It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Interestingly, stress has been relatively low, but a lot has happened, and we've been dealing with a mass of new information, decisions, restructuring, and getting the gears in motion once again.
The main event this week was the announcement of which prototypes would become our theses. I'm honored to say that Last March of the Dodos was greenlit and will be one of three thesis games that we produce as a cohort! The presentation of our prototype (including the concept art, the playable demo, and the actual pitch) was well-received and garnered positive remarks from the industry panel and the faculty.
I feel like I'm understanding what I'm being taught and practicing as a producer, and to receive positive feedback on the work that I put into these projects is a great boost. It feels good, but I wouldn't have had an opportunity to present a great product without the dedication and unified vision of our whole team. Each member gave a ton of effort and focused on implementing exactly what we were taught by professionals and faculty over these semesters, and it all showed. It was awesome to be a member of a team that bonded and cared about the game. Kudos to Chris, Jorge, and Kamron!
Along with the announcement, we were also restructured onto larger teams for full production (visit my developer diary/production blog for details on the new team and on how Dodos is proceeding). With two members of the producer track on the project, my role has been altered somewhat; I am now the official game designer! I am stoked for the opportunity, since being a game designer has been my career goal and dream for decades. I still expect to do traditional producer work along with Jesse, but I am excited to play such a heavy role in the essence of the game and in the final player experience. I couldn't ask for anything more!
There hasn't been a big push for actual building in our new teams yet (especially since our work week was cut short by the Presidents Day break), so we've been brainstorming ideas, features, and process suggestions that we'll dive headlong into on Monday. That said, here's what I did this week:
- Recorded both positive feedback and critiques of our prototype and presentation, then distributed that document to team members
- Helped lead our new team in a meeting to get everyone on the same page and then to brainstorm ideas and features for full production of Dodos
- Took notes from said meeting, and distributed them to all team members
- Sent the research packet (about dodo birds and their cultural appearances & references) that I compiled for our small team to all the members of our new team
- Updated the blogs
I am greatly anticipating the game we can produce with such a talented (and larger!) team. The next 10 months are going to be a blast!
- Troy
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