Materials
- Week 10 Agile Development
- User Stories
- Buyer persona
- Week 11 Real Works
- Networking
- CV
- Week 12 Finalise
- Preparation for the next module: Game Development
- Ideas for The Final Project: Indie Game Startup
Personal Development
- InDesign an intensive course
- Interactive documents
- Animation in PDFs
- Design terms
- Design practices
- Signing up for HTML5 Apps and Games at EdX
- Watching Hades: Developing Hell (2018)
- Reading Understanding Comics (2017)
Reflect-in-action
Please see my blog posts for Sprint 4 for my reflection in-action.
Reflect-on-action
My cohort member and I discussed the stress of taking on an intensive course in InDesign simultaneously as the assignment. On reflection, I think this was still a good idea. InDesign is a useful tool, and I have learnt how to create an interactive portfolio. Considering the work you want in the future and aligning your professional development practice towards those goals was mainly the theme of Sprint 4.
I feel apprehensive at the end of Sprint 4. The NoClip (2018) documentary Hades: Developing Hell was uplifting. Watching the Supergiant Games team realise their ambitions inspiring, but reflection is also a time to think critically about your chances for success.
Gwen Frey is an indie games developer who released Kine and is currently working on Lab Rat. “It’s rare in the games industry for the stars align perfectly around a project, especially when that project is a single-player, indie puzzle title made by a solo developer. But that’s exactly what happened for Gwen Frey” (Valentine 2019).
The image Gwen shares demonstrate the difference between fantasy and reality of making games. There is a massive difference between ‘Games that I badly want to make’ and ‘Games that I can make at all’.
I find that I am generally realistic about my skills but “Games that have a chance at profitability” is something I have to consider seriously. I shy away from thinking about money, revenue and the business side of things.
I enjoy creating, and the idea of attaching money to something I love is challenging, I don’t want to think about it. The very fact that I don’t want to think about it probably suggests I should.
Reflect-for-action
Research on The Agile Framework was a surprising highlight of Sprint Four. I enjoyed researching my alternatives to the Bucket Game like Planning Poker. Working alone most of the time, I was not familiar with The Agile Framework, and I have learnt a lot from my experienced cohort about working in an Agile team.
The discussion on RealWorks, adapting Agile Practice and the preparation and reflection for the course of my MA study has focused my mind on the realities of building a game, seeking a publisher and seeking funding. It is crucial now to make decisions on my goals for the future. Sprint 4 pushed me to begin building a portfolio, a CV and apply for opportunities like Die Gute Fabrik.
I have started to define what I am most passionate about, writing and drawing for games but more so than that. I am passionate about 2D visuals, games that appeal to everyone with an accessible user interface and games that set out to be a fresh take on an old idea.
List of Figures
Figure. 1 Every time I start dreaming about a new #indie dev project Twitter 26 December 2020. [screenshot by author]
References
Hades. 2020. Supergiant Games.
Kine. 2019 Gwen Frey, Chump Squad.
Labrat. 2021. Gwen Grey, Chump Squad.
MCCLOUD, Scott. 2017. Understanding Comics. Reprint. New York: William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.
Noclip. 2018. Hades: Developing Hell. [documentary]. Available at: https://www.noclip.video/hades [accessed 22 Dec 2020].
SINCLAIR, Brendan. 2020. ‘Lab Rat dev skeptical of multiplatform launches and the virtues of virtual events’. GamesIndustry.biz 18 September [online]. Available at: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-09-18-lab-rat-dev-skeptical-of-multiplatform-launches-and-the-virtues-of-virtual-events [accessed 20 December 2020].
VALENTINE, Rebekah. 2019. ‘Kine: From “artsy bullshit” to Stadia launch title and Epic exclusive’. GamesIndustry.biz 16 October [online]. Available at: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-10-16-kine-from-artsy-bullshit-to-stadia-launch-title-and-epic-exclusive [accessed 21 December 2020].
