I initial started the project using Teamwork Software, I would go around the class discussing tasks and how long they would take. In the early stages we needed to communicate a lot more about the design and what we where aiming for. It took along time to decide and build the picture of what game we wanted. It also took time for the group to progress together and to put forward ideas comfortably. This could mainly be improved with experience and confidence. However there was small things to improve team work.
I didn't realise the huge divide the group had splitting the group 50%, I often dismissed this divide in my head and blamed it on other members subconsciously. It wasn't until the MojoBox Indie Game Team came and talked to us and discussed my worries about making sure members did task on time and why my scoping techniques often did not work and why often we individual focused on our own disciplines.
After talking to MojoBox Producer he describe our to really pull together to not just decided overall themes of the games but to decide the little details together.
So over the weekend I processed some solutions and planned a group meeting at our house to discuss the implementation of these solutions. The majority of talking points where about communicating more and enjoying developing more with each. Essential things like; being critical towards each other and even little things like sitting together, discussing things together. To make sure people connected and understood, I allowed everyone to be able to criticise me this worked effectively. The general consensus was to be stricter with deadlines and not allow team member to get distracted in class. (Said by members who distract themselves). This was positive as I knew this was one of my issues, I don't want to be a boss, I want to be a leader so learning that boundary.
During the group meeting the team responded very positively, which was a good sign that we had found the main issue. After the meeting the group was very more involved and more proactive which was very positive.
Also for better task management to try assigning task daily instead of weekly and to plan out more.
However after a trial of this, it didn't really work for our team. Daily Task where usually obvious like make the terrain or make the bell tower.
Yet in hindsight this could be linked to how we went about to producing the environment, one really important aspect. I asked Monika and Paul how they wanted to build the scene, whether we build the how level in one go or in sections. My opinion was to build it in sections would be easy to make sure the game play worked and really finalise that piece before moving on to the next section. My mistake was not to imagine the end scenario where we placed the game together, all the elements converge on Joe and it would be up to him to hand craft them into place. So I should of asked Joe opinions, and also convinced Monika and Paul. Over time I have learn't to convince people better by working from their point of view back towards me. It also was no other persons individual fault, Monika wanted to get Paul level designs in the game and both Paul and Monika need more to do and waiting for section one would require waiting on the character controller. Essentially if we had a refined character controller before this game would meant that testing and designing would of gone a lot smoother.
Going back to tracking off task's, I acquired a large A2 board for note taking in class and planning out ideas. This worked well, I experiment about how to best plan task on the board, using sticky notes and people to write down own task. But we settled on writing plans on the board during group discussions which would dictate our week.
Everyone has their ups and downs and demons to face, I learn't to work individuals all of my team are unique and have different requirementss, sometime we had downs and I was there to help assure people and we had ups it was about learning to congratulate each other
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