Homework 4: Teamwork

1. Do you love your project/game. If not, how can that be changed? 

 I don't know that I would say that I 'love' my game, mostly because horror is not a favorite genre of mine.  I think it can be changed if we merged styles of other games into our game (like puzzles, or simulators).

2. Does the team as a whole love the project? If not, what can be done? 

I think the team as a whole likes the idea, based solely on the enthusiasm that I see when we meet and discuss game ideas as a team.  My team members seem passionate about getting their ideas for the game included which comes across as a passion for the game.

3. Are the team members communicating with each other?

For the most part, almost all team members respond to group messages in a timely manner and attend our group meetings.  We have one group member who hasn't been responding to messages, missed the last group meeting and who I haven't seen in class recently, so I'm not entirely sure that he's still in the course.

4. Does the team have a regular meeting schedule? What is that schedule? 

Our regular meeting time is on Wednesdays at 3:30pm in Strozier Library 2nd floor.  Right now this is the best time for us to meet as a whole team, but as the game progresses we may have regular sub-group meetings with only certain members of the team to work on particular elements.

5. Describe the modes of communication between the team members. 

We created a facebook group with only the members because it was decided that everyone was most likely to check messages if they were on facebook.  We use this page to schedule meetings, poll group members on decisions, and make announcements pertaining to the game.  We use the game notebook to take notes during our meetings and as a place to put our ideas when we are not together.  We also have most of each others phone numbers in case we need to make more urgent communication.

6. Regarding game documents, what must be remembered while designing your game?

It must be remembered to record all ideas in the game document.  People can't remember everything that they say and you don't want that gem of an idea you had while talking about your game over a beer to be forgotten just because you didn't write it down and forgot about.  Also, recording all ideas allows you see all ideas that were presented and combine ideas that may not have worked individually but work well together.
Also, the game document is an important part of communicating with your team members.  Everyone puts their ideas on the document, including text/pictures/video/blender files which demonstrate these ideas.  Other group members use these ideas and included media to shape their own idea (for example, members who are modeling characters/objects in the game might look to the artists' interpretation of the game universe (through drawing/videos/etc..) to determine what style their models should adhere to).