This week kicks off with watching videos, that will help us to understand the process of making a game that is ideally formed, from our background research and analysis of our target audience, age, genre, and by strategising ways of selling our products, and getting a better understanding of what sells and who the competition is.
Boxleiter Method
Heres an example of how the Boxleiter Method is displayed, when purchases has been made on Steam.
(GDC 2018)
I understand this method, to be a way of helping the game developer to not only see how their sales are going on Steam, but to help you see, exactly how the total of games sold is worked out, compared to the total amount of views.
Factors Affecting Game Sales on Steam
This GDC talk in 2018, is a talk that I really enjoyed, its helped me clarify how popular each genre is. Infinite Monkeys Entertainment’s Erik Johnson analyses trends in the Steam marketplace;
I have chose to make a start on the new module 740 with a reading called; Stop Talking,Start Doing Action Book : Practical Tools and Exercises to Give You a Kick in the Pants. This book provides simple methodologies, to put into practice, with an easy to follow guide, to help you note down the absolute essentials, through to your future goals, highlighting key areas that need to be worked on. Diagram below;
(Wasmund 2016: 48)
I feel the book explains what I already know, but it almost reminds me of where I am in my life, with my own personal goals. It has helped me to revisit my own personal long term dream, and look at ways of building up a strong portfolio of work, creating new connections, and a social media reputation, which will show my development of my creations throughout, the Indie Game Dev Masters Degree.
The long term goal = Storyboard/Environment Artist, Junior Animation role, or just anything to do with Game Art in general.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for people to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” Winnie the Pooh
(Wasmund 2016: 71) .
This quote is perfect, and gave me a “kick in the pants“, to finally create a Twitter account, especially for my Indie Game Dev and animation experiments, and hopefully to start collaborating on a new game project.
Twitter Avatar
Below is a new avatar especially for my Twitter account, never tried attempting a cartoon of me before, but here it is.
(Figure 1 : Norton 2021 Twitter Avatar)
Starting and Running a Business
After reading the details for this module, I began my research with an extremely insightful book; “Starting & Running a Business All In One For Dummies“, which has helped me to make a start on the procedures involved.
Market Research
Week 1.2 – 10th – 17th September. 2021
Experimenting with Unreal for the first time…
Yes… Finally I have started tutorials with Unreal, this is key to helping me, to understand a more in depth look at character movement, game tile sets and sizes, adding atmosphere, and to create new assets from scratch. They advise you to choose one of the game learning kits/ templates already created by the Unreal team, to practice with.
Intention
My initial intention was to focus on getting a better understanding of the amazing 3D world. Below you will find all the screen shots of my process I have taken to; place the floor,character, add sky,clouds, and have learn’t the proper way how to make my own grass texture in Photoshop, following a Youtube tutorial…especially for games, as per the video link below.
1st Problem
Placing the floor – This should have been straight forward, but each time I selected the floor from the content browser, when I placed the floor tile into the new “test level” I had started…It never seemed to be the correct angle, even when I changed the location axis X, Y and Z.
I was concerned about the viewing angle, as it was completely different to what the tutorial was showing me. I was determined to get it right from the start…as I wanted to try and avoid bad habits arising.
Solution
To change the floor tile, as this one was also in the content browser “SMkit“, I needed to change to the tile with the extension “floor” on the end. From here it was simple. I could easily duplicate the floor tiles, add the Player Start, make the character touch the floor, and not float in mid air.
Plus adding atmosphere, like the sky and clouds, and playing with the basic directional lighting.
I think the best part, was applying my grass “tileable texture“, to the floor, and brightening everything up.
2) Place Character
1) Begin with the floor
3) Add Sky
4) Add Clouds
5) Add Grass texture I made in Photoshop
Next Stage of Development
From here the next stage was adding the landscape, sculpting hills, and experimenting with the height map.
Sculpting seems to be a very straight forward process, and very easy to do wrong. (You can get carried away with creating rocky areas, hills that are so steep or just a slope, but if you want a certain look to your landscape you must choose your brush size carefully)
Mini Learning Curve – or should I say bump?
When I first attempted sculpting, the experiment used a medium sized brush, so my hills/ bumps were very small, but when I continued they become a little more angular or pointed, which was the opposite, of what I was trying to achieve. I had to really play around with the size of the brush and the brush fall off.
More Screenshots of Unreal
6) Adding a landscape
7) Sculpting the landscape
8) Finished “extra hilly” landscape
This was great practice with helping me to start uncovering what Unreal’s Engine can offer. The next stage is looking into learning, Blue Prints and Coding if possible…?
Week 1.3 – 20th September. 2021
The Indie Games Industry
In Lobb’s video presentation, he helps to identify the key aspects of the processes involved when approaching an ‘Indie Game Start up‘.
The 5 main points to focus on are;
Find a Gap in the Market for your Product
Raise Funding
Recruit a Team / or Solo
Execute Successfully – (build the game well/ make nice art work/ Assets/ Environments/ Characters etc.)
From the above, finding the gap in the market is my main priority currently, and after joining Twitter and the world of gamers, I know there is a gap for every kind of game out there, it just seems that it all depends on what audience you want to attract? Plus the way you choose to market your product.
This is why I am slowly, but surely, following more and more solo game devs, small team game devs that all work remote, game devs that are both using Unity and Unreal, and of course learning about Blueprints and coding with Unreal, to test myself before I start creating my game.
Indiepocalypse
In Smith’s GDC talk 2016, and other developers discuss how their sales increased, decreased, what it was they were releasing at the time. They all agree that, “there is no Indiepocalypse“, and some really useful points that I feel I could use.
don’t try and make double the content – and focus on large games, because they sell just as well as the smaller games.
Make radically different games, give you a better chance of succeeding
In Rohrer’s GDC talk, 2019 he relays, what it is like to make so many games and not make any money from them, to not give up, and reviews how making games today have changed. He explains that you need to focus on failing to improve in making games, and to focus on making what gamers like to play.
He discusses how when “word of mouth” got out and he started to talk to more people and mention the game that he was due to release…This is when game sales for him improved, and compares different types of non indie game sales too.
“Make Unique Situation Generators”
Jonas
Screenshots
trailers
Gifs
Text
Week 1.4 – 23rd September. 2021
Mini Retrospective…
What needs to be Started?
What needs to stopped?
What needs to be developed / continued?
Next Stage – Blue Prints/ Coding
Never before have I attempted coding and the way Unreal’s tutorials work, are just fantastic! As much as I love learning new things, I am putting my self under pressure to learn all the basics I need, ideally to create my own vertical slice, for this module.
