interested bidders go to and look at AbsolutePoker.com. The following is how I want mine to differ from AP.
WEBSITE
The homepage gives some text and then a button underneath. This button will start the download of the client and take the visitor through a registration process. No credit card processing needs to be done since no money deposits will be accepted. Before downloading the client, it has a check-off box for putting a start-up icon on the player's desktop and the default setting has it checked. The icon will be the poker site's logo.
The website will also contain an online forum for registered players only and the forum discussion threads will sport Google Adsense banner ads from which to generate revenue. There will be other standard webpages, such as "About Us", "For Advertisers", and "Contact".
The theme of the website will be sea blue, blood-in-the-water, and Great White Sharks. The Great White Sharks looking like the computer-animated grinning one in Pixar's "Finding Nemo", but leaner, less cute, and battle-scarred.
LOBBY INTERFACE
When starting up the client application, the client connects to the servers and an interface screen appears on their desktop. In comparison to AP's, my interface is to be very simple. Three prominent buttons. One for an every-ten-minute unlimited-players poker tournament, next one below for a 99-player tournament (eleven tables), and next one for a 9-player tournament (one table).
Underneath the above, there will be a treasure chest (overflowing with gold coins and other booty) icon button that will pop up a box and take them to their account. Players must give their user name and password to access their account. This account tells of the prizes they have won and when the order was made to have the prizes mailed/shipped to them.
Underneath the treasure chest button will be buttons for special tournaments, such as one for three every-eight-hours "Final 99" Saturday tournaments for all those that previously made it to the final 99 spots in any of the unlimited-players tournaments (including those that made the final 99 at a previous "Final 99" tournament) and one for three every-eight-hours Sunday tournaments for just volunteer helpers (forum moderators, programmers, etc.). When clicking on either of the above two buttons, they call up another box that has buttons for each of their next three tournaments and their start times. However, these box buttons will be gray and inactive until the player has won entry into such tournaments. Once the player has won entry, the buttons will change to gold and shine.
POKER TABLE INTERFACE
When the player clicks on one of the tournament buttons, it will take them to their table. For the every-time-minute unlimited-players and special tournaments, a countdown clock will be shown in the middle of the table to tell how long until the tournament starts. For the 99-player and 9-player tournaments, a countdown meter will show how many players are yet needed before the tournament can start.
Now it is important that you view the AbsolutePoker.com's table interface to understand the following.
+ The default setting is for the enlarged version of the table interface. Player can enlarge this one further and it will then fit their computer screen. No multiple table option will be given. Players cannot enter into more than one tournament at a time.
+ As is done at AP, the interface must move to the front of the screen when it is the player's turn to play. In other words, if the player is looking at a website and the poker table isn't in the foreground, it will move there when it is the player's turn to make a decision in their game.
+ Expanded chatbox. The chatbox will take up the left half of the interface. Unlike AP, chat will continue to be allowed when someone has gone all-in. By right-clicking on the player's table name in the table graphic, players can block chat from that player. If a player's chat has been blocked by ten players, the tenth and later blocks result in the last one hundred lines of the text in the chatbox being sent to moderators. Moderators can suspend players as set by a suspension policy and even permanently ban them. Suspensions and bans are of their user name and ISP number.
+ Reduced table graphic. The poker table graphic will be in the upper right quarter of the interface and will have a felt-green table on a sea-blue floor. It will not have any of AP's space fillers, such as the side tables for drinks, dealer chip tray, chairs, avatars (player table names only), or chip graphics (just numerical dollar amounts). Sound effects will give an audio assist to players on progress of hands and be the sounds of cards and chips. The player's cards will always be bottom center and much larger than the others. When a player folds their cards, their cards will shrink a bit and the white of the cards will go gray. When someone else at the table folds their cards, their cards disappear. Tables will seat a maximum of nine players. When a table loses a player, their "seat" disappears and players are automatically more equally spaced around the table. When a player is added to the table, they will be added on the "dealer button". When a side pot occurs, lines will be drawn to the players in that side pot so players know who is in which side pot. Different colored lines for different side pots. Newer side pot lines overlapping older side pot lines. Players can right-click on player's name and report what they consider to be an offensive player table name.
