Managerial postmortem
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Student group members would say in perfect unison “With little or no experience, we did our best, to make the game”, to summarize the project. But individual student members in different minors might bring different overlook on the project. From a perspective of a project manager I would like to summary the project itself in following parts: goal, purpose, playtesting, prerequisites, and progress. Project goal. The goal of the project to produce the game according to the concept and course requirements was reached. The group released the final version of the game Aethereal 2D (v1.0.0) on time, i.e. 15/03/2018, and successfully passed two milestones – alpha (v0.4.3) and beta (v0.6.6), on time 14/02/2018 and 05/03/2018 respectively. The alpha, beta and final versions were provided and accepted by the sponsor. Project purpose. Purpose of the project – learn how to produce a game in a student group using Scrum, was fulfilled in a way, that the group members learned multi-disciplinary approach and collaboration to develop the digital game product, using Scrum as a primary method. All students in the group collaborated and contributed in the project according to their minor, i.e. game design, programming, graphics art, and project management. The selected game versions were also provided to test players during pre-alpha, pre-beta, and final play testing sessions on 12/02/2018, 02/03/2018, and 15/03/2018. Playtesting. During each session the group conducted a qualitative survey with specific questionnaires in tree different versions. During play testing sessions, the student test players were invited for play testing the game. The test players were observed, and observations recorded. Every test player was asked to fill a questionnaire. Observation and survey records were analyzed, and results from two playtesting reflected by the group in the sprints planning followed the play testing session. Prerequisites. The purpose of the project was to learn how to make a digital game by student group, whereas the goal of the project was to produce the game. The project was limited by the course syllabus and provided game concept. According to the syllabus requirements, the game should be developed within a period of 10 weeks, using Scrum as a method. The prerequisite of the project was the student game concept, that defined the game product in conceptual level and setup the scope of the project. Student group was consisted of 5 game design major student in 4 minors: 1 game designer, 1 programmer, 2 graphics artists, and 1 project manager. The student group was identified with high diversity, based on age, gender, race, nationality, handicap, and previous education background. The communication language in the group was English, and ESL proficiency was mixed among the members. All student members had little or no previous experience with game development, but attended introduction minor courses in game design, programming, graphic design, and project management, according to the syllabus for 1st year students. Project progress. Project started in W3/2018, and finished in W12/2018, thus the project duration was 10 weeks according to the plan. The game development plan included 3 consequent milestones: alpha, beta, and final, representing 3 different key versions of the game product. Scrum was applied from 3rd week of the project, i.e. W5/2018, and stand to be the primary method to the end of the project. According to Scrum guidelines, sprints were time-boxed to 1 week, thus in total 8 consequent sprints were passed. Each sprint was started by a Sprint Planning meeting, and evaluated in Sprint Review meeting. The results from sprint planning and review meetings were recorded in Scrum Sheet according to guidelines. To prioritize tasks from 3rd sprint, MoSCoW method was used. Beside the Scrum Sheet, the group kept an activity log using two Slack channels during the whole project. Scum daily meetings were arranged irregularly during all sprints, either on-site as in 15min. stand-up, or on-line as status message over Slack. The project outcomes: alpha, beta, and final versions of the game were delivered on time,and passed the course requirements.  |