I will be working solo and I am enjoying the challenge of practicing with templates from Unreal’s Engine and amending the code as I go.
The real challenge will be applying all what I have learn’t to my own concept art, characters, background/environment, objects, adding the UI design, effects and movement smoothly…
.
References
Barrow, C. 2011. Starting and Running a Business All-in-One for Dummies. (2nd ed.) Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
When we first approached this module, we were a team of 5, and really excited to start this new project together.
We had so many ideas, and concepts wrote down, all over a Miro board, which I found very hard to keep up with. But we did manage to mix a couple concepts together in the end.
We all put 100% into the game, looking back it was almost like a factory – I would do the concept art to begin – next Will would convert to Pixel Art – and Phil and Patricio would take that art, and add the mechanics to the game.
We all joined in with the story and narrative, and although I was probably the most inexperienced to the other team members, who had all worked on games before, I picked up the pace with my energy, fun and bright colourful ideas, that we could use to develop in some way.
Progress
I think the progress we made for the production of the 10minute video pitch presentation, and 3 minute demo, with fantastically interesting transcripts to go along side was amazing.
Reflecting back, I feel we made leaps and bounds considering the different time zones, and work life balance commitments. I am very proud of what we have achieved…and although there was times when it was very stressful, because of lack of communication, this was only at the start….and we soon, put it to the back of our minds, and got developing an awesome game.
Here is the final Pitch and game play for you to enjoy!!!
RealWORKS hub – The Art of the Approach curriculum
This week we re-visit RealWORKS hub, to encourage us to start getting prepared for the future, which luckily I have already started in the last module. Please click the link below, to see my progress with Module 1: 710, Week 11. 2.
The difference is now, the whole cohort is all on different modules, which means some of the students need to start focusing on what their future goal is right now, but for me, this is my second module, so no rush quite yet.
I know what I want to do though, and where I want to go…
I am continuing to look for placements, internships, freelance and collaboration opportunities, so the next step for me left on the list of 7 things, remaining to complete for the “Art of the Approach”to get closer to my target, is the section on; Opportunity Spotting and Planning your Approach.
Searching for the new Career…
Whilst watching the RealWORKS video, Job Hunting Explained… They list the key points, what you must do, in order to achieve your final goal.
Opportunity Spotting and Planning your Approach – Step 1
Do your job preparation – Before the initial application, make sure you are organised, and know the job hunting channels you could possibly be using.
Know your job hunt channels– Direct Applications, Job Boards, Recruiters, E- hireability, Online Networking, Face to Face Networking, Speculative Applications, and Being referred. (Indeed, CareerBuilder, Glass door, Seek, LinkedIn, Monster, not forgetting the smaller company’s.
Get the most out of them –Focus on the four things when applying; Relevance; highlight the skills you have, most relevant ones, and all the channels you use. Consistency; make sure your cover letter, elevator pitch, the language you use about yourself, and when networking is the same. Attitude; be professional and polite in all your communications, and always be enthusiastic and positive. Authenticity; be genuinely you, an authentic CV personal statement and profile summary may set you apart from the competition – show a genuine interest in whoever you’re networking with, to an employer, and any other opportunities.
Opportunity Spotting and Planning your Approach – Step 2
Create a Job Search Strategy Planner, including;
Direct Application
Job Boards / Recruiters
Speculative Applications
Online Presence and Networking
Referrals and Face – to – Face Networking
The second step above I cannot fill in just yet, as one of the first things, I need to focus on is creating a professional online presence, which leads me to continuing with one of the other tasks on RealWORKS, which includes; re – evaluating my Linkedin Profile.
LinkedIn Legend ..?
After watching the video, how to create a powerful “LinkedIn Profile“. The next step is to apply that method to my LinkedIn Account. Here’s how it now Looks…
My next step – redesign my CV from scratch
Work on joining more social media platforms, such as: Twitter, ArtStation, Behance and start Networking on these channels.
The steps above are vital to my studies, and aid towards me building and developing my personal brand.
Future Ambition
I aspire to be an animator, storyboard/concept artist, or game illustrator. I generally am very keen to start a career, with an Indie Game Dev Company.
I am in the process of developing a portfolio ready for my future employers, that’s why I have the separate tab on here; Development of Animatics, to show how I am progressing so far. Plus I am working on designing my new CV, and preparing myself to be more social on Twitter, and start collaborating and reaching out to other game dev enthusiasts.
Week 11.2 – 9th August. 2021
Amending Teams Transcripts & Updating CRJ
My goal this week was to, catch up with missing weeks in my blog, start searching for Job roles, and researching what key skills, are specifically required.
Plus collating the Teams Transcripts, re watching the 10 minute Pitch Demonstration Video, and re – writing the transcripts, to match the wording precisely on the video. This was part of the documentation that the Team Leader is required to submit with all the other paper work.
I prioritised this task first, as it would need to be handed in by the 19th August.
Week 11.3 – 11th August. 2021
Adjourning – Final Retrospective
Yes ..its the time again, we give our final thoughts on everything that has gone well, during the team work project, what could have been improved, what should have been avoided.
(Figure 1 : White 2021. Adjourning)
Not clear communication at the start – Improved after week 3
We only brain stormed on Miro, this was not often – but very detailed
Commitment – 100% from everyone
Work was submitted very frequently
The relationship with my peers was positive, and supportive, especially as the weeks progressed. So did our bond.
Well, where shall I start…This is a major topic for me to talk about, as I have always wanted to give this a try. Ever since I wrote and illustrated my Children’s Books, I had organised what art/ illustration I had to finally show for a portfolio, I thought I was ready to join an agency, and start freelancing..?
However this never happened…
I was determined to give it a go, and I joined an agency called ‘People Per Hour.‘ My experience with this agency was completely different then expected.
They were kind and very helpful, and gave me more details about the freelancing agency, and the process involved. But in-keeping with PhoebeHerring’s Industry experience, I can relate to the part where she mentions;
Sending her Artwork, then never hearing back from anyone.
Bidding for new opportunities, small jobs to complete, but the rate you are being charged is not worth your time, or patience.
Holding back applying for more jobs, just incase the other ones you have bidded for, do come back.
We are asked to consider these questions…
Could your team benefit from employing a freelancer?
What skills and competencies are missing from the team composition?
Do you foresee any issues with employing freelancers so late into the project?
Below are my responses to the above questions.
The way our team has been working together so far, to bring a new person in, even if he/ she had skills that we didn’t, I think would only hinder the teams progress.
