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Final Project Mastery

We have finally reached the end. It has been a long and winding journey to get here, but we have made it.

With our business plans mostly done, this month has largely been advice on how to navigate the post-Full Sail world. It heartens me to see that several of my classmates have already begun real-world work on their businesses. While my plans may take a decade or more to come to fruition, I believe I have learned some valuable lessons.

I have learned leadership and time management. I have learned how to fail and how to get back up. This past month, specifically, I have learned a lot about managing finances.

I think that one of the most important things that I will take away from this program is the importance of people. Whether it was Chris’ insistence that we hire accountants, Lizzy’s philosophy on separating people from their problems, or team dynamics I have personally experienced in my own projects, the “right” people have been at the heart of everything. Even this past month has been filled with tales of important people and their exploits. I think that it speaks to my Full Sail experience that Bill claims to have been most impressed not by the veritable horde of celebrities he has encountered, but by the man who gave his life’s work away for free: Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

Wherever I end up in life, whether Skeleton Key Sound ever becomes more than daydream, I hope to fill my life with these kinds of people. I know that only the “right” people will unlock a project’s full potential, but that even the “wrong” people can be developed to become better than themselves. I know that we are never perfect as we are, but only as we continually strive to learn from those around us.

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Business Plan Development Mastery

This month, I met and exceeded my original goals.

My first goal was to “look into other DAWs,” citing a specific Reaper tutorial on Lynda.com.  Not only have I been learning Reaper, but I have begun dabbling in Sound Forge as well.  I find it a little humorous that even all those months ago I was getting annoyed with Pro Tools.  With failing support for older versions, I had little choice but to look elsewhere.  Fortunately, I have had plenty of opportunities to learn other software.

The second goal was to read Ric Viers’ Sound Effects Bible.  While I have not sat down to read it cover-to-cover (the author himself actually recommends against this), I have found myself referencing it more often.  It is comforting to have a quick index for my basic design questions instead of weeding through all the Internet drivel.

Finally, I had tasked myself to purchase business cards.  I was ahead of myself by several months on this one.  However, the cards only reflect my audio brand.

I have also accomplished things I could not have guessed I would be working on back then.  Through my work with CelleC, I have had the opportunity to get back into dialogue editing and to play with 8-bit effects.  This month alone, I have cut vocals, gotten a game Greenlit, and expanded my repertoire of professional tools.  I have updated my website and begun cultivating a hybrid personal brand of both audio and brand storytelling, all for independent games.

On a related note, I have continued to grow my branding knowledge.  In addition to managing the social media for several CelleC games and Above: The Fallen, I have expanded my network.  I attended the Full Sail-sponsored Brand New You event with Phil Pallen and made several new contacts, included Leslie Brathwaite and Phil himself.

The class itself has taught me one very important lesson: hire people smarter than yourself.

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Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution Mastery

As seems to be the pattern, my original goals for this month did not line up with what I actually accomplished.

In month one, I was relatively unsure what to expect for this class.  My goals were therefore focused largely on my own personal projects and what I would accomplish around classwork.  Fortunately, the actual classwork turned out to be far more beneficial than I anticipated.

My first goal was to “learn more about my line of work” by watching a Lynda video entitled Digital Audio Principles.  Though I did not watch the video, I got a lot of hands-on experience this month.  In a moment of pure serendipity, a game I am working on is going through the Steam Greenlight process this month.  It was very fortunate that my publishing and distribution class fell around the same time several of my games are entering that phase.

My second goal was to finish all assignments by Saturday morning.  Well.  It is Saturday evening as I write this, and the rest of this week’s homework assignments are in various stages of completion.  However, I have generally changed my plan of attack since the month one timeline.  Because I have taken on so many projects, I tend to split my day as follows: audio before dinner, homework after, short gaming breaks interspersed.  I think I accomplished the spirit of the goal if not the goal itself.

Finally, I aimed to record more of my effects (as opposed to pulling from libraries).  This goal I actually reached.

Overall, this class has been incredibly beneficial to both my official career path and my personal aspirations.  I am very thankful for the opportunity to look in-depth at the world of book publishing, and this class has given me something akin to hope for the prospects of my novel.

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Advanced Entertainment Law Mastery

In my undergrad copyright law class, I did not do as well as I would have liked.  Consequently, most of my original goals for this month involved outperforming the original class.

Though I did not watch the Lynda video Understanding Copyright: a Deeper Dive, I participated in animated class discussions about copyright law and fair use.  Copyright was thoroughly detailed in class, and I would argue that I fulfilled my, “learn more about copyright” objective.

