Learning to Adapt -- Week Ending 11 Feb

Sadly, sometimes things just don't go according to plan. Such has been the case with our thesis prototype. That's not to say that things aren't in a good spot--they are--but they have progressed somewhat slower than we hoped. As producer of our group, I've had to make some adjustments to our Scrum sheets and backlog to ensure that we end up with the most important features solidly in place. I'm not sure if it's a matter of people not putting in the hours that we should be, or if tasks are just taking longer than we originally planned for. I have my suspicions that distractions are pushing things toward the former. If that's the case (and I'm certainly not without guilt in this regard), then I need to figure some ways to get us all even more excited about the vision of our game than we already are. Who knows, maybe it's not a lack of excitement, but it's just life in general. I'll get back to you once I discover the truth behind all of this.

In any case, we've still got a great prototype in place, and we're excited to present it to our faculty and the professional panel next week!

My side project with Derek and Spencer is also moving along. We've decided on a general art style, an architecture for building levels and puzzles, and the engine and platform that we'll be developing with. We make slow but steady progress around our more pressing responsibilities and deadlines from other classes and projects.

Here's what I did this past week:

- Outlined trap/tool algorithms for LMOTD and walked through their processes with the engineers to get as many implemented as possible
- Created and gave an informal presentation of our game to visiting Microsoft reps
- Created a one-page about the project and the team to send with the Microsoft reps (to remember the team by)
- Adapted our development process and schedule (re-tooled the Scrum sheet), deleting items from the release backlog and beefing up others as necessary; this led to redeveloping a hierarchy of important features to ensure were present in the prototype release
- Updated the team blog (and this one)
- Contacted the ASUU to obtain their support and sponsorship of our upcoming guest lecturer, Jon Dean of EA Salt Lake! (this is still in progress--phooey on red tape)

I can't wait to see what happens next week! It's a big deal that will be a pillar of my education and my professional life, so I'm excited to see the final verdict on which games will be our theses!

- Troy