KAELAN sIMPSON

What Went Right:

Team vision

Our team vision on Soulcaster was strong, everyone had a pretty good idea was what the end product was going to be.  A testament to this is that some of our earliest level drafts are clearly recognizable in the final version of the game.  We were able to find a small set of core mechanics that we fully utilized.  In general our team unity gifted us great productivity leading to a more polished project.

The structured approach to design

Our design team really did a good job sticking to the fundamentals of design.  We would constantly play through the project together to make sure we were on the same page.  Playtest was done frequently and the results were shared with the meeting.  All our design work was documented in an organized manner.  While these all seem like basic aspects of design, it can be easy to think you are above them when in reality trusting the basics leads to the best results.

 

What Went Wrong:

Integration of nontechnical team members into the engine

Our team developed Soulcaster in a custom game engine.  Even though our tech team quickly brought this engine online, we had difficulty getting our less technical team members working in it.  We never set aside the time to really get the whole team into the engine. Until late in development when a lot of productivity had already been lost.

 

What I Gained:

How to work in an effective team

My biggest take away from Soulcaster was how to work in a cross disciplinary team.  I gained experience participating in group decisions and discussions.  I developed a better understanding of effective team communication and how to utilize it.