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Post Mortem

Section I: Developer’s Statement – 30pts

Both sections should be completed in paragraph form.

A) The nature of games Consider the very nature of videogames, what they are, what they should do/can do (or purpose). The questions in this section ask you to contemplate deeply the concepts and issues raised in the course readings. You should refer to and cite the readings in your responses. Additionally, use game and/or industry examples to supplement your responses.

A) Schell says, “Games are about problem solving, and empathetic projection is a useful method of problem solving. If I can imagine myself in the place of another, I can make better decisions about what that person can do to solve a particular problem. Also, in games, you don’t just project your feelings into a character, you project your entire decision-making capacity into that character, and can become them in a way that isn’t possible in non-interactive media”(124). B) “Empathy is not just showing compassion for the feelings of another. Instead, empathy is understanding how the world looks and feels to another in their current situation,” says therapist and former game designer Howard Scott Warshaw, also known as the “Silicon Valley Therapist.” “The kinds of things that need to be done to encourage empathy are probably beyond the scope of a video game. The crucial part of building empathy is having a caring relationship in which I feel valued. Video games are interactive experiences, but they are not relationships.” I most agree with Schell with that trying to imagine that you are that character in the game will allow for easier problem solving. Warshaw says that a caring relationship is required to feel empathy, and I disagree. The very definition of empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. You don’t even have to meet someone to practice empathy. When you watch a TV show where someone explains that they came from humble beginnings, you cannot help but empathize with them. A game character is afforded the same degree.

B) Game design philosophy

1. Game Design Approach: Different designers have different approaches to game design. Consider the different philosophical approaches discussed in class. What is your game design approach? What are the implications of this approach? What makes a “good” game? 2. Consider flaws of such an approach. 3. What is the future of game design? How is it changing? My game design approach is to start with a story, a cool feature, or a genre. I started as a game programmer and I always am trying to think of how to get that certain story element or feature integrated into the game to have the greatest effect. Also, if nothing else comes to mind, it is good to start with a genre on a team based project. If everyone can at least agree with that one part, that is a great start. The flaws of such an approach include everyone not agreeing with my ideas, a feature or story element not fully designed out getting integrated into the game with the wrong end result, and not necessarily seeing the end result until development starts and a basic game already has invested time of the project team. The future of game design is using new technology in more emerging ways. The Oculus Rift VR (Virtual Reality) Headset is leading the way for utilizing two screens, one for each eye, for binocular vision emersion. Also, mobile devices are exploding the videogame market with more and more games being implemented on them and the technology increasing rapidly. More capable devices in everyone’s hands will allow for more capable fulfilling games on those devices.

Section II: Capstone Team Role(s) – 15pts

Complete the following. Please include the questions in your response.

A) Focus on your individual qualities/skills

1. Detail your experience and skills coming into the program. 2. Identify your areas of weakness. 3. Provide a comprehensive description of your duties during capstone. 4. How has what you’ve learned applied to those duties? 5. Explain how your role fit into the larger project. 6. What are the pros and cons of such a relationship with the team? My experience and skills coming into the program included a being an avid player of multiple genres of videogames since the early 1990s. Also, I went through the Game Development Undergraduate Degree at Full Sail University. I’ve created and helped create a handful of videogames myself so far mostly programming them, but also making basic 2D art and designing them on teams. One area of weakness I have is art. I am not really good at making it. I have creative ideas, but communicating that can be difficult. Sound is also an issue in this area. A game is made of art, sound, and programming all merged into one interactive entertainment bundle. They are all equally important and getting the art and sound perfect has always been a challenge for me. During capstone, my duties included help design features of a predesigned game that was about 75% complete. I was responsible for rewriting the code of the game to support easier JIT (Just In Time) implementation of new features and upgrades to preexisting ones. Also, my duties included getting the game ready for deployment onto the two larger mobile markets, Android and Apple stores. I’ve learned that you must understand the people you work with extremely well to understand what their duties are and how they will affect your work. Knowing that the artist gets you art needed in one day helps to schedule art requests about a day in advance of when you need them. Knowing that the publisher to the app stores takes about a month and the stores themselves take a week to publish your app helps determine a successful end date that works for the entire team. My role fit into the whole project by binding all the ideas, sounds, art into a living breathing videogame. I was the glue for all the parts of the videogame. I put it together with logic that made it function the way it was designed. The pros are how connected I am into the game. I know almost everything about it. The cons are that I am so connected in the game, that when one thing needs to be changed, I have to do some work to get it in the game.

