I've never written a blog before yet the need to catalog my experiences in game development has led me to this moment and place. I suppose the most appropriate place to begin is with a quick introduction. I'm David Merritt, a senior Management of Creative Media major with a specialization on games production. I've helped manage a few small projects at this point but never one with the weight and length of the capstone project that looms before me. I've been told by teams that I have worked with that I am indeed a good producer (producer is the title of the role that is assigned to me on game projects, though in truth it is closer to project manager) yet I always have felt inadequate in my role on any team. I struggle for instance with technology - video and photo editing are something I avoid dabbling in. Marketing is another area I tend to struggle in personally. I'm decent at coming up with a marketing strategy but lack the experience and know-how to then put that plan into actionable steps. Another area I struggle with is disciplinary action - specifically when a team member doesn't perform to the standard that their team expects of them or needs from them. This is something that continually caused my last game project to suffer during my Junior year in 'Production II'.
Disregarding technology (at least in part), I hope that this final game project will be the moment I hit my stride as a game producer. Consequently, I've chatted with some of my peers about what to do with my weaknesses, particularly with the problem of discipline within the team. I've had a small range of advice from "don't be afraid to tell that problem team member that they're causing issues" to "get the teacher involved" or even "have them sign a contract based on what is expected of them." I think all of this advice has some merit to it, but the one that intrigues me the most is the contract. Thinking about the contract solution, I realize that it would be valuable for the entire team (including myself), not just a single, 'problem' team member. An upfront contract, signed by each member of the team would allow us all to hold each other accountable, with known disciplinary actions set should anyone of us breach the terms. I find it almost strange that the teaching staff here at college don't have every team create and sign a contract to help reduce drama and the stresses of production. The contract is something I have brought up with my team who are in complete support of the idea. This is something we are going to be writing and signing within the next week as our project ramps up.
Speaking of my team, I should introduce you to who we are. The team currently stands at five people: one producer (that's me), one designer, two programmers (one who specializes in back-end tools, the other who specializes in front-end polish), and one artist. This last week of production, our very first week of capstone, has been slow unfortunately because we needed to brainstorm for a game project to pursue, and wait on one programmer to get back to school (he was abroad till about midweek). Capstone is quite open ended for game production - we can pretty much make anything we want in terms of mechanics, story and gameplay. We (the team) decided to each come up with ten game concepts to bring to the meeting. At the meeting, we would eliminate concepts that didn't stand out or intrigue us until up to three remained for prototyping. This process took the entire team meeting time this week (we settled on a top-down, cooperative shooter as our top contender). Because of this, my workload this week has basically been setting up our team's wiki page on Redmine, finding a team meeting time, and facilitating the brainstorming meeting. Thankfully, my team seems eager, ready to begin, and got along very well during that first meeting - something I hope continues as the semester moves forward. The team also chose a team brand or name to call ourselves - we are "Bullet Mullet: 'Business in the Front, Party in the Back'." I'm told the slogan is very important.
Moving forward as producer on this project, my next steps are fairly straight forward. I want to agree and sign the team contract, set up a working meeting time (a time when the team physically works in the same space on the project), and agree on a code freeze/soft close to the sprints. For now, preparation for class tomorrow is my main goal. Well, that and getting this blog post set. Until next week, this is David, producer for Bullet Mullet, signing off.
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