mxd113-blog

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Asset Management Team Postmortem

Wait There’s More is a month-long game prototyping project were our team designed and built a prototype spending a minimum of 10 hours per week on asset creation and management. The game we designed and created is an infinite twin-stick shooter where the player traverses waves of enemies in heaven, hell, and earth depending on the amount of health they have at the end of each wave. During this project, we encountered both many struggles and successes as a team. Our team was very successful at creating art assets to have an aesthetically pleasing environment, developing and designing the core of the system to the game experience, and integrating everything into the engine to create an accurate representation of our team's final vision of the project.

But this success did not come without failure or struggles, as a whole our team was not successful in communicating with our stakeholder and meeting their data needs at presentations, overall we struggled with our process when it came to tracking hours and creating proper documentation out of the gate,  Last we had some team communication issues and problems with how we kept in check each other's work.  

Pros

The pros of this month were that we were able to release a game this month. Another positive outcome of this month of development is that we were able to develop on multiple skills from the roles we were assigned. Another pro is that we were able to build communication as a team and class.

Cons

The cons of this month were that there were a lot of communication issues. This was resolved during first two weeks of the development process. Another con of this project was that there were a lot of documentation issues at the beginning of the project near the end all of this got resolved. Another con is that there was conflict at the beginning of the project. This was resolved within the first day of it showing up.

Reflections

One thing we can do to improve our process if we were to make another game is to focus more on the documentation at the start of the development cycle. This is to reduce multiple iterations and to focus more on the tasks of the game. Another thing we can improve on is our communication. More communication would help the development cycle of the game and will help to reduce roadblocks. One last thing we can do to improve is to focus on the tasks and to track down our progress more diligently to help the development cycle.

Works Cited

Survival Shooter Tutorial. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/survival-shooter-tutorial-40756

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Asset Management Personal Postmortem

During this month I was the Lead Producer in my class for this project. My role as producer was to make sure everyone was on task, the scope for the game reflected the capacity plan, and to make sure we delivered a finished product. With this being said, this month was a challenge to complete a game within the span of a month.

The beginning of this project was a rough start. It was a lot of planning and conflict when assigning roles. The conflict with assigning roles was resolved the day it came up and the rest of the week was planning of features, assigning tasks, scheduling meetings, and making a schedule for the game. The first presentation we had didn't go well because of the documentation issues. It was my fault and I resolved the issues with it within the week. The second week was also an issue with communication and documentation and this was also resolved within the week. As the month progressed the issues in our teams were resolved and we were able to submit a finished product.

There was a lot of communication issues and documentation issues at the beginning but everything got resolved as the month progressed. Overall, I enjoyed this experience. I learned a lot more about being a producer and how to upkeep documentation. I was also able to experiment with new project management software like Jira. In the end, we were able to produce a project at the end of the month.

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Prototyping and Content Creation Personal Postmortem

During this month my classmates and I were tasked to work together and complete a game. This is my personal postmortem of the development cycle.

Personal Postmortem

 What went right

            During my time in this month, there were certain aspects of the game development cycle that went right. One thing my team and I did right was we set hours throughout the month where we would get together and update each other on how the progress of the game was going. We each had our own individual work to do and during these weekly meeting would give updates on our progress and we would converse about future plans for the game. Another thing that went well was that we were able to produce a playable build so we can get it tested by fellow students. There is an event hosted every month by the production capstone called the Student Game Expo where we were able to showcase this early build of the game and get feedback on it. Lastly, another thing that went well was that there was a lot of organization done by our producer. He had team documents set up and everything was easily accessible and easy to use.

 What went wrong

            Even though there were multiple good aspects of this development cycle there were issues that arose during the development. One of those being that there was some communication issue between everyone. Even though we had weekly meetings the times between there were dead where there was little communication. Another issue was that there was a waste of resources. I was set to do art for the team and for the first week and a half I had nothing assigned to me. When I checked the task list there were assignments for me but everything was completely dependent on other work from other tasks. I finally got some work to do during the second half of week two.