B) Expand the focus to the industry

1. Compare your role(s) in Capstone projects to industry openings and job titles. Provide explicit definitions of each role including: necessary skills, required behaviors, responsibilities, relationships and interdependency with other team roles. My role closely relates to Game Programmer and Game Designer in the videogame industry. For a game programmer, the necessary skills include C++, C#, and Java programming language knowledge, working on a team, and a shipped title. For a game designer, the necessary skills include tuning new and existing features and systems, optimize retention and engagement, write design documents, contribute UI and create diagrams for new games and features, work closely with artists, engineers, product managers, QA testers, and marketing managers. Many of the roles in the industry want shipped titles. Having at least one shows companies that you can make a game that gets published. It also proves that you worked on a game until completion. 2. Teams are usually characterized as 3-12 people who interact directly in assigned roles as part of a larger organization. Often used in sport and work settings, the members have specialized knowledge, skills and abilities. Based on the following criteria: Power, Leadership, Decision Making and Activities or Tasks was your team a Traditional Work Group, Traditional Team or Self-Managing Team? What impact did this have on the process? Would a different configuration be more effective? (Refer back to Kennedy’s class.) I think our team was self-managing team. This allowed us to be fairly independent of leaders and work faster without decisions having to go through higher up people in the hierarchy. We relied upon each other to get individual work done to complete the final task of creating a game. For our particular way of making a mobile game in about six months, there is no more effective team configuration because of the limited time we have together. More controlled environments require more time together. 3. Find 2 potential positions or openings that your skills would translate to – What are the qualifications/skills needed? How do you fulfill them? What areas would you need to develop? Compare these positions to your roles in Capstone. Unity Gameplay Developer – 3+ years software development experience with at least 1 working with gameplay development engines (i.e. Unity3D, Unreal Engine, Custom, etc). Programming language proficiency in C#, Java and/or scripting languages Python, Lua. B.S in Computer Science. UI/UX Design Engineer – 2+ years game design experience. At least 1 development cycle in a design role. Great written and verbal communication. Ability to work alone or in a team. I meet both of these positions with my current skills as I’ve spent 3 years in Full Sail’s degrees for gaming. I’ve worked with all the engines and programming languages. I can work alone or on a team. 4. Create an action plan for your dream job that includes areas for development, how and where such training might be obtained, and a schedule for completion. My dream job is working as a software engineer at Shiver Entertainment in Miami, Florida. The qualifications include 5+ years software development experience. I can get this experience from other studios and then apply in a couple of years. BS or MS in Computer Science I already have. Experience programming in multiple languages such as C/C++, Java, C#, and Unity I have. Mobile development experience I also have. I will apply there now and again in a few months to a couple of years. I should have the job by then.

Section III: Company Culture – 20pts

Choose one company to analyze from the previous section.

A) Assessing a company’s culture from the outside

Organizational culture is dictated by the values, behaviors, beliefs and norms that permeate the group.

1. History a. How was the company formed? How long has it been in business? Shiver Entertainment was formed by former leaders from Zynga and EA. (We are Shiver, n.d.) They’ve partnered with Nexon to work on mobile free-to-play games and increase their productivity with monetary backing. According to Dahlberg (2014), Shiver Entertainment bought a 16,000 square foot office space to begin working in 2014. So the place is fairly new. b. What’s an example of a past project that seems to be considered a success; what seems to have made it so? What is a past project that seems to have been seen as a failure, and why did it fail? They are so new and only one game is scheduled to release soon. It’s hard to say whether or not it will be a success. The game is called Beasts vs Bots. It is a mobile real-time strategy game with PvP elements online. The game looks like it might be successful as it seems to be a type of game that is yet to release on mobile devices.