My second goal was to read provided materials thoroughly.  Contrary to my undergrad class, I did just that.  I have read a little from the assigned books, though I should probably continue doing so even after AEL.  Moreover, the notes I took have been comprehensive and useful.

My final goal was crafted under the assumption that Advanced Entertainment Law would be as over-my-head as the undergrad copyright course.  Interestingly, an opportunity to, “talk to the instructor even if I think my questions are dumb,” has yet to arise.  I understand that a lot could change in the next three classes, but I seem to be retaining the course material well.

Advance Entertainment Law was far more palatable and easy to understand than I could have hoped.  The benefits of a basic understanding of entertainment law are abundant and obvious, and I feel I have grown as both a student and entertainment professional because of this course.

To my chagrin, I also seemed to have acquired a taste for listening to court cases. I listened to both the arguments and opinions of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association for my final paper.  I enjoyed them beyond their educational value and looked up a few others purely for pleasure.  I am not sure another hobby is really what I need, but seeing the scope of my inner geek widen is always heartening.

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Product and Artist Management Mastery

Of my original goals, I did not officially meet many of them.  The first was to watch a Lynda video entitled, Cleaning and Repairing Audio with Audacity.  Audacity is a digital audio workstation.  While I neglected to learn more about Audacity, I have begun the Wwise certification courses.  In my honest opinion, these are more valuable than the Audacity tricks. I do not intend to ignore the Audacity video; I will just wait until I need to clean or repair audio to watch it.

My second goal was to earn a final grade of 95 or higher through at least one hour of study every night.  Though grades are not fully in yet, I still have a shot at the 95-overall grade. While I did not schedule one hour of reading or studying each night, I still put in a lot of work.  I would venture to say that a higher percentage of my time was dedicated to this class than any month prior.

The last goal was to stay on my professional track by meeting with Heather.  Technically, I missed this mark completely; I have not even seen Heather this month.  This is not to say that I ignored my professional development, however.  As I mentioned earlier, I am currently working on a professional software certification.  Moreover, I am working with three different campus groups or studios.  CelleC Games is an on-campus studio and most of my work there is regular design stuff.  It keeps me from losing skills I have honed.  Backlot Realities is the virtual reality lab, so working with them not only gives me a look at designing sound for VR/AR, but also at implementation. Finally, I am the audio lead for an undergrad group called Bearded Axe Games.  This is a studying in my regular audio duties as well as leadership and management.

At this point, I do not feel that I can directly apply lessons from this class to my career. However, I am grateful to have the information should a situation arise that requires this knowledge.

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Negotiation and Deal-Making Mastery

For the first time in this degree, I was spot-on with my class predictions.

We held mock negotiations almost every day of class and learned first-hand about negotiation techniques and concepts.  It was a very hands-on way of learning the course material.

Through these, I believe I also accomplished my goal of becoming a better communicator.  I am not perfect, and I still tend to shut down and stop communicating when I feel attacked.  However, I now understand how to disagree while still working to a mutual benefit.  To that point, the idea of a mutual benefit may have been my biggest takeaway from the class.  A negotiation does not mean a debate, and one party does not have to lose for the other to gain.  In fact, all involved parties can walk away feeling that they have gained.

“Play Monopoly” was a relatively simply goal to achieve, but it was more beneficial than I anticipated. Most of our negotiations involved a mutual benefit for more than two players. With one notable exception, our group separated the people from the problem in almost every applicable situation. I even got a chance to employ a dirty trick (I cashed in on a proposed trade while the other party was distracted with another trade.  This meant he was too busy to request immunity on my properties.)  It may not have been the greatest lesson of the class, but it was fun for the one time.

I like to think that I took away quite a bit from this class.  Moreover, I feel like its lessons are ones that I can implement immediately. The negotiation skills I learned are not just for business or professional gain, but for personal relationships as well.

I hope to continue utilizing and growing the communication techniques I learned in Negotiation and Deal-Making.

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Digital Marketing Mastery

I originally developed several attainable goals for this month.  Firstly, I wanted to study the marketing campaigns of relevant companies.  Fortunately, this class is happening while I am following two different games in development.

Dauntless is a co-op RPG developed by Phoenix Labs.  It has not yet been released, so the Twitter campaign has been focused on the team and their workflow, like playlists and “How Would You React to this In-Game Situation” polls.

System Era Softwares have recently released a game called Astroneer into early access.  I have fallen in love with it and am actively interested in its development.  Their Twitter campaign consists largely of asking for feedback and teasing upcoming content.

