03 September 2012

Busy Again -- Week Ending 1 Sep

Things are moving forward again, not much different than I remember from last semester. We all have our tasks, and we're all doing what we can to make our game the best that it can be.

As far as my thoughts for the week are concerned, there are a few things I'd like to point out. The first is that Agile development processes definitely have their flaws. Or maybe it's just that I have my flaws and am trying to force things in what I understand to be an Agile fashion, when I'm really missing the point. Lately, things just seem to go more smoothly when there is a dedicated document (design or some other type) and schedule to run things by. When we've tried to add or implement new features, there are so many new questions that come up ("How does this look? What's this supposed to do exactly? Would this fit with the rest of the framework? Have you thought about what this will do to these other features? Where do you want these buttons to go?"). It's almost impossible to have the forethought for all of these when trying to redetermine tasks and scheduling as you go along. I suppose I'm ranting, but I think it all goes back to my philosophy of "Plan like a Waterfall process, implement and develop with an Agile process." Trying to plan new things in the middle, however, has proven to be particularly difficult. So avoid feature creep and stick to your guns! Or just plan and design a better piece of software from the beginning--as if it's that easy...

The second is that I feel like I'm carrying much more than the load of simply the Lead Designer. As a member of the producer track, I understand that I'm expected to do "producer things" to gain the skills I'm intended to and to fulfill my MFA degree requirements, but I sometimes feel like what should be (and what I want to be) my main focus--design--falls by the wayside. I love design, and I want to design games more than anything else, but my class time is often filled with (hopefully effective and essential ) meetings and working out Scrum processes and documents. And my nights are filled with setting up other meetings and working out team issues--something I feel that the team lead should be heading up instead of me.

Finally, sometimes I feel like the work I do put into the project falls on deaf ears or simply isn't up to the level that we need it to be. I'm learning new skills and approaches to these problems all the time, so I'm typically able to push through any discouragement, but this work is not without its low points.

All that noted, I love this work, and I love being part of a team. And I love making video games. There is so much fun in the process, and there are so many rewarding moments along the way. I have confidence that the end result of all our effort will be the most gratifying and rewarding part of all--a fantastic published game.

Here are my contributions this week:

- Updated and defined new tasks and scheduling on the tech/engineering backlog
- Handled some major design work, including the implementation of newly added features involving the trap shop, avatar and narrative inclusion, and UI aesthetics and functionality
- Helped the engineers determine the architecture for player/user profiles in the game that will store key information about all of the above features, as well as the overall implementation of those features themselves
- Determined and created an updated art backlog
- Guided the meeting for the determining of our final art style (the specific rules, etc.)
- Contacted and held meetings with our outsourced artists

I've still got a ton to do, but I'm excited to help this team create something awesome!

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