2. Values a. What three words or phrases would you use to describe the company culture? New, Tech, and Open are the three words I would use to describe the company culture. b. Does the company have a code of ethics? According to someone that works at Shiver Entertainment that posted on glassdoor.com (2015), the company’s ethics are more focused on the final product and getting it done quickly. c. Does the company subscribe to a particular leadership or managerial style? That same article from a current employee at Shiver (2015) states that the leadership is directly involved in the project games. d. What qualities do the most successful employees in the company possess? Again, that same and another review on glassdoor.com (2015) of the company by an employee mention that employees that are willing to work hard especially right before a milestone will be the most successful. Also, being able to work effectively in the team quickly seems to be a beneficial quality successful employees have. e. What is the company’s attitude toward professional and educational advancement? Glassdoor.com’s section on benefits shows that Shiver Entertainment has a Diversity Program, Job Training, Professional Development, Apprenticeship Program, and Tuition Assistance. It seems that they want their employees to advance professionally and through furthering their education.

3. Hierarchy a. The concept of power distance is the extent to which members of a society (in our case, a company) understand and accept the distance between people of different levels of power. For example, if members of a company’s executive team are viewed as particularly powerful and potentially unapproachable, a company may have a large power distance, and its employees may be more focused on the hierarchy. If the company encourages a democratic sharing of ideas and questioning of vision, it may have a relatively small power distance. Neither is good or bad in itself. Apple has a relatively large power distance, and Google has a relatively small power distance as part of its culture and both are known for being innovative leaders. What is important to note is that power distance within the company will have an impact on how you successfully navigate the political waters during projects. What information can you provide on the hierarchy of the company? What inferences can you make about the structure? Based on multiple sources previously mentioned, Shiver.net and glassdoor.com, I can say that the hierarchy seems to be a very low power distance. The leaders are said to be communicating on a regular basis to the employees. I would say because of the small size of the development team, less than 15 employees, there is a small hierarchal structure in the business.

4. Logistics a. What is the general pace expected within the company? Will your team be expected to work late hours to meet looming deadlines? The reviewers on glassdoor.com (2015) mention that when a milestone is coming up, more hours may have to be worked. The pace seems very fast because also one reviewer mentioned having to hit the ground running and jump right into helping develop their game quickly.

b. What are the expectations regarding remote work versus on-site work? If remote work is utilized, what are methods and tools of communication? One interviewer on glassdoor.com mentions that they Skype interviewed with two people from Shiver Entertainment. One of the benefits reported is work from home. I assume that most of the work is done on site due to their offices being new, large, and just bought to work on their projects. I’m sure special circumstances are allowed to work off site if it is necessary.

c. What are the preferred methodologies? According to their main website, Shiver.net (n.d.), one of the co-founders, John Osvald used a data-driven product design methodology in his past career. I would assume those have carried over to the new company.

B) Assess your preferences

1. Assess your own preferences and priorities for cultural elements. Is having a fun and casual workplace important to you? Are you irritated when micromanaged or do you welcome structure? Do you thrive at a fast pace or at your own pace? Make a list and prioritize the preferences. Having a fun and casual workplace is important to me. Being in a light environment where work is not always taken so seriously helps me stay calm on keep myself in the right state of mind to continue working on a project and come up with new ideas for a project. I do not like being micromanaged, but my military experiences prove that I can still function under that management style. I like to work at my own pace, but I understand that getting a project out in a timely manner is important to the entire company. Having a reasonable deadline is important to know that even if the game could be better; this is the last input we will have on it. Preferences: 1. Work at own pace 2. Without heavy structural rigidity 3. Having fun 4. Open communication lines to all team members including leaders

Section IV: Reflection & Recommendations – 15pts

Please complete parts A & B in paragraph form.