The only skills that are missing is a UX designer, however the team has worked it out that as we were not creating an app design, and a game to run on PC and Mac instead, we all checked before hand, what we could or couldn’t do as you can see from (week 2’s composition chart). We were all prepared and knew what needed to be worked on.
Yes for sure, I would never want to employ a freelancer to a project, when you are nearly finished. I don’t see any point, ideally if you needed a certain skill from the beginning, which neither of the team members had, would have been the best time to get someone else on board, as they would need to bond too.
Launchpad Scheme
We are introduced to Warwick New, who had the opportunity to create a startup venture with Falmouth University’s Launchpad Scheme. After watching his video, listed are the key points for; what it offers you, what you canget from creating a startup venture, even if the company fails.??
Entrepreneurial Skills – What you need to set up your own tech /startup company.
Practise how to sell and market your product – What makes your artefact/prototypes stand out from the rest.
Warwick highlights a few things, which I think we have already got within our current team, 1) believing in your prototype, knowing there is a gap in the marketfor it. We have believed in our product since we started, but not quite each other.
Warwick clarify’s how important it is to feel motivated about your product, because as soon as you don’t have faith in your product or your team, you are likely to spiral downwards, as then the motivation/ reason of why you were working on this prototype, seems to disintegrate.
Key lessons we have learned.. .so far..?
Be open and honest from the start to improve, learn, test, re-make. (move forward for the better).
Don’t avoid problems, handle them straight away. (don’t let it fester).
Be sure to compliment each others work from time to time. (show you care).
Week 10.2 – 3rd August. 2021
Final piece of art to work on…
Here is a preview of our Trello board which shows the progress we have made so far with our prototype for our game Keep it Burning.
(Figure 1 : Norton, Ward, Lakin and Land 2021 The Wild Branch Kanban Board)
You can see what I am currently working on… One of the most interesting pieces of artwork I have done yet.!!
The
World
Map
I started off by re looking at my first basic isometric map, that I created in the beginning. Just to jog your memory…please see the image below…
(Figure 2 : Norton 2021 Original Concept Design for Game Map)
My initial inspiration was from some isometric maps I had been researching before hand, as a way of allowing the player to understand where they start in the game’s first level for; Keep It Burning, and what the end goal was, ie. finding another cave dwelling… bigger, more equipped, and more protected from predators.
However as I progressed with my concept art, after the practice pitch, one piece of my art work had been completely forgotten about, and I realised I wanted to focus more on the map I originally made with the style in mind as Bear & Breakfast, as per below.
Because I loved everything about the Bear & Breakfast Pitch Deck, I was extremely keen to stick with this style for the map, the notion of keeping everything straight forward, knowing exactly where you start, and where you end up, after progressing through the level, was my initial goal.
However my Original Concept Design for the Game Map didn’t get any response from the team at the time, which was not helpful. I knew it didn’t work other wise they would have said something, anyhow I was not sure why? I was under the impression that I needed to draw up a simple layout map, to show as part of our, ten minute video coming up. Everything was on layers, in Illustrator, so each layer was easy to remove at any time, if it didn’t work, if that was the case!?
Solution
After speaking to the others about the map, more recently, I proposed my idea, to say this is the map style I am looking at now, as the map is important, to show our progression, and this is the art work that caught my eye.
This is what I used as my world map inspiration layout, as it clearly shows 4 areas, and some hidden by cloud. I was sure that everyone would be keen on the layout, as it fit more perfectly with our in game pixel art style too. I assume this was the reason that I didn’t receive feedback, due to me personally not doing pixel art, even though we said at the beginning of the project that we would mix textures.!? Luckily I was right, and they all was keen for me to experiment with the style…
(Figure 4 : Kashkina 2021 Location of land)
As you can see the amount of detail that has gone into Kaskina’s Location of Land is amazing. All I want to do in my version, is focus on creating at least 4 , domain’s, one as the starting area, next, where you progress too, and a couple locked locations hidden by the cloud, finished with a little detail.
Below is a gallery so you can see my progress.
Stage 1 – laying the land out – creating shapes
Stage 2 – adding a large lake /river
Stage 3 – manipulating large lake /river and adding waterfall
Stage 4 – change lake colour/ add a little colour to one domain
Stage 5 – finally add some detail/ add more colour to main domain
Stage 6 – intensify both domains/ with detail, colour, and add cloud
Stage 7 – zoom in/ double check effect for lake and clouds are clear…
Week 10.3 – 4th August. 2021
Reflecting
During the week, I have started to feel that we really are picking up the speed, but I think this is because everyone realises, that we only have a couple weeks to go and ideally it would be productive now, for each team member to focus on catching up with their blogs. In regards to time pressure, the reading; What DoWe Know About Time Pressure in Software Development?, by Kuutila, Mantyla, Farooq, & Claes.
On the positive side, time pressure can force a development team to focus on the paramount features of a product. On the negative side, time pressure can induce tunnel vision where making the next deadline is prioritized over product quality and worker well-being.
(Kuutila, Mantyla, Farooq, & Claes. 2020) .
According to; Kuutila, Mantyla, Farooq, & Claes, software development has usually got a fair amount of time pressure and deadlines involved, which can lead to all different outcomes. I understand it, not always to be a bad thing, as it can almost give you a boost of positivity…
I believe that when you are nearing your end goal, their is an automatic switch inside that says go..go..go.., even if you have been giving your all throughout the project, you just want to push your self a tiny bit more, (not that you actually do though). Then when it is the time to view the prototype, and check out the finished artefact… it feels so rewarding.
Its almost like reaching the crescendo just before the end of a song, I start to feel relaxed once I have reached that final big note…then sad and pleased at the same time, because although the song has finished, you can begin the same process again, another time.
References
DeMarco, T. and Lister, T., 2013. Peopleware: productive projects and teams. Addison-Wesley.
This Week commences with asking us to share our experience of “working in a team with specific industry insight“. I have never had the opportunity to work with a games company, but after everything I have been researching and putting into practice, this is something I am keen to start!
I have even began to experiment with Unity now, using my own art, and some of the props from Unity’s Playground.
I want to learn more about moving the character from a to b, practice increasing the distance that the character travels, with a variety of different moves. But in keeping with my method, Kanban, I am aiming to achieve one thing at a time.
Below is the first time, of putting a whole layout together myself. The only assets that were not my creation was the character, the wooden flooring and log flooring at the bottom of the mountain, the box down stage left, and the staff behind the character.
(Figure 1 : Norton 2021. trees/foliage/mountains/background – in Unity)
Development
I found when I first pieced this together, the result of the character moving from the wooden square, (downstage left) to moving up the hill, still didn’t work. However I wanted the staff to fall from the sky, and land in the bush, then a slight particle/magical stars effect would beam off, (highlighting the object, so you know, you need to collect the staff).
