Jacob Dixey PPJ #9 + Personal Postmortem

 Jacob Dixey PPJ #9

Design Meeting - 1.5 Hours

Programming Meeting - 1 Hour

Art Meeting - 1.5 Hours

Bumping - 1.5 Hours

Smoke Vents - 3 hours


Bumping Versus Bouncing



Smoke Vents

What Went Right

Flying feels great to me now, which was one of, if not my biggest goals for this project. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, even though there's plenty more that could be done with it such as special techniques such as a barrel roll in replacement of banking, I think this is one accomplished goal. Level 5's design also took a very cool, quick turn around that I'm very happy with.

What Went Wrong

This was to be expected, but a good many few things have gone unfinished in my book. We could make variations on enemies such as giving the laser bots slower, homing shots, or making smaller sawblade bots that behave with "boids" logic.

What's Next

Work on the game should generally freeze and we should be focusing on getting out the press-kit, trailer, and other documents and presentations in order, especially the presentation and script for the demo.

Personal Postmortem

3 Good Things

  • I opened up a lot of opportunities for people to make changes to the game and enforced many meetings to ensure we always had time to talk.
  • I created solid movement, weapon, and camera system that can easily be added onto for further development and more interesting options and actions.
  •  Worked on areas outside of programming to ensure the completion of deliverables.

4 Bad Things

  • I did not keep documentation and tasks as up to snuff as I should have in every regard, from the GDD to the HacknPlan task boards to even the Sell Pitch iterations.
  •  I did not communicate enough and act as a proper leader through the week. With a tendency to work on things last minute, that led my communications to be rather last minute as well. Working last minute on more than I should bite off led to an unhealthy work schedule when combined with other school work during the week, meaning I was burnt out and taking a break into Saturday, making me work last minute again and perpetuating a vicious cycle throughout the term. This is easily the most difficult thing for me to combat because it's been a habit I've always had issue beating.
  • I let the negativity get to me as well. It's clear to see that on many weeks some work we had planned and okay'd did not complete or even get touched. It was upsetting to see and it shook my faith in the game, making it more difficult to work on when I not only needed to account for my work, but roll the dice on where we would be for the scrum presentation on a given week. As team co-lead it was my responsibility to take up these issues with the people creating them rather than wallow and let it become an expectation. It does neither the team nor them especially any good to let moments like that slip by without issue.
  • The game ended up rather bare-bones despite all of the work. I chalk this up to not taking the time to design more ideas for the game that could easily fit in without adding too much work. I will say that we likely would have not gotten to it given our pace, but I would rather be left with an unfinished game that knew where it needed to go than a complete one that doesn't feel complete. Though I opened a lot of chances to discuss and change the design of the game, I believe I did too much of this, as it made me hesitant to make any changes myself. My thinking was that I wanted others to have the opportunity to get what they wanted out of the game so that when they showed off the game they could be proud of the specific part they did. This betrayed me in that a lot of time was spent discussing the design when it ended up barely changing through both terms. Just recently I actually scolded team members for another project about this same thing because I recognized this issue. When people don't speak up and make things happen that's on them. I have to trust that either they don't care, like things as they are, or are too scared to talk, none of which are on me. I have to trust that if they really want to say something they'll say it, and I shouldn't put so much time waiting for them to say it.  

Lessons Learned

  • Start work early, even if it's only preliminary things that help me understand better the work that I'll undertake during the week. This initial work will reveal dependencies on other member's work we might have not realized and will help me better set out exactly where the game is. This is not a position specific lesson, but should be undertaken by every team member when possible to ensure no bad surprises pop up the day before things are due.
  • Be more communicative. Part of the benefit of treating this experience professionally is that there needn't be anything personal attached to calling somebody out for not completing their work or not completing it as agreed upon. If there is no proper reason given in advance then that is an issue worth getting into 
  • Ensure the game's design is solid without expecting further change from others. Then be ready to give up that design if new directions emerge from outside input. That is to say, don't leave design space for others to fill. It makes it harder for them to suggest new things because they don't get the whole picture from your hole-filled design and they will then have trouble suggesting new things and filling in the design because they won't feel like they're on the same page.




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