Thanks for sharing - reminds me of all the AAA behind-the-scenes I've seen over the years
Can't speak for my team, but for me personally it was a challenging project on multiple levels:
1) Never lose sight of the most important thing - We are all good friends IRL, and we wanted to see how well we work together. Everything else--the ideas, the work, the jam--was secondary to that.
2) Find a common vision / concept / idea - We wasted no time being honest and putting everything we were thinking about up front and quickly reached something we're all connected with.
3) Accept the tradeoff of an audacious goal - We chose to do both 3D and multiplayer, a game jam, and working together for the first time. Once we agreed do these things, it was all hands on deck for 3 weeks straight. Every person needed to pull their part. This is not sustainable, but we were ready for the challenge! On this note, we also made sure we were taking care of our bodies and minds in order to actually do the work--it's not the extreme that's difficult, it's the balance.
4) Trust in each other - Aside from mandatory conversations (e.g., what's working, what's not, what to do), we worked as if the other people will deliver.
5) I'm the guy in charge of plan B - If we don't have SFX, this key cover art, that gameplay feature, what am I going to do to deliver the experience regardless? That was basically my last week of the jam.
But I know the person who had the most difficult role was @yahhcheee, our programmer. Our entire idea rests on a multiplayer environment, and it was her who toiled away day and night to deliver that. I'll ask her to share her perspective too!
It sounds kinda cheesy laying it out like that, but it's the truth and the best I can do in a couple of bullet points. Maybe we'll write a devlog that shares more concrete stuff about why / how / what we did.
Viewing post in The Art of SOLARITY | Behind the Scenes
Thanks for the words of wisdom. I agree with a lot of those ideals as well.
In regards to your list—
1. It was all of our first time meeting & working together, being from different countries, timezones, & cities. Collaboration was a value on our team.
2. Our first milestone was Concept, so having a solid elevator pitch & pillars was an early high priority. Aimed to get contribution & feedback from everyone, leading to consensus.
3. At the start, we prioritized sustainable development, meaning balancing work-life-game jam. Avoiding all-nighters & going over capacity. Scoped accordingly, with some individual autonomy on how people get things done.
4. We aligned our ideals, & goals of the project early on. Moreover, we got sign-off on the schedules so we can hold each other accountable to deliver within the deadlines.
5. We set priorities, & stack-ranked our features. So that if anything got cut, it would be something lower priority that would not be detrimental to the core game experience.
I’ll be sure to check out your team’s game & give feedback.