Postmortem
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After however many weeks it has been (I think 8) our game is finally finished, and the question I will now ask myself is: “What have we accomplished?” and “What have I learned?” The answer to the first question is pretty simple. My team has managed to put together a short yet concise shootemup’ game. We did this based of a predesigned concept document which we selected, and we developed the game using the scrum framework. From the concept document we had to decide on essential features and designs based of what we found to be feasible within the timeframe. It is by no means a perfect game, and looking back there are a few things I wish we would have done differently, but on the whole there are no reasons for me to not feel impressed with what we have managed to accomplish. Regarding what I’ve learned throughout this process, it is a lot. I would argue that the entire process has been a learning experience, every part of the process has resulted in newfound knowledge in one form or another. Because of the way the process was meant to emulate the ones traditionally used within the industry, I feel like I now have an understanding of what it would/will be like to work on future projects. While I think the entire experience as a whole has value, a few valuable lessons stood out to me. Around the time of the Beta presentation I fell ill and was unable to work on my tasks for about a week. What surprised me when I came back was how much progress the team had made, as well as how much the product differed from when I left it. It was difficult for me as the project manager to get a grasp of what tasks had been accomplished and what was being worked on. My main takeaway from this is that work progresses faster than one might expect, and it is there fore important to minimize the time one spends away from the project, or alternatively have an efficient way to keep track of workflow even without participating. In addition to the latter, my sudden illness definitely emphasized the importance of having a backup plan. The plan was initially for me to hold the Beta presentation, but when I fell ill I had to make sure my group could handle it without me. It all worked out since I made it clear early that there was a chance of me not being able to show up and my group was quick to act on it (At least it seems to have turned out that way, I wasn’t there to see it in person), but it served as a clear demonstration that problems can occur when you least expect them to, and when it is the worst time for it. Basically I learned that Murphy’s Law exists in the video game industry as well.  |