We are now 4 weeks into the semester, and have worked with 3 different teams on a bunch of prototypes. As a recap, my first team, Rats with Hats, made 3 different prototypes, one of which being digital and two being physical. We immediately worked well together, and were all able to use speed prototyping to figure out our three concepts before the first meeting. Every person on the team was focused and ready to contribute in every meeting, and we actually delivered on 3 prototypes, each with its own documentation and demo, which I think is fairly impressive for one week. Week 2 began with a brand new team, and we decided to do one new prototype. This team was different pretty much immediately. We had good chemistry, and got along well, but we quickly found out that we were easily distracted, and brainstorming was fairly unproductive, which yielded a weak prototype. Something I constantly make sure to do during meetings is challenge my teammates' reasoning for <insert idea here>, which helps refine and clarify the idea's purpose in the game. A few members of the team didn't take to that well, and didn't want to make changes if it meant that their idea had to be left out. Week 3 was... premeditated. We got to choose our own teams, and judging by the efficiency of our week 1 team, we all decided to get together again while adding another person who was on my second team. This is the team I'm in now, and this is the team I'll be moving forward with.
Rats with Hats has been reunited and gained an additional member, and we've taken on a big project. Since I've technically been with this team for 3 weeks, I can make an accurate judgement on the question at hand: which week was our strongest and why.
I can confidently say that Week 3 was our best week. In just one week, we were able to brainstorm, concept, and demo a project in VR, which is a feat in and of itself since none of us had ever developed in VR before. Personally, I've not had a team where everyone is able to help one another regardless of discipline (i.e programmers helping artists with art, designers helping programmers in-engine, etc.) and this is the very first time I've experienced that! Each of us has had a hand in building the prototype in-engine, and everyone has had big contributions to overall mechanics and concepts. Additionally, we take any feedback we can get, whether it's from class or from people who I ask to play the game, and we make improvements to either our process or project, whichever is being critiqued. Overall, it's been a really efficient, fun team to work with on such an exciting project.
Personally, I've been handling anything to do with VR, since I have the correct headset. I'm responsible for implementing any mechanics that have to do with VR, so implementing interactive objects, overseeing general code structure being implemented by designers, testing the levels in VR, and handling any lighting or advanced effects. Being that this project is in VR, and that I've never developed in this space before, it's been a whole HELL of a lot of learning, but it's also the most rewarding project I've ever worked on for that same reason.
Going forward, I want to bring the same mindset that this team has to other teams. We always keep our options open, and we always question why we do certain things to help make improvements. Bringing this mindset to another team, and perhaps introducing others to this dynamic workflow, would be awesome and definitely beneficial.
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