1st Problem
The staff landed straight, then flopped to one side and dropped down. I wanted to show it getting stuck in the bush, and lodged at an angle, and I wanted my little character to move towards the staff.
1st Solution
I changed where I placed the 2D collider, and this is how it now plays. I added the 2D capsule collider around the staff, plus made the character follow the target. The staff is now the target.
The below link works on browsers such as Safari, Google Chrome, and can be watched only on mobile phones. Hopefully you can view…
Don’t forget to press the right or left arrow..on your keyboard.
In the Article – Embedding Reflection and Learning into Agile Software Development, Babb, Hoda, and Norbjerg introduces a new method called; REALM (Reflective Agile Learning Model). It shows the results from other development practices, in India, New Zealand and USA. They show how we as practitioners could integrate reflective practice in agile software development, the benefits of the method, and ways we can adapt and evolve when applying it to a software team.
REALM uses reflective practice to develop micro habits for uncovering tacit knowledge among a software development team.
After researching Realm, I understand to be a way of putting a retrospective, and many other agile methods into action, to aid towards the teams growth and development. Also it reminds you, with all agile methods, its key to practice continuously, otherwise the process of producing the artefact becomes the only focus, and reflection is easily forgotten about.
They specifically focus on “Tacit Knowledge“, and find ways to express what is difficult to others to understand such as; personal experiences, insights, and intuition.
Reflection-on-action is the “after-action report” on how repertoire has changed. It’s during reflection-on-action that teams attempt to answer questions regarding what to keep, discard, and modify in repertoire.
(Babb, Hoda, and Norbjerg. 2014) .
Agile Methodology – Kanban
Since starting the Masters in January, once we researched into retrospectives, and agile methodologies, I chose to stick with Kanban.
I have tried to apply the way of thinking throughout my blog, and more so throughout any research and new processes I have learned.
I find retrospectives to be a positive step forwards in any project that I have completed so far, and find it rewarding knowing what you have worked on with the team is being discussed. It either works, has to be removed, or be adjusted, but either way the fact that your teams work is being talked about, makes you feel like, what you are doing as that individual is important, and is significant to the final artefact.
“Good Crunch“
The article The cruel optimism of “good crunch”: How game industry discourses perpetuate unsustainable labor practices is specifically based on Game Developer magazine and Game Developers Conference presentations. It discusses the good and bad crunches that happen through the development of a game, explains what a crunch is, and advises you about careers in game development.
Crunch is a term used to describe periods of extreme workload
(Edholm et al. 2017) .
Their overall goal was to understand how crunch continued, despite growing attention to its costs, assessing the themes of bad crunch and its potential outcomes, before discussing good crunch as a form of cruel optimism.
Their research aims to encourage developers to aim for a more sustainable and progressive labor practice.
“we found that developers were very aware of the costs of crunch, sharing frequent horror stories of lost weekends, destroyed relationships, and even physical health issues arising from overwork.”
(Cote and Harris. 2021) .
The above quote I can relate to now in our current team, yet we are not working for a company, but for our new project, we needed to produce an artefact within a team, and at the start of this module I did begin to push myself so much through the week and work over the weekends too.
However, I did start to feel unwell and loose my energy for studying. Everything became more of a chore, and I was so stressed that I couldn’t concentrate. Rather than enjoying myself learning new and exciting things, such as; creating a brand new game concept, and how to develop a new artefact for the end product and learn about Pitch Presentations, I was just worrying and progress felt like it was “grinding toa halt“.
I had to take a step back…explain to the leader, then she was gone. (details on week 3)
Though, after this episode, the rest of the team have worked consistently on their own, collaborating continuously together, and bonded as the weeks have passed by. We are now comfortable to say our opinions and reservations out loud, we don’t get offended if it’s not what we want to hear, we accept and move forward in a positive light.
Week 9.2 – 27th July. 2021
Spry Fox – ‘Innovate in your Pants’
From watching the Spry Fox’s video; ‘Innovate in your Pants’the programmer Andrew Fray, reveals, what it is like to be part of a team, who produces innovative new and exciting games, but with the whole team being completely remote.
He shares his knowledge about creating new artefacts, whilst being in a distributed team, and states that not only is it practical, but it can be rather rewarding.
Games produced by Spryfox…
Triple Town, a freemium strategy puzzle game with city-building game elements for social networks and mobile devices
Steambirds, a strategy flying game for mobile devices
Road Not Taken, a rogue-like puzzle game
Realm of the Mad God, co-created with Wild Shadow Studios.
Team Comparison – to Spryfox
From my experience so far throughout the co-creative design and development practice module, I can definitely relate to the way the company operates. Firstly by;
Working within a distributed team.
Using Google Documents to collaborate (but lots more then 2 pages)
Using Trello as a way to keep track of what people have done, needs to do, or is working on.
One of the questions we are asked to think about is; “what principles can youapply to your own day-to-day operations?”
For me, the most important principles to apply to the teamwork module are;
1) Communication, as this would greatly improve if, we made more time to video chat often, to build on our relationships.
This is what we have put into practice from one point of view: the team meetings, every Wednesday at 12midday. We usually end up staying past the hour, and chatting about anything else that we could improve in the game.
But on the other hand what Fray means is simply by socialising with each other, which we don’t do, due to our timezone differences and work life responsibility’s.
2) Less paper work, only having a couple of pages each, I feel is definitely enough to show your concept clearly, and is easier to simplify.
We started with so many documents, it made everything complex and I personally didn’t think we needed it at all. Finally after week 4, we narrowed things down, and clarified what was actually helping us, and I simplified the Trello board, and the other team members worked on the remainder documents.
This is what helped us to bond better, because we were finally all on the same page. From this action we have improved with everything we have made so far towards the prototype, and are really pleased with what we have finally achieved.
Week 9.3 – 28th July. 2021
Hi9 & Business Start-Up
Wo king shares his industry experience for tech start ups, he explains that for him sharing the workload is crucial to the teams development to move forward.
They aim to create technology thats easy for everyone of all ages, the user experience/ research is his primary focus.
He states, that it’s important to learn machine learning, on data and algorithms, it helps you to understand how humans learn, and from this we can improve the technology we produce.
“Learn machine learning even if you are not good at maths or good at coding.”
(King. 2021) .
