Working on Disco Danger was interesting to say the least. I was part of the group but I was working as if I was a contractor outside of the group and I never got to meet or talk to everyone. I only talked to the people from the games department even though there was also two animators. It was interesting because this was the first time I had dealt with this kind of thing before. Many things happened, both good and bad and I thought I should reflect on it all.
The project started off weird with the games group not even knowing what a graphic designer did so they had no idea what they even wanted me to do and that led me into choosing things for them which isn’t the best when you aren’t familiar with everything that goes into a game but I tried my best. Because of the unfamiliarity there was a couple of items of collateral that came out of the blue for me to do but in the end it all turned out well.
The major issues within this project was communication, time and over scoping.
The first time we faced the issue of communication, I was the one who had accidentally caused it. We weren’t seeing each other when we should have been in class time and then I wasn’t getting notifications to check Slack so I never did which ended up making me miss things until our communication changed to using email to discuss things when we wouldn’t be seeing each other throughout class time. This issue in the end gave me less time to do things and responses were lacking sometimes where I would give something in and get nothing in response on if anything needed to be changed or if it was all good.
A good example of the no response being an issue was right before the games exhibition when I had created the sell sheet. I put it on google drive and had said that if they need anything changed please tell me and I’ll do it ASAP. Instead they did it themselves without knowledge of the program I used (InDesign) and it had left the layout of the sell sheet weird in parts and in the end it was shown to the public like that.
In the picture you can see the google play store box down the bottom right corner didn’t match the rest of the layout and the description box near the top had a gap because words had been taken out of it to make it more to the point.
Although communication was an issue we managed well enough and the weekly in person meetings on Thursdays and emails, when used properly did help a lot with moving the project forward and it was a great time to update each other on what was happening and what would be needed soon.
Time was another issue within the project. Over scoping had happened a little and it left everyone in a rush to finish milestones. This is one of the reasons I couldn’t experiment more with the logo. The way it is now I feel like it could still use some work on it and would have benefited with more experimentation. As the over scoping had everyone rushing the group was also unable to use the new buttons for the game which would have made it look nicer and more coordinated in the end.
I would say in this whole project there wasn’t any real defining positive things that happened in the project. There was definately good moments, like when everything was smooth and everyone was working on task and we were all updating each other regularly but I wouldn’t really call that a defining moment in our project.
The games exhibition was the greatest of the events for this project. You can read more about it HERE. It was the day it was officially released to the public and was essentially showcased. Many people turned up and got to play it which gave the game some familiarity for the public. The games exhibition was my first true introduction to the full game with all of its levels and playthrough as I even played it myself a couple of times.
Another great event or milestone was when the game was initially released as the beta version on the app store. If I had an Andriod device I would have joined in but unfortunately I don’t so it didn’t happen and that was why I didn’t actually play the game until the games exhibition. The initial beta release was the first release right before any feedback came around and I didn’t really get any feedback on what I had given then which I took as a good thing because they didn’t seem to want or need any changes on anything I had created and anything that had been changed had been done on my own accord with their final ‘yes’ on the matter when they used those new items of collateral in and out of the game.
Overall as a group I’m happy at how we managed after the first few issues of communication were sorted out and I’m glad we all got along well. I think the project would have benefited if the communication had gone smoother from the start instead of a couple of weeks later when deadlines were much closer but it all seemed to work out ok in the end and everything was handed in.
maromc 