Week 2 – M730 – RALPHY GETS ANIMATED..?

Week 2.1 – 4th June. 2021

Global Game Jam

The reading I began with this week is, Video Game Development in a Rush: A Survey of the Global Game Jam Participants. They focus on the effects of time pressure, to the 48hour Global Game Jam Hackathon.

From the 198 responses, they find that;

“Iterative brainstorming is the most popular method for conceptualizing initial requirements; regular communication, internal playtesting, and dynamic and proactive planning are the most common quality assurance activities; and familiarity with agile development has a weak correlation with perception of success in the GGJ.”
(Borg, M. 2020: 246-259)

After reading about the iterative processes, we put our rapid ideation plan into action, after all, if this is to be the most popular part which helps with communication within the team from day 1, then I think it’s important to encourage new teams to put this into practice from the moment they are formed.

Team Name

For our team name we all had a few ideas, and jotted them down onto Discord, however afterwards I looked into this article; “What’s in a Name? A Lot When It Comes to Innovation”.

This helped to clarify, that we shouldn’t be focusing on fun and creative names, but rather think seriously about our main aim for this team project, and make it clear through a simple team name.

The best names are boring names
Executives charged with launching new business groups might be tempted to ask which of these naming systems is best. But it’s not as simple as choosing between good, better, and best. To find the right name, consider three elements:
(Pollak, L. and Wakid, K. 2011)

Points to remember

The company’s openness to long-term growth opportunities
The message you need to send about the role of the group
The types of growth projects you want your team to work on

We decided on; The Wild Branch. This was a name we voted on, and for me I interpreted it as we would be exploring unique sustainability concepts, a lot of them involved trees, plants and regrowth. Which is the same way in which we would like the game to go, to continue growing, allowing its roots to go deeper into the ground, becoming strong and stable.

Weekly Challenge – Forming Storming and Norming

Firstly we start the week creating a Rapid Ideation Plan.

We decided to create a google document, that would cover all the areas, for the group working ideation process, which follows with;

Team Composition
File storage / Version Control
Communication Strategy
Individual Tasks
Group Schedule
Tools and techniques
Performance Goals

1) Team Composition

The composition below is the updated one from week 3, as everything had to be amended due to a team member leaving.

2) File storage /Version Control

Between the current team of 5 we decide to continue using Github, as we all had it set up and installed, and thought it would be the best way of backing up all the files, and assets for the development of the game.

3) Communication

We all set up Discord, another thing I have never used before, but I have found it to be really helpful for our team of 5, especially with some being in different timezones.

4) Individual Tasks

We have chosen to stick with Trello, a simple Kanban Board, to help you keep on top with everything that needs to be completed, is currently being working on, or has been completed.

(Figure 2: Trello 2021 – Individual tasks)

5) Group Schedule

Our group schedule consisted of a meeting every week on Wednesday 12:00pm, and every Monday with our group supervisor in the evening at 6:00 pm, as it suited everyone.

6) Tools and Techniques

Another new tool Miro was set up, that I was not familiar with. It allows you to write anywhere, it does not seem as clear to follow as the Trello Board.

I found myself not knowing whether I was coming or going. Everyone was writing ideas on there, from all different angles of thought, and no clear area had been narrowed down. Finally everyone came to a decision on the theme Sustainability.

My game concepts for Sustainability

7) Performance goals

To move forwards together, and hit our deadlines as a team.
To make a few simple charts, so that the team can visualise all relevant data, timescales and stay organised.
To support each other !

Week 2.2 – 8th June. 2021

One of the other readings that interested me was investigated by Oakley, Felder, Brent, and Elhaji, in their academic report; Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams.

In their research, they help you to get a better understanding of how important it is, that as soon as the new team is formed, it is best practice to create a Team Policies Statement.

They also state it is very helpful to allow everyone to write about: expectations of what each individual can achieve within the time period.

To make note of…

I personally think this is a brilliant idea, and wish we had done this from the start. This would allow everyone then, to formulate an idea of the style you would be working on, how fast you can achieve each step, if the steps you take are necessary, or if the roles should be reversed, and most importantly if your opinions differ, and how to communicate clearly to avoid clashing.

Cooperative learning has been repeatedly shown to have strong positive effects on almost every
conceivable learning outcome.
Simply putting students in groups to work on assignments is not a sufficient condition for achieving these benefits, however.
Unless the instructor takes steps to assure that the groups develop the attributes associated with
high-performance teams, the group learning experience is likely to be ineffective and may be disastrous.
(Oakley, B., Felder, R.M, Brent, R. and Elhaji, I. 2004: 2:1)

References

BORG, M. et al. 2020. ‘Video Game Development in a Rush: A Survey of the Global Game Jam Participants’. IEEE Transactions on Games, 12(3), 246-259.

OAKLEY, B., FELDER, R.M, BRENT, R. and ELHAJI, I. 2004. ‘Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams’. New Forums Press, 2(1).

POLLAK, L. and WAKID, K. 2011. What’s in a Name? A Lot When It Comes to Innovation. Harvard Business Review.

Full List of Tools

Trello Inc. 2021.

Miro. 2011

Full List of Figures

Figure 1: Team Composition 2021

Figure 2: Trello 2021 – Individual tasks

Figure 3: Miro 2021 Teams Concepts