Challenge – Keep Up the Good Work
The list below, shows a few points, how I will avoid crunch by;
Not working over the minimum time if possible, that I stated on the team charter. (not to burn the candle at both ends)
Making sure I have clear notes on what I need to discuss with our supervisor and group webinars, over the next few weeks, to be able to get a clear response.
To continue to do my own research with Unity, in order to understand more about the engine, and not ask.
To Catch up with my blog, create less stress for myself.
Below is our plan for the end of the module.
References
Babb, J., Hoda, R. and Norbjerg, J. 2014. Embedding Reflection and Learning into Agile Software Development. IEEE Software, 31(4), pp.51-57.
Cote, A. C. and Harris, B. C. (2021). The cruel optimism of “good crunch”: How game industry discourses perpetuate unsustainable labor practices. New Media &Society, p.146. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14614448211014213
Edholm, H., Lidström, M., Steghöfer, J. P. and Burden, H. 2017. Crunch time: The reasons and effects of unpaid overtime in the games industry. In 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track (ICSE-SEIP), pp. 43-52. IEEE.
To begin this week, we are asked to start by familiarising ourselves with IP law, and to research similar cases directly related to our own area of practice.
I began by watching the Intellectual Property Law (Copyright), on Falmouth’s Canvas Platform. It reveals information about the legal implicationsfor Intellectual Property Rights, what it means to infringesomeones work, clarification on Civil Law, Criminal Law, how your work is protected, yet not ideas.
“In terms of games and creative apps, the idea and expression dichotomy, means that although the code that has been written is protected, what the code actually does and how it achieves it’s functionality is not. Only the expression is protected. So non Literal copying cannot be prevented under the statued associated with copyright.
(Intellectual Property. 2021.) .
The quote above relates to the exact area now that I am studying, in regards to; games, game assets, background art, characters, animatics, storyboarding etc.
After researching further, and looking at Copyright in more detail, I understand that any work of art, that I have made in the past, is protected.
But it makes me wonder why ideas are not Copyright protected? As many famous creations, all started with a fantastic concept… and knowing that, it could just be easily taken is heartbreaking.
However, after writing and illustrating my own children’s books, only to let the publisher, print and contact book shops to see if they want any and how many, I know for sure my books are safe.
Although saying that, what is to stop someone from simply taking one of your characters, from your published book, or game, and manipulating it to suit their book or game?
Authors protection – Creators Moral Rights
I wanted to look deeper into Creators Moral Rights, to help me identify, what I need to do ideally, to protect any other creations, that I look to produce, going forwards with the Indie Game Dev Masters Degree.
Moral rights are reserved for literary, dramatic, musical, artistic as well as film and performance works.
(Intellectual Property. 2021.) .
I have decided to look into the most closest thing to my own practice and that is, learning more about animation, which obviously means creating new characters.
Intellectual property rights in the computergames industry
In this article, Sellars and Bicknell, concentrate on breaking each section down, that is included in thecomputer games industry. They clarify the importance of Intellectual property rights (IPRs), and protection across many jurisdictions, how software, artwork, music and film, in computer games is protected in the UK.
Personally I think this is something any artist or creator, doesn’t want to have to focus on, I know I certainly don’t, however I have found this to be a very interesting subject, and it will be something I look more into as the course progresses. The first area for me, is learning more about, how to protect my characters. The quote below is a start;
Characters are capable of intellectual property (IP) protection. The usual option is to register an EU Community design of the character. Registration of a community design offers a quick and effective option for protection.
(Sellars and Bicknell. 2015) .
Research – IP infringement
One IP infringement that directly relates to my practice, and looks at new character/ animation short films. I could completely relate to the Canadian creative director Damon Pourshian and Sheridan College. They filed a federal lawsuit claiming Disney/Pixar’s 2015 smash hit, Inside Out, infringes on his copyright to a short film, he already produced with the same name he wrote and produced as a student in 2000.
I chose this as my example, as I too, intend to go down the animation route. I would love to work with Pixar, plus this is one of my favourite animations of all time. It’s really hard when you look into the infringement, because of the numerous similarities.
However, we discover that many of the Sheridan College students, who was working for Pixar at the time, had worked on the original film with Damon Pourshian. In the end not only did it go to court, they paid him a sum of money, and he had his name added to the credits too.
4 Intellectual Property Rights
These are what I will research more, further down the line.
Copyright
Trade Mark
Patent
Design Rights
Challenge – The Value of Team Work
IP assetsinventory, is complete and held by the team.
Storyboard
This week I wanted to focus on making a story board, to introduce our game “Keep it Burning“.
My initial intension was to focus on drawing 6 slides, that would reveal how the name came to be. Below is the first black and white sketches that I have been developing.
(Figure 1 – Norton 2021 Storyboard black and white sketches)
Afterwards, when I presented my sketches to the rest of the team, they were really keen on how it looked and agreed, that I would go ahead and make a mini video, to introduce the start of the game demo.
I suggested the idea of sepia tones, and music or sound effects to set the scene.
Keep It Burning – The Intro Video
Week 8.2 – 20th July. 2021
Prehistoric Writing Research
As you can see on the slide 2, there are many symbols inside the cave…I wanted to make it as real as possible, so I researched how”Prehistoric Writing” was made, what they use for the colours. I found this quote at the start of my search from the history.com website;
Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind art.They used combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats and tree saps to etch humans, animals and signs. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones and antlers.
(Kennedy. 2019) .
Below is just one animal, that I was looking into, especially for the game. We said we would like Dodos, Jurassic Geese and other predators. The one below is neither, one thing or another!?
Calanchi Goose
In Nydam’s blog, “Black and White, Words and Pictures”, she focuses on block prints and juvenile fantasy. During my search for the 4 legged goose, the picture below popped up, she mentions evidence of prehistoric dragons. Below is a quote from her blog, from her research of the unusual creature, discovered by Ulisse Aldrovandi back in 1570.
“The Calanchi goose, a rare heritage variety still raised in small villages in the Emilio -Romagna region in northern Italy.
(Nydam 2016. Anser quadrupes)
This blog post explores, Anser quadrupes(Four-footed goose).
This was just one discovery made by, the Italian naturalist from Bologna, Ulisse Aldrovandi. He specialised in observing animals, plants, and minerals. This picture inspired me for one of my cave paintings, to help create a more authentic storyboard opening.
(Figure 3 – Aldrovandi 1570 Anser quadrupes)
Music / sound
The only one place I looked for music and natural sound was on soundorg.com, as the quality of sound is so clear, and that’s just what we needed for the game, and my storyboard opening to the game.
Semiotics
We wanted to create emojis for our game, as a way of communication, without using text on the screen, like in other video games.
