adamalvarezmasters-blog

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

Month 9 Individual Postmortem

What I contributed to my team… This month, I was responsible for being the producer of my team. With this, I stepped into a duo-leadership/managing role. I made sure everyone had something they could work on for the week. I would message individuals to see where they were and offer them assistance where needed. My communication with individuals and the team went above the average 8 typical work hours. I kept an eye on the team well into the weekend to check if everyone was working as efficiently as they could. In an attempt to prevent confrontation, I would find solutions for my team that kept hostilities at a low and focus on work at a high. What I could’ve done better for my team… My organizational skills could have been exemplified better had I used another tool than Google Drive. Had I been aware of different production tools, I could have communicated much more efficiently with my team. Using Google Drive and a chat program alone provided the bare minimum for us to communicate through. By working with the two new members of the team more exclusively at first to catch them up to speed, I could have figured out how to better help them over the course of the month. This would have given me knowledge of what these two were capable of. Although I did give my time to the team, I could have proactively planned to balance my scheduled hours over the course of the month to work more efficiently with them. Ideally, this would have allowed me to work at the same time instead of at separate times. What I learned from Asset Management… A producer depends exclusively on the will power of his team. Their job can increase or decrease in strenuousness, depending on how willing their team is to communicate and effectively work with them. Although some team members can be a little more demanding than others, it’s important for a producer to devote an equal allotment of time to everyone on the team. If I gave only one tenth of the same attention to everyone else on the team that I gave to one person, the team’s quality of work could reflect the same minimal percentage of attention the rest of the team received. Organization and the 6 P’s (pre-prior-planning-prevents-poor-performance) holds extremely true to the role of the producer. As pointed out by our instructor, being comfortable with being uncomfortable is alright sometimes. Working in this industry sometimes demands you to get far out of your comfort zone to get things done, but it’s a great way to learn how to handle situations better.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

Month 9 Team Postmortem

What we did effectively… As a team, we divided the work evenly among members and had something for everyone to work on. We gave everyone something that they were comfortable doing. Artists worked on artwork, designers and programmers worked on programming and level design, and so on. We kept hostility and blame to a minimum, and everyone quietly agreed upon self-responsibility from the start. Even when mistakes were made, whoever was responsible took responsibility. As we made mistakes, we made a conscious effort to learn from them and provide better content before the next milestone. What we could’ve executed better… We could have planned for issues that arose by bringing them to light sooner. As an example, our QA test plan needed more attention early on which lead to us lacking the testing we could’ve had when the project was close to the halfway mark. Our teammates weren’t always on the same page due to a lack of communication until the end. Two members of the team were unaware of what parts of the game were supposed to be until we were close to finishing. We didn’t offer to help each other as much as we could have. It was expected that everyone would work on their own responsibilities equally every milestone, which wasn’t always the case. We did not have as strong of an explanation as we could’ve for our mistakes. We didn’t use excuses or blame someone else, but just a better explanation for why we did what we did could’ve helped. What we can do better next time… Our team can depend on each other more if we are all willing to put forth initiative to help one another. We can communicate our ideas better when we have formal meetings sitting down in a quiet room. The team can have more meetings, each with a short duration, which will allow us to stay up to date and on top of our work as a team. We can incite each other to work more efficiently and to pace ourselves, as this will help prevent any potential burnout.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

(Month 7) Team Project Milestone

This month in our masters course, our team comprised 2 artists, 2 game designers, and a QA specialist to prototype a game as a team. The game we decided to make was called “DinoEscape”. It originally started as a game purely concentrating on character collection, but evolved into a 2D Side-scrolling Platformer. The game’s story involves a Composognathus (AKA a Compy) who escapes captivity and must break out his fellow brethren. This is done through a three individual level storyline.

In this project, our team developed a fully functioning 2D Side-scrolling Platformer. The game development process itself first involved a physical prototype where we created a mock-up of the game using a 26x23 squared playing mat and different colored marbles. This allowed us to develop the different levels of the game that we would have players go through. Secondly, the process involved dividing the development work up amongst the team, and everyone pulled their fair share of weight in workloads.

As a team, we learned more specifically what it means to create an actual game together. This included all of the ups and downs of working closely with 5 other individuals. We worked better when we split the work evenly and made milestones for each other based off of what needed to be done, so similar behaviors to this in the future will help us develop games as a team in a much more efficient manner. One additional thing to note is that we as a team had to purchase the game engine we decided to work in, so we made a fair split in paying for it as it should be.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

(Month 7) Individual Project Milestone

This month in my masters course, I was privileged to work with 2 artists, 2 game designers, and a QA specialist to work on building a game. The game we decided to make was called “DinoEscape”. It originally started as a game purely concentrating on character collection, but evolved into a 2D Side-scrolling Platformer. The game’s story involves a Composognathus (AKA a Compy) who escapes captivity and must break out his fellow brethren. This is done through a three individual level storyline.

On this project, I was responsible for a variety of tasks involving the program itself and working on animations. I was given all of the 2D artwork sprite sheets of all of the characters from the artists on our team, and then I used these sheets to create the different lines of sprites that formed animations. The animations included an idle, moving, attacking, and jumping frames. As well, the animations were programmed to function directly in the engine, with a bounding box and the correct scripting.

