Semester 2 Week 7 (2/27-3/4)
We have finally arrived in the realm of stable builds and it feels good. We made a concentrated effort this week to not only create a stable build but to not add more bugs to the game. We largely succeeded in our aims this week and while I think we are still behind where we want to be we have made up a good amount of ground. If we can keep having weeks with the quality of productivity that we had this last week I will not be worried about finishing the game to the level that we planned at the beginning of the semester.
In addition to cracking down on our bugs this week we added a lot of polish that makes the game feel much more vibrant and alive. The fluidity of the transitions continued to improve and the overworld alongside them. Now players can easily tell which level they are on and which levels come next. In addition the camera now pans over to the new level.
Last semester I saw Amanda's work from the perspective of another team and was less than impressed at both the quality and quantity of her work. Perhaps that was only a result of watching from the outside but her work this semester has been much more impressive and beautiful. Amanda's work has continually improved the look of the game without departing from the visual style that the game started out with.
I spent a large chunk of this week out of commission unfortunately as I spent the beginning of the week de-stressing with my parents away from a computer and then mid week was consumed with two days of working exclusively on another class's homework. I am happier with the quality of my work this week than I have been previously this semester but I did not do enough work the rest of the week to make up for not working for 3 days.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
The Importance of Awareness
Semester 2 Week 6 (2/22-2/26)
This week was rough, Nick and I got into a couple of arguments but we rather easily resolved them and in resolving those arguments we found ways to work together and improve the team's work. The team also realized where we were compared to where we wanted to be and pulled together to get us much closer to where we want to be.
Stress had been mounting this week due to the Sisyphean task of creating a stable build. What finally broke us out of our funk was realizing and recognizing the bad work habits that had trapped us in a an endless cycle of fixing game breaking bugs and causing them at the same time. Sometimes all that a person requires to clean up their bad behavior is simply recognizing that it is bad, all too often behavior that doesn't seem all that problematic ends up causing the most damage. By recognizing the damage we had been doing by inaction and accident we have been able to put together our first truly stable build of the semester. We have also instituted several stricter rules for managing the repository and reporting our work, these rules have already shown some benefit to workflow and general team work efficiency.
I truly believe that the arguments Nick and I had are resolved to both of our satisfaction, both times a combination of stress and misunderstanding exacerbated the situation and caused our tempers to flare. Once we got to talking the issue out we quickly resolved our disagreements and learned something about each other.
Also I am annoyed at myself for always ending up finishing these blog posts halfway through the next week. I start writing on Wednesday intending to finish on Thursday or Friday but something always comes up or I forget or some other obstacle. I am not sure what to do to fix this but I am making a push to get week 7 finished by Friday night.
This week was rough, Nick and I got into a couple of arguments but we rather easily resolved them and in resolving those arguments we found ways to work together and improve the team's work. The team also realized where we were compared to where we wanted to be and pulled together to get us much closer to where we want to be.
Stress had been mounting this week due to the Sisyphean task of creating a stable build. What finally broke us out of our funk was realizing and recognizing the bad work habits that had trapped us in a an endless cycle of fixing game breaking bugs and causing them at the same time. Sometimes all that a person requires to clean up their bad behavior is simply recognizing that it is bad, all too often behavior that doesn't seem all that problematic ends up causing the most damage. By recognizing the damage we had been doing by inaction and accident we have been able to put together our first truly stable build of the semester. We have also instituted several stricter rules for managing the repository and reporting our work, these rules have already shown some benefit to workflow and general team work efficiency.
I truly believe that the arguments Nick and I had are resolved to both of our satisfaction, both times a combination of stress and misunderstanding exacerbated the situation and caused our tempers to flare. Once we got to talking the issue out we quickly resolved our disagreements and learned something about each other.
Also I am annoyed at myself for always ending up finishing these blog posts halfway through the next week. I start writing on Wednesday intending to finish on Thursday or Friday but something always comes up or I forget or some other obstacle. I am not sure what to do to fix this but I am making a push to get week 7 finished by Friday night.
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