A) Personal Reflection: The goal of this section is to reflect on your year and identify critical points of learning. This section can be 1 to 2 pages.

 In your reflection consider - What went right? What went wrong? Why did things go right or wrong? How did things go right or wrong? How did the important events you chose to focus on affect the overall experience?

 What is the final takeaway/newfound insight that you are leaving with?

During my year here as a master’s student at Full Sail University, I have learned much. I have learned that I should stick to my decisions based on experience of participating in certain jobs. Like for capstone shadowing, I experienced all but one shadowing them all to find out which I would be most interested in, and which would be most beneficial to my strengths. I also learned that I should stick to my values and beliefs on what deadlines should be. Having a strict deadline can be comforting in knowing that with the right amount of time, a project can be completed. It sucks to work on a project for a lengthy amount of time and have the project cancelled or just never completed. Knowing that a project will never meet everyone on the team’s expectations is the first step into completing a game. Some of the non-capstone things I have learned are to design a game with the idea that your target audience is not you. Just because you like a certain color scheme doesn’t mean that everyone else will be able to distinguish your buttons on the user interface. Creating a well-functioning, story driven videogame will be more successful than just winging it and hoping for the best. Having knowledge of timelines and how long it takes to complete work is important to sticking to a release date. Writing down estimates and completion times is important to understanding when and how things go right and wrong during production. Managing a team is difficult because unforeseen circumstances will rear their heads and as a team member and leader, it becomes your responsibility to help or you will risk the project’s success. It takes more than good skill, knowledge, and creativity to create a game. It takes teamwork, encouragement, and tough love to complete a game as well. In the end, I am leaving with more insight to the game development process. I understand almost all the parts required to make a game including art, sound, design, and engineering. Knowing more about these parts will make me more successful in the industry as I will know who to talk to, to get things completed in the most efficient way possible.

B) Recommendations

 Based on your experience determine areas of improvement for the project/program. Compile the most important recommendations into a section (one-page maximum). Include a brief explanation of the recommendation(s), the motivation for the change, and how you expect that it will change future student experiences. One big improvement that could be is having a dedicated area for capstone work. Many times I remember looking for an open room to work collaboratively was the hardest part of the day. Not all students have a place to work at home effectively and finding a place at school was not an easy process. The problem has been addressed somewhat already with the new room we have for capstone, FS3-313. Future students will find that they are supported in their efforts during capstone to complete work collaboratively together in person is almost always more effective than trying to call, text, or Skype as all these can be ignored by one member of the team and hurt the entire project. Meeting in person is easier to track for the producers of the game teams as well.

Section V: Reference Page

Use in text citations and a reference page for this assignment.

Assessment: The points value of each section is noted. In addition, the final 20 points is allocated towards completion or grammar/APA formatting and punctuation.

All sections should refer to sources in text when appropriate and also cite those sources on the works cited page. Students should also refer to course concepts/reading when it is appropriate.

Each section will be evaluated on clarity, logic and the use of specific examples (within the course reading or through outside research and games) to support the assertions made.

Turnitin.com Class ID: 9253197 Turnitin.com Password: Capstone12

References

Billington, A. (2009, February 25). Joss Whedon Explains Why DC Comics Movies Don't Work. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/joss-whedon-explains-why-dc-comics-movies-dont-work/ Bogost, I. (2011). Art. In How to do things with videogames (pp. 9-17). Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Calixto, J. (2014, December 15). Twitch Plays Pokemon and the year in crowdplaying. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from http://killscreendaily.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-and-year-crowdplaying/ Dahlberg, N. (2014, May 1). Shiver Entertainment leases 16,000 square feet at Sunset Place. Retrieved August 28, 2015, from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article1963727.html Goulter, T. (2010, May 28). 10 taboos and the games that broke them. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from http://www.gamesradar.com/10-taboos-and-the-games-that-broke-them/ Shiver Entertainment Reviews. (2015). Retrieved August 28, 2015, from http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Shiver-Entertainment-Reviews-E745045.htm We are Shiver. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2015, from https://www.shiver.net/

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