+ Recall button. In the upper left corner of the table graphic, there will be a "R" button. Just like with AP, it will call up a table interface that will show the last finished hand. Unlike AP, there will be two rows of control buttons. Like AP, the top row will advance the player through the hands. Unlike AP, there will be a bottom row and these buttons will advance the player through the bids and folds within each hand. This information is to be gathered by the client on the player's computer as play progresses without need to get anything special from the servers. When the player gets knocked out of or wins a tournament, the player will be asked if they want their tournament history stored. If so, it will be saved and an icon for it put on their desktop. When viewing a recorded tournament history file, players can view it using the recall table interface or a text version of their tournament play. The text version copied so they can post portions of it on the online forums.
+ Card controls. In the lower right quarter of the interface will be the card controls. These will be like AP's except there will also be buttons for "Half Pot", "Pot", and "All-in". Underneath the buttons, there will be a card odds calculator and a pot odds calculator that will always give the current odds at that moment in the hand. For unlimited, special, and 99-player tournaments before they are reduced down to a final table, players will be informed of the average chip stack in their tournament, number of players left in tournament, and, for only unlimited and special tournaments, number of players left until next prize level. Underneath these tournament stats will be a separate scroll-able chatbox-like display that will give the table history since the player has joined that table ... unlike AP which gives table history in their players' chatbox. Underneath the table history box and only for unlimited and special tournaments, there will be a button that will call up a box that will tell the prizes given away in that tournament.
+ Banner ads. When a player folds their cards in a hand, everything in the above paragraph about card controls will disappear. This is a common idiot-proof feature that AP and all other poker sites use to prevent players from thinking they are still in a hand. However, mine will not show a blank spot but show banner ads. The banner ads will be downloaded into a special file in the client program and then the ads will rotate being displayed each time the player folds their cards. I must have the ability to move such ads into and out of the folder and this activity done when a player starts up the client and connects to the network. In addition to normal banner ads, there needs to be ones that automatically polls the forums to advertise a random selection of the hottest threads and latest still-active polls with their titles hyperlinked, which if clicked on will call up their web browser and take them to the thread or poll. For 99-player and 9-player tournaments, I must have the ability to exempt certain banner ads from appearing in them.
+ Prizes given for the every-ten-minute unlimited-players tournaments will be additional starting chips for their next every-ten-minute unlimited-players tournament and, if they are one of the remaining 99 players, free entry into a future special "Final 99" Saturday tournament. More additional starting chips given with each prize level achieved. If they make the final 99 in an every-ten-minute unlimited-players tournament again before entering a special "Final 99" Saturday tournament, they get an another entry into still another future special "Final 99" Saturday tournament. Players with "Final 99" entries do not have to use them up that coming Saturday but can save them for later use.
+ When a player is knocked out of a tournament, a box will pop up that tells their rank placement and, for those in unlimited and special tournaments, any prize(s) they have won.
BACK-END
I am seeking an ease-of-use behind-the-scene infrastructure. Something along a fill-in-the-form and check-the-box type of system. Easy for a layman to do things like change website content, change prize levels, prizes, add/subtract banner ads on the client application, add/subtract special tournaments, etc. When players report an offensive player's table name, an alert will be sent to moderators. Moderators can suspend a player's account until the player changes their table name. The back-end also needs to automatically extracts demographics and psychographics from player registration and compile them into marketing data. It also needs to automatically send a simple email to product placement advertisers to inform them to mail/ship specific prizes to specific players.
NETWORK
It must be a secure network. During its beta, the network will be relatively small. When it moves out of beta, it must be able to handle potentially tens (if not hundreds) of millions of players for the unlimited-players tournaments.
DOCUMENTATION
Everything must be thoroughly documented so later programmers will have an easy time developing the poker site further.
PAYMENT
20% upon acceptance of bid, 20% upon acceptance of designs, 20% upon acceptance of website, 20% upon acceptance of client application, and 20% upon conclusion of beta.
Employer questions:
(1) What have you done along these lines before? Please give links.
(2) How would you do this job?
(3) How long will each stage take and what penalty will you agree to if those deadlines are not met?
***
As for specifically in regards to the requirements gathering job...
CONSTRUCTION
It has been suggested that the above can be all done in Flash and embedded in a Drupal site for ease of editing the website content. I am open to this and other suggestions on how to best do the above.
Another suggestion has been to break the project down into two or three smaller projects. One for the design stage, one for the website, and one for the downloadable client. If broken down into more than one project, I will need a project listing for each.
PAYMENT
50% upon acceptance of bid for this requirements gathering job and 50% upon acceptance of enhanced project listing(s).