Monday 3rd Feb
This week we got the opportunity to meet Producer Paul Macgillivray as this weeks guest speaker. Paul provided incredibly useful advice on team organisation and how studios manage deliverables and tasks. To better explain this us he used the analogy of making a meal and breaking the steps down into tasks, then further into order of priorities considering dependencies, then adding timeframes.
After we were done with the activity we moved onto applying the same structure to our actual deliverables.
From there I moved everything onto Jira, a project management software made for this exact thing.
We finished our meeting with making sure everyone understood and knew what they were next meant to work on.
Thursday 6th Feb
Today was presented by none other than our games designer in residence Sophie, who gave us a run-down on the importance of prioritising our health, knowing when to slow down, and the different ways of communicating to others of emergencies.
We began drafting contingency plans and planning ahead for any potential emergencies, knowing how to and what to cut from the game if need be. This meant declaring who would step in to take up someone elses work and choosing areas of the game that were not essential to the final product.
Additionally we began to think about user stories, this concept emphasises the point of view of the user and shows us what they want from the gameplay, this gives us perspective over the project.
User stories are very important to design systems around, you’re creating games for the user afterall. As a developer it is not just your job to entertain a player but to understand their pressure points and frustrations – this is a basis to communication priorities with teammates. So what are OUR user stories?
Our user stories – focus on immersion and accomplishment
- As a player, I want to have a good camp management so I can feel like a successful leader
- As a player I want to be involved in a story decisions to feel immersed in the world/to feel like my decisions matter
- As a player I want the family dynamics to feel natural and human so I can become more invested in the characters and story
We assembled a roadmap using a calendar we printed out for the next 3 months. After colour coding ourselves we began to add in tasks and timeframes, preferring to set work to be weekly rather than hourly to allow for a bit more flexibility when it came to the deliverables. What was important about the roadmap was putting down milestones we needed to reach and noting down specific dates like week 7 reading week and week 11 showcase.
With both the Jira and roadmap made, everyone has something to refer to when they are lost or confused. It ensures everyone stays on track with the project and knows what others are up to.