As mentioned earlier, you can see from my slide 2 on the video, all the cave symbols, were taken from real “cave paintings”. This was a visual language in the prehistoric times, as a way of showing the tribe that lived there, what they must do to survive, the animals they would kill, if someone died, was to be sacrificed and so much more.
In Chandlers book; Semiotics: The basics, and the chapter on; Codes, he discusses the meaning of signs, and how we choose to understand the sign.
He states that it is important, we have established “the intended meaning“.
However this can only be achieved by making sure, that you are familiar with the interpretive system being used, which means you can only be familiar with interpretative system, if it is used everyday, and becomes part of a routine.
“meaning of a sign depends on the code within which it is situated, codes provide a framework within which signs make sense.”
(Chandler.2017: 178) .
For this reason, knowing the emojis we create, need to be clear and straight forward to understand. We decide to stick with simple pictures, in a speech/ thought bubble, like logs, flintstone, and green moss, above the elder who would be down stage right, so as the game starts, it is clear what you need to do, as the item would pop up above the elders head. See below;
(Figure 4 : The Wild Branch 2021 – Game Start screen shot)
We are asked to create a Swot Chart for this weeks activity, the aim is to analyse, the 4 headings below, and work out a solution as a team to all the problems, threats or weaknesses.
I understand this retrospective to not only be a fun one, but in someway, another bonding exercise, but I fear it may possibly create conflict again?
Hopefully this time though, we are more prepared, and ready for honesty. No one should get offended in anyway, but only realise that we are just trying to solve problems, with a positive outcome.
(Figure 1 : Team 2021 Swot Chart Miro Board)
Factors Affecting High-Performing Teams
Company’s who use teams, find them to be effective, helping to improve productivity, creativity and employee satisfaction.
“Teams bring together complementary skills and experience that exceed those of any individual on the team. This fact enables teams to respond to multifaced challenges like innovation, quality and customer service.”
(Castka, Bamber, Sharp, and Belohoubek 2001)
Castka, Bamber, Sharp, and Belohoubeks ethnography report discovers, that when you develop goals and approaches together, teams often establish stronger communication that can aid towards their problem solving and initiative skills.
HPT – High Performing Teams
Successful HPTs have defined their mission, vision and goals, which are understood by the team members.
“HPTs demand strong group culture, which is based on empowerment, shared vision, creativity, participation, learning ability, trust, and shared consensus.”
(Castka, Bamber, Sharp, and Belohoubek 2001)
Reflecting back on when we were introduced to each other 7 weeks back, I think if we had taken more time to share our goals and visions with each other beforehand, it would have helped to bond us and we may all still be together.
Or if the opposite effect would take place, and we didn’t stay together, it would be because of discovering, that we have similar skills to each other, and we would have realised, we needed more variety in the team to get a better balance of skills and personalities.
This reading now brings me to discuss, Measures of Performance.
“Measures of performance (MoP) are a trigger to improvement and the reason why many improvement programs fail, is the lack of measurement”
(Castka, Bamber, Sharp, and Belohoubek 2001)
Castka, Bamber, Sharp, and Belohoubek, define that by means of a measure of performance, we are specifically talking about the success of the team.
Evaluating Our Team
Looking closely at this study, I have found a link, which I feel directly relates to our team.
‘as a factor affecting successful implementation of HPTs and it was quickly noticed that although the technical skills of the team were very similar, all being skilled engineers, managerial, personal and social skills differed immensely.’
(Castka, Bamber, Sharp, and Belohoubek 2001)
This is what we found when working in our team, there is two that code well, and the other two do art work, but in complete different styles.
However our social skills, are only from what we can see when we chat on webinars, we don’t actually know how each other copes in different scenarios, for example under pressure, change of ideas, loosing a team member etc…
But we are only now starting to really work together, sacrifices must be made, in order to move forward with the team development.
Measuring Team Performance
Metrics – come into play from all aspects of agile development, and help with high performing teams.
How to measure the success of the team
Teams must share what is important to them as a whole
You must not try to measure everything
You should avoid metrics that are; demotivating
Belinda Waldock discusses 2 kinds of metrics – Vanity metrics and Sanity metrics. She advises you to focus on the sanity metrics, due to them being more in-depth, helps the team grow, encourages a positive result, which my interpretation would be…”less talk and more action,” and in this case the “actions” speak louder than words.
Mike Cohn – Advanced Topics in Agile Planning
Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat software, explains how the velocity metric can be used to improve the accuracy of agile planning. He quotes;
“Velocity is the amount of work that a team finishes or plans to finish within a iteration or sprint.”
(Cohn 2021)
I found the two planning scenario’s that could be applied to our team, listed as follows;
A team with no velocity. (A brand new team that does not know each other.)
A team changing size.(A team that seems to loose or gain a member, and the rest of the team needs to adapt.)
Applying the Velocity metric
A brand new team; Cohn states, that for a brand new team, that doesn’t know anything about each other, they should get together, take the backlog item, break it into tasks and divide by the amount of hours.
I believe that a brand new team, needs to get to know each other first, before dealing with backlog items…I think even from Cohn’s point of view, knowing what skills you have in a new team is crucial, but also you should know little more about them, what they enjoy, what they want to learn, and any strengths or weaknesses that aren’t noted.
Week 7.2 – 13th July. 2021
Research – Dodo Concept Drawing’s
During the later part of the week, we had discussed if possible, about adding some critters, or prehistoric animals to the game.
a) To show the characters trying to survive
b) To add more More depth to the game
c) To add a bit of fun to the game, by adding Dodos, and some Jurassic Geese.
The character is collecting goods, click and point as a test.
So far small stones and branches disappear when collected.
No one is keen on the stone slab at the top, as we all agree it takes up to much space.
(Figure 4 : Land, Lakin, Ward, & Norton Concept Art / Pixel / Game Mechanics GIF)
Team Flow Theory
In Van den Hout, Davis, O.C. and Weggeman’s journal of psychology, they discuss flow experiences, their findings show that when the individual is in the ‘flow state’, this is thought to be an enjoyable, rewarding, and engaging experience. From their research they help you to understand the benefits of being in a flow state, how it can aid with creativity, what you produce seems to be somewhat better, and over all better work performance.(Bryce & Haworth, 2002; Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989; Fredrickson, 2001; Hektner, Schmidt, & Csikszentmihalyi, 2007; Massimini & Carli, 1988).
Flow is more likely to occur when people perceive a challenge or an opportunity for action that meets (or slightly exceeds) their skill level, which promotes deeper engagement.
(Van den Hout, Davis, O.C. and Weggeman 2018) .