Additionally, I aimed to increase my social media presence.  While my Facebook has devolved into typically personal drivel and my LinkedIn has remained fairly static, my Twitter game has drastically improved.  I am slowly becoming more active on the platform and have cultivated a pertinent following and kept up with gaming news via Twitter.  The audio industry is actively engaged in the Twitterverse, and establishing myself in that culture is a great way to brand myself an audio professional.

My highest hurdle with Twitter is the “coffee shop mentality,” (Batesole, 2016).  In the associated Lynda course, Mr. Batesole compares the Twitter culture to a coffee shop, where if you overhear a conversation, you should jump in if you have relevant information to add to that conversation.  And therein my problem lies: I do not feel that I have anything meaningful to add to strangers’ conversations, even if I have a vested interest in the topic at hand.

My updated personal goals include overcoming my Twitter fears and updating my LinkedIn.  The latter simply requires inputting more of my information, while the former requires me to starting tweeting at companies I follow.  According Mr. Batesole, I should start small, like telling System Era Softwares how much I love Astroneer.

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Business Finance Mastery

I did that thing where I had no idea what to expect from the month, so my goals were not in line with what would have been beneficial to this class.

That being said, I feel I have learned more than I thought I would.  I walked into this class anticipating interest formulas and more math than I could handle – which, admittedly we did kind of get.  However, I feel that the most useful things I learned had to with the actual record keeping, and where to go to find information.

For example, the most useful thing I have gotten out of this class so far is the knowledge of how businesses make profit.  I know that sounds simple and intuitive, but before this class I never really thought about how long it takes a startup to get out and stay out of the red.  It put the idea of running my own business in a new light.

The lessons learned in the class have changed my mind about how and when I want to start my business.  I no longer intend to make Skeleton Key Sound my main goal; instead, I intend to revisit the idea later in life when my career has stabilized.

It is also comforting to know that getting an accountant is recommended.  I no longer feel like paying someone to deal with my numbers for me is somehow cheating.

On a personal level, I enjoy watching my classmates’ businesses grow.  I felt like this month, several of us really started to flesh out our companies and began seeing them as viable options for our futures.

In line with my original goal, I far exceeded my performance in my last finance class.

It is a great comfort knowing that not only do I now have a bit of background in the finance aspect, but that I have the class resources to fall back on should I need them.

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Business Storytelling and Brand Development Mastery

Keeping to a specific goal is not my strongest trait; I tend to dance around it and achieve things similar to what I intended, but not exactly the same.  For example: one of my original goals was to design the official Skeleton Key logo.  As I was doing this, inspiration struck and I have gone in a completely different direction from my original intent.  I do not have it in digital form, but I have a much better idea of what I want and a logo that more accurately showcases the Skeleton Key brand.

Another goal was to purchase the Skeleton Key domain.  This was simply poor planning or bad timing on my part, because I’m waiting on Christmas and birthday money.  I can confidently say that this will be accomplished in the next two months.

The final official objective was to watch a specific Lynda tutorial on self-financing a business.  I never got around to that one, but we watched several in class and I was introduced to Simon Sinek’s work.

As I mentioned, I tend to achieve things on the way.  My Klout score went from 0 to 47 this month.  I have begun cultivating a Twitter presence and my LinkedIn network has grown substantially.  On the business side of things, I have determined that I really need a composer and have made it an unofficial goal for every month until graduation to acquire someone possessing those skills.

I think the lessons of this class are far subtler than some others.  There are no certifications or tangible takeaways from the course.  Yes, there are things like BMFiddle, Kout, and our Wix website, but those are byproducts of the lessons themselves.  This class focuses more on skills to develop and maintain a brand, which I suppose will not truly manifest themselves until I have been branding for some time.

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Conflict in Relationships

I don’t have quite as much experience with conflict in creative teams as I’d like, but I’m intimately familiar with conflict between the people I care about.

Romance

Conflict in romance is a pretty big part of life.  This includes everything from little idiosyncrasies to deep-seated spiritual beliefs.

The best non-resolution resolution I’ve found is simply avoidance.  Instead of getting angry that he left the cap of the toothpaste off, life becomes infinitely easier if I just put it back on myself.  On the other end of the spectrum, if a belief set clashes, I just avoid that topic, provided I have determined that the opposing belief does not affect the relationship.  For example, we both agree that the current education system in the US needs to change, but we disagree on how.  That’s fine, we just don’t talk about specifics when talking about education - it never ends well.  We understand that we value our relationship and that constant bickering over a system neither of us is likely to change will damage said relationship.  But if he had told me that women should not be educated, that’s a relationship-ending belief and not covered in this resolution policy.

