Well Worth It -- Week Ending 18 Feb

I'm actually surprised at how stressful this week was not. Though we had two presentations to give, I feel like we really came to understand the idea that, at some point, the intention of the developers and the game design document actually are the game itself. Once we allowed the game to be what it is and stop fretting about our prototype, we were able to focus on what we actually had and how we could best present our hard work to our peers and to the professionals. At that point, my job became easy. I was able to really describe our goals with the game, and I was able to create a presentation that focused on what we felt like we did well in creating a foundational prototype.

Being able to present to our faculty and peers first was a huge help. We received a lot of great feedback on how to polish the presentation (and or game) in time for the pros. I was also quite impressed with how much the graduating cohort could see and how much they have all gained from this program. Their suggestions were invaluable.

When it finally came down to the moment of truth--the official pitch presentation to the panel of pros--I feel like we made a fantastic showing. My team really took to heart what we felt would stand out among the crowd and what the pros woulds need to see most, and the response was incredibly positive. While there were certainly a few critiques and wary questions about design, the majority of the comments were supportive suggestions and iterations on what we could do if this game moved into full production. We took that as a good sign.

Regardless of the final decision as to which games become our theses, I'm incredibly proud of our team, of our game, and of our program. I'll be honored to continue work on any of the cohort's games.

Here's what I did this week:

- Organized a team meeting to nail down final features for the presentation build of the game
- Motivated our team members to keep working hard to the end, while congratulating and validating all their hard work so far
- Organized and collected postmortem thoughts from all the team members
- Compiled the wrap kit for the game
- Created the presentation and revised it after feedback
- Created the one-page and revised it after feedback
- Gave the official presentation of our game to faculty, peers, and the professional panel
- Updated our blogs

I'm grateful to be where I am in this program with such a talented group. I can't wait to see what the future holds in store!

- Troy