In this second part of my notes, I’m moving onto the territory of the interaction between us, the students and the team members, on a much more intimate level. As you can imagine, working with the same people for 8 weeks on a small project creates dynamics that are much different from the interactions of a big group of people. I’m going to tell about my impressions of the things that create a positive working environment or as I call it – harmony. And the things that create a negative working environment or as I call it – dissonance. I will also talk about an aftermath of a project in the end of part 2.
Clear identification of the roles in the team. Who is what and are you a group that clearly separates roles or are you a potluck? This has to be decided directly when you are forming the group (duh…). But there are also two aspects to this that I find important (there could be other things I’m not aware of, so share your opinions!). The two aspect are these: leads and specific roles.
Leads (lead artist, lead designer, etc.), while not that important in our student projects, are an important part of the real industry and of big teams. Someone simply has to have the last say in a discussion if a consensus cannot be reached. I find leads less important on a small scale because there is too little of an actual competition within the field of discipline for there to be a clear need for the lead. Plus, a lead someone doesn’t necessarily have to be a person within the discipline, but we don’t know much about one another to entrust a lead in a domain which isn’t the person’s speciality. But I do understand what is the main point behind leads.
The specific roles have to do with our fields of expertise. While it is obvious who the artists and the programmers are, the role of the producer (or “project manager” as they called for some reason in this education) and the designers was not so clear when I started this education. Also, note that there was initially a confusion of everyone thinking that they are game designers, which isn’t true. I will argue my point about this in part 3 of my blog. You must establish the understanding of these roles as soon as possible before confusion and disorder arise. This is to be the first thing that you discuss as a group.
The importance of a logo and a team name. I feel that the logo (and deciding on the team’s name) should be the first thing you craft as a group. And the artists, not someone else, need to do this, obviously with the input of other members. Crafting this makes people feel more connected to each other, makes you feel unified. Don’t put this off until the middle of a production cycle or, even worse, the end. Do this as a first thing and have everyone pitch in with their thoughts and vision. The best scenario is to create a prototype version directly and return later to it for polishing at a later time. Same goes for the team name. You want you member to say that they are team [something] without hesitation and be able to explain why they are team [something].
People, WORK TOGETHER. I can’t stress the importance of this. No “I’m going home to do this”, no. Tie yourself to the fucking chair and work on the spot. This might seem like an obvious thing but this has a vital role in a success of a project. It really is that simple. While you work together, you get a better understanding and a feel of those that you work with. If you just want to escape home to do your assignments you don’t give people a chance to truly get to know you AND you don’t get to know them. Trying to isolate yourself while in the group (f.ex. by working at a separate corner/table) isn’t a good thing either. The usual scenario is that people will talk about random stuff for a bit and then delve into their assignments. This is when you are free to listen to your music and be alone while in the group. Unnecessary chatter beyond a reasonable amount of time should be controlled by a producer. There is also an obvious practical application to working in the same physical place – you save on time. It takes less time to point out to something with your finger and say “what the hell is that?” than to write a message that would communicate precisely your thought on the first attempt. It takes more time for the person to reply and there is also the downtime between the sending of the message and checking for the message. The verbal communication is superior to the messaging, period. It saves our most precious resource which is time.
Mutual awareness when using someone else’s assets. While this is most accurate about art assets, this is also true about code/text assets. When you start to fiddle with someone else’s baby, you better damn well ask the permission or inform the person of your intent. Otherwise, this could be interpreted as laziness, unnecessary work or even stealing. So, ask people, tell them of your intentions and inform them of what you have done to avoid confusion and the unnecessary tension. Iteration can and should happen on a group level, but if not handled properly it can cause an interference within the workflow. Too many of these interferences result in a catastrophe for the project.
Elaborate on your thoughts if you feel that you might be misunderstood. This ties to the communication. If you are sensing that your message isn’t hitting the target, then it is crucial to ask questions and give more details. This is also why verbal communication is superior to messaging because it saves time to do those things at once, rather than type out everything. It’s better to be safe than sorry and be forced to remake something half-way into the process.
Measuring the health of the working environment. This is essentially something that is the responsibility of a good producer. But it is could be hard for one person to keep the track of all these parameters. So, everyone in the team must be open to sensing problems within the group. This topic is about the identification of the problems within your working environment and I will go into this in details in part 2.2 and 2.3 of my blog.
The importance of high moral and it’s diminishing due to various reasons. Almost the same as my previous thought but this time we deal with the positive side of the group environment while my previous thought was about the negative side of the environment.
Extra credits has a great episode that deals with both this question, so go check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnhlDwCRwkU&t=5s
Noting the attempts at improvement and acknowledgement of the progress. This is a duplicate of something I mentioned in 1.1 about the Calling. In our line of studies, we deal with a variety of skills including some that aren’t even a part of our education. If someone finds something that you know about that makes them curious, please show them what you know and teach them. This might be the talent or the passion the person is looking for or never realised their potential with a particular skill. As they start to experiment, check on their work or progress and give them critic as if this was a real thing. Being taken seriously when making baby steps is a great boost to learn and try more. At least it is for me, personally.
Public speaking? Make a recording of it. You might have a cringe moment when you watch it. If you are planning to be the speaker of the group then you should know your weaknesses. There were some great speakers during the first year and some potentially great ones, and some that weren’t that good at all. I guess one needs to keep practising. But the best way to improve is to watch yourself from a side. It might turn out that there is a glaring issue that you weren’t aware of.
And sometimes people need to realise that addressing a public isn’t one’s strong side and that is ok too. Perhaps you are good at making great presentations, so just hand it over to someone who has a voice of a Greek god or has the ability to use their words much more eloquently and fluently.
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