Some Things That Went Wrong in our Flash Teams

Early on in term 1 I was speaking to another student several terms ahead about our classes. When we got to the topic of our production and team-management classes—the art and science of managing people and workflow to create quality products on time and under budget—he said "that stuff is all just common sense." He was dead wrong, of course, though I kept my opinion to myself since I was still in meet-and-greet mode.

The truth is that many people, maybe all of them, don't really know how to work well with others until they've been tested. They don't understand that their behaviors have sweeping effects on their peers, that poor attitudes and stubbornness are poison, and that ignoring the documentation or the stated purpose of a meeting is costing everyone on their team time, money, and patience. Dealing with others is harder than the most technical hard skill you can come up with because the targets are always moving. It shouldn't surprise anyone that being an effective team member is a skillset to be practiced and mastered, like any other.

I know a number of us GD23s know that now, though they may not have before our Flash projects this past term. At the outset of term two we had 6+ people interested in project and team management as potential careers. Now I think we're down to three, including myself. The common sense that is anything but scared them off.

Let's talk about some of those groups, the challenges they faced, and what I believe went wrong. First, though, I should point out that Marc and I, as class reps, sat down late last term and sorted out the groups around a strong technical core, then randomly assigned the rest. We then shuffled two people around because we didn't think they would work well together and ended with teams that, on the surface, looked very well balanced.

I should also point out that despite the problems in most teams, the games turned out pretty well.

Here's what happened.

Group 1 - This group had one member that was married to his/her ideas early on, creating division from the get-go. As time went on, this division caused bruised egos and hard feelings as the group continued to work. This problem member stopped producing and eventually stopped communicating with the team.

Group 2 - Group 2 also had a problem member that told everyone he/she wanted to work hard and improve their skillset, but then repeatedly failed to deliver. Attendance and not following instructions were serious issues that didn't improve with time.

Group 3 - With big plans and confidence, this team looked ready to succeed early on, but technical hurdles and a serious decline in engagement from most team members saw them scaling back again and again. At least one member of this group regularly made playing Skyrim for long periods of time a priority, which is obviously time that could have been better spent.

As you can see, a single team member with a bad attitude can have an enormous impact on the group, but there are also strong lessons about pre-production to take away from group 3, who were overconfident and let an impressive scope crush their spirits when the ideas couldn't pan out. In addition, ideas are cheap and everyone has them so you simply can't come to that initial brainstorming meeting stuck on one. Lose the ego, or be prepared for difficult times ahead.

To circle back to my original point, that project and team management is as complex and challenging as the thousands of people who are working in the game industry, each of those problems above could have been at least mitigated by a good project manager willing to lead a team through the "boring" stuff that is deadly important to the team's success. Careful scoping, building buy-in early, encouraging ideas, maintaining open communication, setting and maintaining deadlines and standards—these and many other  leadership-related tasks and qualities will ensure success over brilliant design or amazing art every time.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of the challenges our class went through during this challenging term. I can't wait to be one of the guys channeling all of the talent I am seeing towards a unified vision in just a few short months. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Term 2 Post Mortem

So, four months (1/3) down. Do I feel 33% smarter? Well, maybe not, but I know the time has been worth it.

As with any school, you have to take the good with the bad at VFS—a $32k annual price tag doesn't magically give the school better contacts in the industry with which to instruct future game designers—so we have a handful of absolute stand-out instructors who are passionate and who genuinely care about making everyone's time worth that tuition. We also have a small handful of instructors at the other end of the spectrum, but fortunately you can learn a great deal from someone even if they are just there to collect a paycheque.

Anyway, it's been good. Term 2 is feared far and wide as "the Flash term" for the Flash game that is the first full game-building experience in the program. As an assignment, it spans seven weeks and many more major challenges. First time managing a team? Better learn fast, son. Lazy or unreliable team members? Engage them, somehow. Can't code in Flash? Someone in your team had better learn.

And so on. I'll post about my game, Pistol Reef, in the next few days. For now I wanted to talk about what I did well, what I did poorly, and what I learned from what was a draining but rewarding term of Game Design.

What I Did Well
* I prioritized my assignments well, put the effort where it was required, and zeroed in on what I could ignore early on. For example, I was able to avoid learning much of anything about Maya, recognizing that my only Maya assignment actually made extensive use of Photoshop. I will want to make up the time with Maya later, but during the term this provided me with upwards of 15 hours in-class that I could use for more pressing and relevant assignments. This also saved me an enormous amount of frustration that I will touch on later when I talk about learning styles in an upcoming post.

* I embraced the project manager role at every opportunity, and the feedback from my peers and instructors was very encouraging. I dealt with issues by using different management styles with different people, and the results were mostly very good.

* I made strong relationships with many of my peers and instructors.

What I Did Poorly
* I snapped on another student during a group meeting a couple of weeks ago, cowing him into silence with volume and tone. He deserved it, but it was highly unprofessional for me to lose my cool. There are thankfully only a few behaviors that will trigger this reaction in me—obtuseness and disrespect being right up there—but outbursts like that can get me into a lot of trouble, and they are never welcome in the workplace.

* I allowed myself to get run down, and the resulting cold sapped a lot of energy out of me for days. This had unfortunate sweeping effects across all assignments and relationships. What suffered most was my UDK Deathmatch assignment, which I liked, but the result was downright sloppy when set next to my previous UDK assignment. I expect my grade will still be good, but I will lose marks on polish.

What's my plan for Term 3?
* Continue to prioritize well, but be sure that my health is at the top of that list. When I am stressed and swamped I am all too willing to let my diet and sleep take the hit. The resulting colds are productivity and attitude killers.

* Be completely aware of my temper and manage both my expectations and the expectations of my peers. Realize that many people will not be as focused or as driven as I am. Setting up those clear expectations early is good for everyone involved, but it makes an especially huge difference in my ability to react and roll with the punches.

* Spend more time and energy connecting with students outside of my class. I have solid relationships with many instructors, and close friends in my own GD23 class, but it's so easy for me to ignore the 22s, 24s, and the many fine people in other classes. A surefire way to meet people is to host a game-related event at the school, so maybe I'll start with one of those early in T3.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Tune in next time for frank discussions of my classmates and the drama emerging from the formation of two final project teams (including my own) almost a full term early.

Thanks for stopping by.