It seems that in most things we do we run into obstacles. Forces that push against us as we're trying to accomplish something. This seems to be built into nature, Newton's 3rd law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. True to this, it seems that the harder we try to accomplish something the stronger the opposition is. I don't know that we can escape this phenomenon, we should probably expect it in all we do, and be used to it when it comes. After years of experiencing this, however, it still seems to catch me off guard when it happens.
This game has definitely run into its share of obstacles. I anticipated this, but for a game that has yet to really get off the ground, the challenges seem to have come earlier and more frequently than expected.
I've mentioned this before, but when I started the game design program at the U, I enrolled with the expectation of certain experiences. I wanted to work on a mobile game, and I wanted work on it with a small development team, one that would allow me to take on roles and responsibilities that I haven't experienced in my career. I wanted to learn and implement game design, I wanted to design the visual look and feel of a game, and I wanted the challenges that came with a small team and a limited amount of resources. My experience is that constraints are often a good thing, especially in creative endeavors, as they force you to channel your energies into a focused path of creation.
The constraints and challenges that I've experienced in my time at school however, came in large part from the factors outside of the game development itself. This wasn't something I was anticipating, and it's something that's caused a lot of frustration and energy as I try to figure it out.
One of the biggest challenges I've faced is my work arrangement. Because I work for a video game company, I'm prohibited from profiting from a game that would be a conflict of interest with my job. Additionally, because I'm a working professional, I'm not allowed to enter my game into the student indie game festival, which is one of the goals of the program at the U. Because I can't enter my game into the student IGF competition, my fellow students cannot use my game as their thesis game, as they wouldn't be getting the experience that the program was designed to give them. Therefor, any help I get from students is extra time they have when they're not working on their own projects. Because of my professional status, I'm also prohibited from working on other student's projects. This became a problem on the student game Vinyl. This was a music game developed by the grad students in my cohort wherein the player played as a character on the needle of a record player. The player would "surf" on the needle in a half pipe to move around obstacles and effect the music being played.
After hearing this idea, I really wanted to animate for it. Board animation, particularly surfing animation is something that I have always loved to do. My demo reel is full of personal pieces where I've animated surfing characters. I love animating surfing characters, I love the body mechanics of board sports. I really wanted to animate on this game. When I offered my services, it caused quite a stir among the professors, as it was really important to everybody that I not work on the game. I understand the reasoning, as it would have invalidated some of the work and the deals they were working toward. It was still frustrating, because it kept me from being able to contribute to a small project that I was really excited about.
The lack of other student's help has also been a major hindrance. I'm so grateful for the time and enthusiasm of the other members of this team, as they're going above and beyond their regular schoolwork to help with this game. I really appreciate it. It's really amazing that they are helping out in addition to everything else they're working on. This grad school is insanely busy and stressful, they're really going the extra mile. Because it is a side project for everyone, however, it also means that it quickly slips in their list of priorities, and work on the game can be agonizingly slow at times. Wrangling everyone and constantly keeping in touch, and organizing meetings, and trying to keep them excited about the project has also exposed a major weakness in myself. This type of thing is definitely not my strong point. Constant communication, status updates, and trying to keep everyone excited about our progress, is definitely not one of my strengths. When I haven't been placed in leadership or supervisory positions in the past, I have always preferred working on my own, getting my stuff done fairly independently, and being responsible for my work alone. When I have acted in leadership or supervisory roles, I've done better at this, but it's definitely not something natural to me. As a result, I've let a lot of the communication slip on this project. This has resulted in sporadic updates, and bursts of progress from others. My own progress has remained fairly steady (taking into account my personal schedule) but the progress and the cohesion of the team has definitely been wanting. If this game is going to get to a playable representative state, it's definitely something I have to work on.
I'm going to wrap this post up, it's getting long.
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