 Conclusion

            In conclusion, overall this game has taught me a lot about the development cycle of a game. There were a lot of things that went wrong that hindered the development cycle that added more crunch time but there were good aspects where we got together and were able to go tasks done.

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Prototyping and Content Creation Team Postmortem

During this month my classmates and I were tasked to work together and complete a game.  This is the team postmortem we made for the game.

The MarTIM Postmortem

  ●      What went wrong?

  Communication

           Communication was one of the bigger struggles we encountered though we always would meet at least once a week, we were unable to use asynchronous communication methods effectively and this caused confusion and slowed production as we would be out of communication for long periods of time that was intended.

   Lack of Vision Coherence

A lack of a cohesive vision caused confusion between the team and in the end, led us a bit astray from the what the original products gameplay and mechanic were supposed to consist of. Some of the design team and art team also suffered from this and art assets were made in a way that initially caused the design team more restrictions that was intended though we managed to get on the same page in the end.

   Resource Management

           We suffered a lot from SourceTree in the beginning. When we tried to upload our individual work to the cloud, those changes conflicted with each other. After our dev team took charge of uploading, things became more organized.

 ●      What went right?

  Jamming

As a team, we decided to have a jam session on Mondays before submissions were due.  The result was a decisive increase in productivity and team cohesion.  The value of working in the same location was not lost on us.  The benefits of synchronous communication and being able to go back and forth on topics where we could look each other’s shoulder allowed us to get most of our systems to a presentable state with a more unified vision.

  Solid Level

Originally, we had wanted to do multiple small levels, but as a team, we decided to go another route. We put aside a solid day and sat together in a meeting room in order to reevaluate the decision, and worked together to instead create one fully functional level for our game. This level is longer and more complete than the original levels we had thought about building first, and than the two levels that we had at the start of week 2. This was a very well done collaborative decision made by the entire team that lead to the profit of our build.

Implemented Feedback

We received a lot of feedback both externally and internally during our development of MarTIM.  With the great opportunity to present at the Student Game Expo, we were able to get a playable build into the hands of players and collect valuable feedback. Reception of our game in its rough, unfinished state was far better than expected and gave us clarity on what aspects were fun and what aspects needed more focus. The rocket fist was an instant hit and an unintended bug that affected traversal was an unlikely source of praise. The feedback we received in class was equally valuable and led to us bringing back a planned feature we had scrapped earlier on in the project’s development: oxygen.

   ●      Conclusion

Overall the time that we put into this game has provided many insights to what it will take to properly handle making a game. From the issues we had with communication we were able to address these issues by implementing a Jam session on Monday’s before turn ins. This way any miscommunications or misunderstandings could be taken care of and squared away before turn-in. We also suffered from the lack of vision cohesion. It became apparent that the separate teams had different needs that weren’t apparent to the other teams and this caused issues through development. Yet, again thanks to the jam sessions and weekly meetings we could refocus and properly address the needs of the teams and individual members. Resource Management was also an issue since many members had little experience with SourceTree. Thankfully over the month we collectively became more comfortable with the SourceTree system. The great source that was feedback also became an important piece of the development cycle. Continued feedback throughout development, helped add many features and in the end improved our final product. We learned much from this game and we hope to take the lessons and experience we gathered to our future products.

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Methods and the User Experience

Throughout this month I learned a lot of valuable information about conducting game tests and learning about how different variable can affect the results of a test. We were also assigned two books to read, those being Measuring User Engagement by Mounia Lalmas, Heather O'Brien and Elad Yom-Tov and the book Human Factors in Simple and Complex Systems by Robert W. Proctor and Trisha Van Zandt. There are also multiple ways to get information from testing that does not only include surveys. We started the month with learning about the many different ways of testing games to gain feedback. Within the first week, we were assigned a game to test and collect information  Within the second week of class we had a survey and had gone to the local school events to have people playtest the game and fill out the survey to gain feedback. Overall, what the game was lacking was a tutorial level to allow new players to learn the mechanics of the game, better UI so that it is clear what the player is doing and the content of the game was lackluster because of the fact that there were was actually not a lot of content. At the end of the month, we gathered our finding and conducted a power point and a final test report to show what we have found through the testing process.

