This semester, with all projects previous to the current one, my team members have generally come to me when they'd complete a task. They'd ask for my approval, ensure that their work fit the goal of the game, and look for positive reinforcement.
The first reason for that is because, as producer, I track the tasks and progress that everyone makes. Though it's not necessarily the case, this has often given people the feeling that I'm somehow the one who they need approval from. The truth is that we should all be checking in with one another about whether our individual vision and work fit the end goal. I tried to approach my task check-offs in that manner--simply as a voice who considered the central vision for our games. I hope I did that well--that I honestly considered whether everyone's work was what we needed for the games, rather than whether I thought it was good enough for my own liking.
Another reason they'd come to me is that I have generally acted as lead designer on the games thus far. While being the designer probably holds more weight in deciding whether something fits the game than just being the producer does, I still tried to go about managing the deliverables based on the team's vision and not just my own preference.
The real point, however, is that I had yet to be the one to go to another team member for their approval of my work. Until now.
Since Derek Higgs is the lead designer this time around, I have been going to him to check off my work based on his vision. It has been a great experience supporting another team member to make the executive calls and to bring the team together. There have been times when he has corrected me and made me continue working on something I thought I'd finished. There have been a few times when I had to scrap a particular piece of work and start from scratch. While I definitely didn't like throwing away work any more than the next guy, I have gained a lot by running through the iterative process with the team.
Derek has been a fantastic leader, unafraid to correct something when needed, but sensitive and patient enough to do so in a manner that encourages rather than deflates. I think it has been good for all of us to have a team member other than the producer running the show this time around. While I've still tracked the tasks and made sure that everyone is on schedule with their labor and deliverables, we've all learned a lot from supporting Derek in unifying our goals.
My accomplishments included the following this week:
- Decided on appropriate classical music, then re-tooled, edited, and chiptuned it to sound like it was written for retro video games; also worked it through Derek's approval pipeline to ensure that it matched the team's vision
- Created original sound effects, as well as finding and editing free public sounds
- Updated the Scrum sheet and blogs
- Conducted team meetings to gauge progress and needs, then adjusted schedules and sprints as necessary; also helped manage our SVN pipeline to stay in the loop on team progress
- Motivated team members and promoted unity by planning a lunch outing (and providing transportation to said lunch outing)
- Assisted engineers in learning and navigating the tools and programs we used to develop the prototype (searched through tutorials and helps for XNA to provide quick answers for them)
- When the controller hardware broke, I contacted our clients to get a replacement
- Compiled a cohort-wide email with a summary of all the prototypes in development, then sent that email to our clients so they'd have an idea of what they could expect for the final presentations of the games
Beyond the work dedicated to our final prototype, I also contributed to our end-of-semester open house for the EAE:MGS. As a producer, I was tasked with greeting and showing people around the studio, and then explaining what our program was all about. In addition to the occasional prospective student (I did my best to recruit them for future years), I met other members of University faculty and a few industry professionals, including Lane Kiriyama (of Ninjabee) and Alan Tew (formerly of Avalanche, now independent).
Besides the open house, Craig Caldwell also wanted images and representative samples of all the prototypes we've been involved in this semester (I don't quite recall whom he was presenting the compilation to). I compiled those materials and sent them to him as requested.
It's been a long week, and I'm stoked to finish up these projects and the semester by next time!
- Troy
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