Through using the game engine Construct 2, I was able to learn basic behaviors of game development. As well, I was able to use the scripting skills I learned in my undergraduate degree to help with creating the animations for all of the characters in the game. If there is one aspect of this process I would have liked to improve, it would have been the ability for the animations to flow more smoothly. This could be done by using more frames and adjusting the points of animation.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

Mastery Journal: MEX

In my month 5 class, we had the opportunity to focus on the field of User Experience, which correlated directly with my chosen capstone at Full Sail in the UX Lab. I was able to build a relationship with a team of game development undergrad students who had a VR game they wanted us to run a Usability and User Experience study on. This gave me the opportunity to have a working relationship with a client directly, something we are not usually given in our early months at the UX lab as new members. As well, my mastery journal topic has allowed me to open up my vision to that of something beyond just how players feel, but more about answering the larger question of “why” they feel the way they do about whatever it is they’re being tested on. This minor correction in my path has allowed me to understand what may be on the other side of the graduation stage in the next chapter of my life. With this in mind, I have decided to include Articles to analyze when I get to my month 6 course. This will hopefully allow me to further myself as a designer and user experience researcher, and allow me to build myself up to possible roles in the industry that require more experience upon entry from both sides of the coin (designer and researcher).

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

Mastery Journal: PTM

My original objective to learn about in this class was how to better lead a team when working on a project. I have had too many issues in the past with team-mates of mine that did not participate or show any interest in the project, thus leading to internal problems within the project that were never solved. My objective will still remain to learn more about the team leadership role and responsibilities as they are in the industry of Game Design and User Experience.

Overall, this month had a blend of production oriented leadership, as well as explaining the different types of teammates I would have on my team, and how to work with them. I specifically liked the concepts of personality types related to animals or archetypes, as it lets you relate someone on your team to a certain character or class type in a game or movie. This makes it much easier to identify if someone is going to be easy or difficult to work with.

Another useful bit was learning about how to create a plan for a project, which is something I’ve never fully done before. I’ve brainstormed and researched in the past, but never have I come up with a full schedule of events and project resources like I had in my weekly assignments. The user experience project plan I worked on this month highly emphasized how I would actually lead a team in my industry of UX.

Lastly, I think one takeaway from this month is that leading a project is much different than producing or just telling people their tasks. Being a true leader incorporates interest in the team’s progress on either an individual or overall level. With the newfound ideas of leadership from this class, I expect my abilities to personify that which I would like to be (a leader), will be much more plausible and probable in the UX industry.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

RTD Tumblr Post

Overall, the RTD course has taught me the depth at which scientific validity goes. This term, although new to me in the beginning, has increased my understanding of what someone presents as facts due to the ever-looming threat of scientific validity. When thinking about all of the past things I’ve ever believed as factual, scientific validity now gives me a crutch to stand on whenever my mind wishes to disagree with something presented to me if I do not see enough evidence to support this said “fact”. It is very important not to abuse this method, as of course not everything we see is actual fiction, even if there is not enough supporting evidence. Sometimes the line between belief for the sake of trust is more valuable than thinking only factual and scientifically valid. This allowed me to think deeper on my topic of Communication between Players and Game Developers in terms of how much is just player frustration versus what is an actually valid point. This presents an argument to be made for both sides, which allows the research process to go further in depth to prove either side as right or wrong.

Through the article analysis assignments, I was able to prove a study’s validity through means of which I’ve never done before. This method could be useful in coming months as I choose my capstone and delve deeper in to the science of video games.

Additionally, our game design went well. We created a rock solid concept which can be developed even further. This concept, although rough, is a good starting point for us to work with.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

The ROI of User Experience with Dr. Susan WeinschenkAre user experience studies important? Well, yes, and here’s why.

Crone, S.B. [shanebitneycrone]. (2011, Jan 27). The ROI of User Experience        with Dr. Susan Weinschenk. [Video file]. Retrieved from      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O94kYyzqvTc

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

This is my Personal journey through Mastery at Full Sail University, along with the goals I’ve set for myself to achieve while proceeding through the program.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

These are references for my instructor to see. For direct links, check out my ‘About’ section.

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

Is life a video game?

Recode. (2016, June 1). Is life a video game? | Elon Musk | Code 

      Conference 2016 [Video file].Retrieved from 

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8TzqrRbPlY 

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

INSPIRATION for the week of 10/30/16 - 11/05/16

G4 University: Blizzard's Chris Metzen Tells You How To Get A Video Game Writing Job 

Kelly, K. (2012, March 22). G4 University: Blizzard's Chris Metzen Tells You How To Get A Video Game Writing Job. In G4 University. Retrieved from http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/716429/g4-university-blizzards-chris-metzen-tells-you-how-to-get-a-video-game-writing-job/

[adamalvarezmasters-blog]

Mastery Journey

As I began my journey in the game Toontown Online 13 years ago, I began to learn that games transcend past the physical bond our bodies have on earth. Being the socially inclined creatures that we are, sometimes it is hard for us to reach out and speak with others. Through technology, we have the capability to have a voice without ever feeling judged for our physical limitations or differences. It seems that too often humans judge others for the differences of how we choose to present ourselves, and not by our ethics. The benefit of gaming is our ability to break chains that separate us through political or religious means in the real world. On the internet, we can all come together to defeat enemies and unite together as one people. We have the ability to challenge one another to honorable combat where we can practice to become better both as winners and losers. After all, if you win too often, you won’t know how to lose.

I have spent years of my life on a screen, and as much as it may pain others to hear those words, I enjoy my time here. I still find the time to spend with my family and friends outside, but I always find peace and happiness inside. I will begin this year by promising to myself that I will break any bad habits of mine. I will also learn the basics of programming and will strive to extensively learn how to script and design for games and other technologies. At the end of these 12 months, I will return to my origins as Robert Green suggests in his book “Mastery”, as a passionate gamer and creator (p. 29-30). I will design games that I am proud to be a part of, and I’ll continue to learn how to make them better.

I will become a Game Designer.

Greene, R. (2014). Mastery (pp. 29-30). London, England: Viking Penguin.