Nine Key Elements
Flow experiences tend to be characterised by nine key elements
Three of them have been identified as essential when entering the flow state.
(1) Clear goals at every stage of the activity;
(2) Clear and quick feedback on the individuals actions and progress
(3) Challenges, or opportunities for action, that needs more skill.
(4) A sense that one has control over the situation and no fear of failure, that is, a sense that one can deal with the situation because one knows how to respond to whatever happens next!?
(5) Intense and focused concentration on the activity at hand, such that all of one’s thoughts, effort, and attention are directed at the current task, and distractions are totally excluded from consciousness
(6) A merging of action and awareness, meaning that one’s involvement in an activity is so intense that the appropriate and constructive responses become spontaneous and automatic
(7) The loss of reflective self-consciousness, such that all concern for the self disappears and the person perceives a sense of unity with the activity
(8) A distorted sense of the passage of time
(9) Autotelicity — the activity is done for its own sake or is intrinsically rewarding, such that the stated goal tends to be an excuse for engaging in the process
References
Castka, P., Bamber, C. J., Sharp, J. M. and Belohoubek, P. 2001. Factors affecting successful implementation of high-performance teams. Team Performance Management, 7(7/8), pp.123-134.
Van den Hout, J.J., Davis, O.C. and Weggeman, M.C., 2018. Theconceptualization of team flow. The Journal of psychology, 152(6), pp.388-423.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh S., Nakamura J. 2014 Flow. In: Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology. Springer, Dordrecht. Available at : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9088-8_15[Accessed 14/07/21]
To begin this week, I have found a really good chapter in; Scott Rogers book Level up – A Guide to Great Video Game Design. He lists all the key objectives, that need to be seen or mentioned throughout a pitch presentation.
Rogers states the importance of making each part of the pitch a) easy to read, b) to show a few words at a time, c) show more pictures, d) make sure you have a variety of images, and to keep your audience engaged!.
Key areas to include below;
Title screen with Logo
Company Profile
High Concept
Who your game is for?
Why everyone should care about your game?
What your game is about?
How your game will be awesome/ What makes it different?
He advises to only show some of your best pieces that will make your game stand out from the rest, and not to show more then necessary, as it could overwhelm your audience you are presenting too.
“A pitch is a streamlined, easily digestible version of your game design document. It contains everything that’s great and original about your game with out all the “twiddle bits”.
(Rogers 2014 : 451)
The Art of Game Design
In comparison to Jesse Schell’s book; The Art of Game Design, discusses the 12 pitch tips, however the only tips that I need to apply are; showing passion for the game, understand from their point of view, be aware of all details, and to be confident.
I always think confidence can sometimes make you sound like a “know it all”, but in this instance, Schell explains by believing in yourself, you are showing that you believe in your game, and your team.
“Being confident means you are sure your game will be perfect for the client and that your team is the perfect team to pull it off.”
(Schell 2013 :528)
This now leads me to discuss our performance, with the practice pitch.
Week 6.2 – 7th July. 2021
Pitch practice in action!
This slide needs to be worked on – more detail to be added about the game references we are using. We cannot assume the audience knows our references already. We need to highlight what particular element that inspired us from that game.
(Figure 1 : Land 2021 Game References)
This slide was never added, but after the feed back from the judges, I think we need to add it in here, straight after the concept slide, with a Mood board to show the colours we were going to be using.
I think it helps to clarify to the audience what the stages are, and helps to make the level seem more engaging. They will have an idea of the end goal for the first level.
(Figure 2 : Norton 2021 Game Map)
How the player moves, what actions they do and how to control them needs to be shown. (following with another slide)
(Figure 3 : Larkin 2021 Mechanics)
Retrospective of the journey so far…
Their are three main areas, that are considered throughout the retrospective;
What should be started?
1) A coloured mood board.
2) Adding the isometric map into pitch deck, visually show where the player starts and finishes.
3) A short storyboard to introduce the characters, background and game name.
What should be stopped?
1) Burning the candle at both ends.
What should be continued?
1) Using the 10 Pitch slides.
2) Developing the game demo.
Retrospective is key to reflect on what happened, any iterative processes put in place which didn’t work, analyse why and devise a plan to avoid it happening next time around. But keep simple.
As Schell would say:
Your pitch should be accessible, have surprises, have a good interest curve
(a hook, a build, tense and release, a climax), etc. It should have a good aesthetic design, favoring images over words whenever possible.
Your pitch should be elegant, focusing primarily on what is unique about your game, why it will succeed against the competition, and why it is a good fit for the person you are pitching it to.
(Schell 2013 : 477)
Further Research – Pitch Retrospective -Gigaom
I have delved a little deeper into pitch retrospectives from a judges point of view, and have found this tweet, that is a really great point.
My first experience for the practice pitch, and my after thoughts were completely on track with this quote below. I started to feel like we were trying to make the game more complex than need be.
I feel its good to show why you should play the game, what the characters do, what the rewards are, to keep you glued to the screen, but I don’t think we need to add anything else.
“The trick, therefore, is to present something simple: while this may only be a subset of what you do, it may be enough to move you forward. The more complicated it is, the less of a pitch it becomes.”
(Gigaom 2018)
References
ROGERS, Scott. 2014. Level Up ; The Guide To Great Video Game Design. 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SCHELL, Jesse. 2020. The Art of Game Design ; Book of Lenses. 3rd edn. Tailor & Francis Group
I started this week with an academic article; Building and Nurturing Trust Among Members in Virtual Project Teams, by Lukić and Vračar
They discuss the advantages of working remotely, and in virtual project teams, how productive it is, what skills you learn, the way to build trust in virtual project teams, and suggest methods and activities that can help strengthen trust in remote teams.
“One of the major trends widely adopted by
numerous businesses worldwide is the establishment of virtual project teams, which allows members to work
from remote locations regardless of their time zone, nation or culture and to collaborate using various information systems and technologies.”
(Lukić and Vračar 2018)
I found this reading to fit perfectly with the Co – Creative Design & Development Practice module we are currently in, especially for our team!
We have3 different time zones, 3 different countries, and we all use different systems and technologies to one another, with totally differentpersonalities.
Lukić and Vračar, discuss methods and activities such as;
New approaches to recruiting an effective team leader.
Establishing behaviour.
Creating a reward system for performance.
Maintaining a positive organisation.
Having regular and reliable communication, such as; virtual team meetings, and occasional face-to-face meetings.
Organising team-building activities.
Implementing new activities – to help with Team Development
Since the new team leader has taken over the role, I feel the above methods and activities, are already in place, however the last point mentioned, is really the only thing we need to put into action, to build more trust throughout our team.