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Project and Team Management

Project and Team Management is a has become to me a valuable learning experience throughout this month of the class. What I have learned and done in this class is exactly what I expected it to be, something that would improve my skill upon leading a team or project and allowing me to properly handle a team in all of its aspects. I was able to learn how to properly balance, budget, account for risks, find solutions for those risks, and assert a proper quality for my product during this month of managing a project. The beginning of this course started with me planning a project and creating a project definition. During this time I was able to start a project that I’ve been wanting to start since the beginning of my degree. Then after that phase we went on to find the risks that could appear in the project and how to confront and solve them with minimal impact on out project. Afterwards I went on to plan a budget for that project, which opened my eye to knowing how much it would take for me to produce my product. Also in between planning this project I was able to learn about the 6 different leadership styles. I also went on to take different tests like the DISC Personality test and the MBTI 16 Personality test. I also learned about the different conflict resolution styles that I could use to solve a conflict and took a test to see which one best fitted me. This month has been a lot of Excel Sheets and countless hours of work to learn how to proper run a project and a team. And this new found skill is something that will defiantly benefit me on my road of becoming a video game producer.

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Research in Team Dynamics

Over the course of this month I learned a lot about Team Dynamics. From learning how to function efficiently as a team and how to manage a team, this class provided me valuable information that I would need in the foreseeable future. Also for this month I was able to work in a team to make a game. Even though the game is something small, we were able to make something playable by the end of this month. I was also able to gain valuable team experience because this was the first time I’ve worked in a team to produce something. My role in this team was to create the textures for the assets. Basically, the game is a Capture the Flag type game where the basis of it is underwater and the teams were sharks and dolphins. Overall, I learned a lot from this class and I’m happy with what I got out of it. Over the next few months, I hope to use what I’ve learned from this class and what I’ve already have know about modeling and improve upon the skills I have. This class has been most enjoyable and I hope that I can keep communication with the classmates that I was able to meet and also keep in touch with the teacher.

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Deep down, we all know our worth We just need someone to truly love us first

B. (2013, May 04). Being As An Ocean - "Nothing, Save The Power They're Given" (Official Video). Retrieved October 16, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf-vDgFN30c 

These song lyrics are inspiration to me because it help me realize my self worth. They made me realize that I am worth more that I perceived myself to be. Before I had very little self worth because of issues I face in childhood but these lyrics help me over come that.

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God, I've made mistakes but my mistakes haven't made me.

Being As An Ocean "The Poets Cry For More" [Advertisement]. (2014, May 2). Retrieved

      October 8, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOuvpBqQBh0

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Beginning

This is the beginning of my journey through my master program. I just recently graduated with a Bachelors in Game Art and I am more than ready to begin and complete this Masters. What I had planned to specialize while working on my bachelors degree was to be a prop artists but now that I have graduated I would like to broaden my horizon on the 3D art industry. This is what I would like to accomplish while I work on this degree and afterwards too. I wish to improve on the skills I have already acquired from my previous degree and better myself as an 3D artist. There are also somethings that I would like to work on specifically. I want to improve on Zbrush sculpting skills. I want to learn more about anatomy and proportions so I can better improve upon my character sculpting skills. I want to improve upon my Substance Designer skills, understand how to use every node. And lastly I want to work on more stylized textures and improve on this skill through using sculpting and baking to get a lot of detail into the model. As for specifically this program, I hope to learn how to manage a team of artists, designers, and developers to create a game that people will enjoy.  Also sometime within the program I would like to look for internships so that I can get some studio experience with working on props and/or textures, or just be able to shadow someone who has been working in the game industry for a extended period of time. One of the goals that I hope to achieve in this industry is to work for my favorite company, Blizzard Entertainment. Ultimately, my main goal is to be a lead artists at a triples A game company.