At the end of the day, resolving conflicts in romantic relationships comes down to weighing your love for the person against the conflict.  If the relationship comes out on top, be open-minded; agree to disagree; think deeply about your opposing beliefs and understand that they’re not intentionally trying to hurt you; remember that getting angry and being mean are two very different things and while a healthy debate is good for some people, others just feel undermined; learn more about your relationship and why you work together.

It’s a cliche at this point, but a healthy relationship cannot exist without compromise, and that is the most important point of resolving conflicts with someone you love.

Friendship

I may not be the most qualified for this bit because I have a history of cutting useless or negative people out of my life.  When friends start getting combative or pushing discussions I don’t want to have or events I don’t want to attend, I stop spending time with them.  Maybe I only see them when we hang out with a mutual friend, or only when we do a certain type of activity.  When it comes to people who incite drama or play practical jokes, I just leave.  I immediately lose trust in them and don’t give us a chance to work things out.

I am lacking in this area, but I want to improve a couple of things:

I would like to be more open to confrontation.  Many issues with former friends have stemmed from me simply not wanting to talk about the things they obviously care for, and that’s not really fair.

When friends are fighting amongst themselves, I want to try to mediate and keep everyone on the same page.  Normally I back out, not wanting to be a part of it, and I don’t really step back in.  Again, that’s not really fair.

Conflict between people I care about is never fun.  My hope is that I will learn from ways I handle these relationships and transfer them to professional ones.

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Project and Team Management Mastery

My original set of goals for this class had very little to do with class content; I had very little knowledge about what to expect and decided to focus on personal growth rather than educational.  My goals involved networking with the dame design students, prepping for work-study, and watching some Lynda tutorials.

That being said, I kept to my goals pretty well.  I did not spend much time on Lynda, but I am waiting for the work-study forms to be available.  More importantly, I have made several lasting connections with students in the game design track.  I already have promised work from some friends when their game goes into production, and David knows a lot of the undergrad groups in final project – most of whom need sound.  David is also a solid liaison when I am unable to contact those in charge of the audio interns; he sees many of those people on a daily basis.

On the class as a whole, I feel like I will not understand most of its lessons until I am actually running projects and dealing with real people.  Character studies are great for theory and preparation, but I think their teachings will come back to me when suddenly I realize I do not immediately know how to deal with someone.  Until then, I do not believe I will walk into situations with the studies in the back of my mind.

Ultimately, I do not believe I will understand the full value of this class until long after it.  It is largely about working with different types of people and I have little to no experience with that situation.  All examples provided are great for theory, but I have no real life history to draw on.  I imagine that I will connect to the coursework once I have managed more projects.

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Project Research

When entering this class, I felt very limited in project choice because of my skill set: I’m a sound designer, which is not typically a standalone discipline.  My official career goals all involve sound for games and all the groups working on games this month didn’t need or want a sound person.  Of course there are other media- and entertainment-related things I want to do with my life, but they’re not at the forefront of my career.

I was at an absolute loss for a project until yesterday morning when I received a “get ready” email from the NaNoWriMo team.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  The community created an online presence to help writers get down to business and write their novels.  I’ve half-heartedly participated the last two years but have never reached anywhere near the 50,000 word goal.  This year, I intend to not only write 50,000 words of my novel, but also to take steps toward publication.

My project for this class is a long-term goal.  To me, this means that I will continue learning from said class even after the month is done.

Topic I: NaNoWriMo

As I mentioned, I’ve never fully participated in NaNoWriMo.  Consequently, I thought I’d find a FAQ or mission statement on their website.

Mission Statement: National Novel Writing Month believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.

Throughout November, they email various forms of encouragement and prompts to the users; there are guides and workshops from published authors and former NaNo “winners” - those that completed or exceed the 50,000 words in previous years; and they host local, offline meetups, called write-ins, across the globe wherever NaNo members live.

I take comfort knowing I’ll have an actual community at my back.

I also wanted to know how the public perceived the NaNo organization and found this article that focuses on NaNo’s middle school participation.

The bulk of the article illustrates teachers using the month to help their students become better writers, to familiarize them with crunch time and goals, and to teach them about overcoming creative and mental blocks.

While I’m a bit ashamed that a bunch of pre-teens have been outshining me, it’s also great motivation to prove myself to myself.

Moreover, I like knowing that I’m part of an organization that promotes literature and literacy in youth.

Topic II: Getting Back into Writing

It’s been a very long time since I’ve actually devoted time to developing my narrative.  I’ve been out of the writing community for quite a long time and I want the Internet’s help getting back into it.