But right now since we are working towards the practice pitch and checking all the art work is correct, that it has been converted to pixel art, the basic mechanics are working for one of the main characters, the name of the game is confirmed, with documents in play, such as Trello, Google Drive, Miro, and we are working on our communication, through the use of Discord, I think we are in a very strong position, trust is building, very slowly…but surely which is helping the team to create a strong bond, roots are taking place.
Distributed Scrum – Part 1
In Alcwyn Parker’s video, he reveals where and how issues can arise with communication – most of the time, meetings are where the problems start, not from what was said, but the tone it was said in.
“Each team member should take ownership of their own decision’s made whilst in a meeting”
(Parker 2020)
I feel this is an area we struggle with, although we are working on making ourselves clear, it seems we need to work harder with our communication, especially in webinar meetings. One thing I shall put into action is;
To research some of the other avenues the guys are working on, so I can gain a better understanding of the technical terminology. Which will be one less conversation we need to worry about, and focus on the actual game development.
Distributed Scrum – Part 2
Since the second video discusses the use of the Trello Board, for organisation with the simple Kanban board, I thought I would show ours, and what the team is individually working on, has completed and needs to do.
Each team member in a scrum meeting, should have access to the team content, and should be able to ask the question;
What did I do yesterday?
What am I going to do today?
Do I have any blockers?
According to the scrum strategy, the scrum master should be in all meetings, to make sure that the direct line of communication is not broken.
(Parker 2020)
Method – Alternative meetings;
To make the webinars at different times of the week, where all the team can be present, rather than put all the weight on the scrum masters shoulders, and for him to attend every meeting, for all different time zones and report to the others.
I think its a much more friendly approach to do what we are currently doing, meet every wednesday at 12pm which suits everyone, and every Monday at 6pm with our supervisor. Plus in between we communicate more throughout the week, on the Discord channel, and always try and comment on each others work, just so we know we are all on the same level, and there is no miscommunication.
Week 5.2 – 29th June. 2021
Design Style Guides
A document that sets out the clear guidelines of a brands visual identity, and is to be upheld by all team members, can be short or long, but allows each team member to be working on their own thing, whilst keeping on track with the brand of the company.
Why create a style guide?
The points below are just some of the reasons, why all company’s should have this put in practice as they are;
Quick to set up.
Good for client communication.
Creates consistency within the team.
Helps simplify the collaboration process.
Helps the new team members to understand the brand.
Makes all communication look professional.
In keeping with the style guide content, this is what I created for the “Isometric Style Guide” in the beginning, however it wasn’t used because the tiles were created in Adobe Illustrator, and my peer wanted to convert them into pixel art, using a different application.
Mixed signals?
I wasn’t keen on this idea, as the only one thing I really wanted to add to this game, was a textured environment, which is why I spent a good couple of hours working on the tiles, to make them look as real as possible.
More importantly, the outcome was not so straight forward, and the only lesson, that I have gained from this part of the team journey is;
To make sure you know who is doing what from the start, I suppose it all comes down to making sure you have a good clear design style guide from the beginning of the teams journey.
These are my Isometric tiles, I thoroughly enjoyed this process, especially as it was another first for me.
(Figure 2 : Norton 2021 Isometric tile-sets)
How they were incorporated?
The GIF below, shows my textured grass tile – sets, from when they were placed into Unity, using the Isometric 2.5D grid.
Issue – Grass Tile – sets
I was so excited when I got to view the Gif for the very first time, seeing my tiles in action, it felt so good to be part of this project!
However, I realised they were rather big when I saw them in this GIF, they didn’t join up perfectly, although I could have amended these, and made them smaller.
But we had a problem, due to me using Adobe Illustrator, to get a real natural grass/ and ground effect, my peer was using Piskel, a pixel drawing application, when I sent my art work over to him to convert, we found the sizes to be a complete mis-match.
(Figure 3 : Larkin and Norton 2021 – Grass Tile-set in Unity 2.5D)
Resolving the issue
We decided to avoid this mis- match from happening again, we started to make more time for each other, a time that fit us both to clarify each week what needed to be worked on, what was being worked on, and had been completed.
Although this is exactly how the Kanban Trello board is played out, and I do check it once a week to see what everyone is working on, and I have been updating for the guys, as I had agreed when we were distributing the documents, however I think we all as individuals need to update it at least once a week ourselves, so that we are all on the same page.
Style Guide below for; The Wild Branch
(Figure 4 : Land 2021 – Style Guide – for Logo)
Week 5.3 – 30th June. 2021
Charting The Course: The Effects of Team Charters
McDowell, Herdman and Aaron’s academic study is focused on finding ways to improve team performance. Their research looks closely at how, ‘Team Charters‘, help with improved process outcomes, including a list of characteristics such as; communication, effort, support and the over all bond between the team.
Communication within a team is an important facet of the team’s overall teamwork quality. Frequent, informal and direct communication among team members is important to team functioning and performance
(Hoegl & Gemuenden, 2001).
(McDowell, Herdman, and Aaron. 2011)
Improved Development
McDowell, Herdman and Aaron discovered that teams who were introduced to the team charter from the beginning, increased their level of key characteristics, that are important, for the creation of teamworkquality.
They encourage managers and organisations, that rely on teams to be aware of the benefits of building an effective team charter in the team formation process.
What the outcome is for our Team?
I have found the team charter to be a great way, for each member to display;
What we each enjoy?
Why we took the course?
What our aims/ goals are for the end of the masters ?
What skills we each want to develop?
What skills we already have and what level of proficiency?
So far, I have been researching mission statements, to start the team charter, and I created a couple, but the one below is what I suggested on Discord, and the team all agreed with me.
Mission statement
The Wild Branch is committed to making games that can grow with the ever changing audiences of today, through humorous puzzle adventures.
(Norton 2021)
When looking at other mission statements, I found them to be completely unique and individual to the company or organisation.
I tried to think from a different perspective, as though we were a professional mini game company starting up, and what we would like our new potential customers to know about our style, and the audience that our games are directed to.
References
LUKIĆ, J. M. and VRAČAR, M. M. 2018. Building and nurturing trust among members in virtual project teams. Strategic Management-International Journal of Strategic Management and Decision Support Systems in Strategic Management, 23(3).
MCDOWELL, W., HERDMAN, A. and AARON, J. 2011. Charting the course: the effects of team charters on emergent behavioral norms’. Organization Development Journal, 29(1), p.79.
RALPHY GETS ANIMATED..? 