Sunday, May 20, 2007

Personal / Team Reflection to date

This is a requirement due to the marking schedule. Each member of the game design class has to write 750 words about the three sections of the game that are already complete and marked. i.e. story, logic and design document. We’re to write about our involvement and what we think about the final outcome. Each team leader has to write a little more, they’ve got to reflect on each other team member i.e. Dino has to write about all the members in his team, I’ve got to write about everyone.

Our marks are as follows:

Story: 8/10

Logic: 7/10

Design Document: 8/10

Story was the first thing started as a class. It started as a group discussion about anything and everything. We were just trying to get a general idea of what we could create for our game. Our main idea / theme of time came from a conversation I initiated between Scott and myself. Initially it was a small conversation about time and how it affects the world. We were talking about what would happen if time was stoped / paused and you could walk sideways and how the light waves would bend and change our perspective or would we just cease to exist. I was really getting into the conversation when Jason said that the rest of the class should be listening to what we were talking about. So there arose the main theme, although it was developed into a parallel universe the main idea of time was due to Scott and I. My input seemed to be hugely influential within the story over the next few weeks. It’s been some time since we had our brainstorm so I’m still a little confused as to what input I had, but if I remember it was a considerable amount. I managed to sway a few minds off ideas that I personally didn’t like. Maybe that’s why I became the project manager.

The rest of the class took some warming up to get into the brainstorm, that also may be one of the reasons my ideas were so influential as I was one of the few actually saying stuff at the beginning. It soon became apparent who was going to become a huge part within the game. Cody seemed to speak up quite a lot. Joseph is always loud and always says his 2cents. I agree with Joseph’s way of thinking and rarely disagreed. Cody on the other hand has a different way of thinking. It’s hard to explain in words, but I do notice it. Jared too has the same way of thinking; I think it’s their logic. I personally don’t quite understand it sometimes, Jared more so that Cody. Never the less these two, Cody and Jared, seemed to have a large influence on the story. Both are natural writers. Cliff is another whom I rarely disagreed with. They seem to think on the same level as I do. Cliff was another whom had a decent say in what happened in the class. We already know that Cliff is an avid RPG guy so he was frustrated with some of the ideas but he seemed to warm to them. Returning to Jared, He appears to be a quite boy whom doesn’t say too much, but he did input his ideas. They, to me were conflicting with my ideas so little debates popped up now and then with an even share of winnings. Dino and Scott amazed me, to be honest is didn’t quite see them saying too much but they were in with a shot and quite easily said what was on their mind. Both had similar ideas to me and I agreed with the majority of them. Lincoln too was outspoken. He seemed to agree with majority of what was said, James was just as outspoken as Lincoln.

There was to begin with a bit of a language barrier between those whom spoke English as their primary language and those that spoke say Japanese or Chinese. Jason is a quite member of the class and didn’t really speak up too much. He did listen to what we were saying and when asked if he liked what we were doing and talking about he did respond. Other than that he didn’t say too much. Carter was a little more confident. He did speak up every now and then, and since the starting classes he has improved dramatically. So too has Jason. Keshiwei was one whom didn’t say much. We almost had to physically threaten her into speaking, she did say a little, a little more than Eugene, who sat in the corner of the room doing something completely different. He didn’t say anything at all. I personally was quite disappointed in this. As I’ve said before it, makes it hard to work with someone who doesn’t want to do what they’ve been assigned.

Ellie had more say than Keshiwei but again didn’t seem too interested. However she has warmed to the class. Ellie’s participation was more so in the story than in the logic and design document, but still could have been better.

The classes contribution to the story depreciated when the story team was delegated the task of taking over.

Logic:

Logic for me and the rest of the class was only done in the initial brainstorms. It was the basic story of how our main character, Alex, is transported to the parallel universe along with Eva. How their mission is to rebuild the machine, rescue the professor and return safely back to the real world. Therefore the main arc was created by the class as a whole. The nitty gritty, confusing stuff was down to our logic team Cliff and Joseph. Joseph has always been off the planet in his way of thinking and I was pretty sure that he would come up with a twisted and out of it logic tree. Personally I would have liked Cliff to be the Leader for the Story Team but Jared was elected, not to worry I can work with Jared. The reason for this is due to an argument Jared and I had over some of the logic in the story. Cliff whom heard what we were talking about agreed with what I was saying. Jared seems to be defiant. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that sees this and I’m sure that he’s a really nice dude. He just sometimes gets on my nerves.

Design Document:

I did a lot of this. About 70% was written by me but then again I went back and referred to the people I had to so really about 30 – 40%. Lincoln helped a lot for the first draft copy along with Jared’s contribution for the story half of the document. Joseph wrote the Sound section. Cliff helped with the finishing touches for example the contents and appendix. Cody went through the rendering section as it’s his idea on cell shading.

1 comment:

Joseph Jujnovich said...

Wish I had read this sooner, but nice blog. You seem to grasp personalities well, and you also have a great memory.

I'm not sure I would have remembered all those things.

Read 'personality traitor' for my analysis of Jared and Cody. I intend to do one for everyone at some point.