As cheesy and self-help-y as it sounds, this article about forgetting what I’ve been taught has been a great motivator.

Tom Hallman writes about how refreshing it is to teach creative writing to those who have had no formal training.  While I’ve never been to journalism school, I had some great mentors in high school and learned a lot about the discipline through them.  I am not dismissing their teachings and I imagine I’ll fall back on them when the going gets tough.  But to start again after so long, I believe it will be far more beneficial to forget what I’ve learned than attempt to apply half-remembered theories and structures.

Additionally, I found this post from Writer’s Digest.  Again, it has the self-help-y vibe, but that doesn’t make it any less useful to me.

A lot of this I know, like the routines and writing things down.  But right now I feel a little lost, overwhelmed, and unprepared, and having someone else tell me the things I need is helpful.

However, I’ve never really thought about the audience bit.  I’ve been part of online writing forums but it’s never occurred to me that having those people to bounce ideas off of is that essential.  It’s provided me with something to ponder and potentially introduced anther team element for the class portion of my project.

Topic III: Alchemy

The biggest reason I stepped out of writing almost entirely was because I didn’t like the way my plots were going, so I scrapped them.  I didn’t have any other ideas until a few weeks ago when I realized alchemy was a perfect solution to my science-magic conundrum.  I know very little about its history or use in literature, however, so it occurred to me to research.

This paper illustrates a brief history of alchemy in literature and gives plenty of material for further research.  It opens with comments about Nicholas Flemel and his wife, who - as any self-respecting Potterhead knows - are the absolute authorities on alchemy.

I’m actually very glad I found this; it feels like a great starting point and from the bits I’ve skimmed I can already see how I can relate its content to my story.

A general search found this information, essentially Alchemy 101.

Firstly, it’s simply put together and easy to read, always a bonus.

Secondly, like the other article, it gives a lot of information for further study while still providing substantial background.

I know I’m on the right path here because I can already see how these elements fit with my characters and their world.  More than anything, this bit of Google-ing has renewed my interest in my own work.

Topic IV: Publishing a Novel

This is the Big Scary Part.  I’ve literally no idea where to even begin, so anything I find will be useful in some way.

Nerd that I am, I like to knew where I’m coming from.  In this case, where my craft is coming from.

It’s a bit of a dry read, but the journal does provide a fairly in-depth history of book consumption and theorizes as to its aspirations.  It may not directly aid in my publishing efforts, but I won’t be going in totally blind and that’s a personal comfort.

This Writer’s Digest post talks about the benefits of indie publishing, but I’m not necessarily opposed to commercial.

So the first point I’ve taken from this is that I need to research multiple publishing goals, formats and types.

It seems that getting stuff published is largely keeping your head and staying on top of demands.  Unfortunately, this article is more of a plug for Abbott Press than actual publishing help, but it points me in the right direction nonetheless.

I have other things I want to do with my life and it is unlikely I will ever make a career out of writing.  Getting this novel out there is still incredibly important to me and I am eager to have a chance to work on it.

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Leadership Thoughts

I am very much a Maxwell leader.  Even reading the Greene book makes me uncomfortable; most of his “laws” feel like being unnecessarily heartless, like you are going out of your way to hurt others on your way up.  Fortunately, the gaming industry has the benefit of being slightly less cutthroat than other media industries.  Big companies like Electronic Arts and Blizzard know that they have to keep their people happy because small team and independent development are viable options: their best people could in fact leave if they get fed up.

I like that Maxwell really hammers home the idea of developing the people around, above, and below you.  The closest Greene ever gets to this is teaching the finer points of manipulation.  The people development aspect is part of the reason I chose the indie field.  I feel like indie developers are kind of champions for keeping games from going the way of music or film, working their butts off to produce great content on smaller budgets and keeping huge companies on their toes.

However, none of this means that I am incapable of being a Greene leader if the situation calls for it.  As I mentioned, games are only slightly less cutthroat.  Working with smaller teams, getting people to see my point of view is even more crucial; when several developers are all working together, coming out on top is the only way to guarantee that my ideas make it into production.  Moreover, I still have to fight for trademarks and any composers or designers we might contract out.

As an individual, I want nothing to do with leadership that stems from fear.  I believe that studying both schools of thought will be incredibly beneficial regardless of where I go in my career, but ultimately I will lead with Maxwell principles.

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(Brawley, 2010)

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(Ratcliffe, 2016)

I love how one thing in the real world is something totally different in sound design.  This gives me hope that my career will continue to be as fun and goofy as it is challenging and rewarding.

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From LogoGarden