So I thought I'd reflect on my group experience a bit more. This morning I was talking to a mate who's just finishing his honour's thesis at UQ, and we got talking about addictive songs somehow. He was saying one of his team members in one of his group assignments, whenever he was to blame, he replied "Don't blame it on me! Or the sunshine! Or the moonlight! Or good times! Blame it on the boogie!". Ah, the joys of being overly familiar with your group.
Besides my group experience being vastly different from past experiences because we were creating a piece of entertainment, it also created a very unique environment based on the other members of my team. One member, Dan, I have done 4 major assignments with in the past, had a lot of classes with, and generally spent a lot of time with over the course of my... course. The other, Tristan, I only met during this unit. The depth of our relationships, added to the context of creating a game rather than a program, created an interesting and useful experience for me.
Usually, overfamiliarity can be a bad thing for the productivity of a group, but in creating a game, past experiences with Dan enhanced our team's outcomes. In some past units, 010 and 711, we've been pretty forgiving of the other's lack of work at times, usually accompanied by a long round of tomfoolery. An excessively long round. In fact, the previous unit's tomfoolery immediately flowed into this unit's tomfoolery. Only this time, it seems to have benefited our creative devices. Our first idea was created by variances of "Epic Fail", the drawing of a hippie-esque whale, and a mention of Pokemon. However, since we'd worked together, we also knew we could just speak openly about the idea and tear it to shreds in the light of the time we had remaining.
Initially, and I've gotta be honest, I thought having an additional member to our dynamic duo may have been problematic. Mainly because Dan and I have work in a very unique... style. Constant programming jokes (that make us shudder), lots of talk about games, and too many in-jokes to remember (and I just lost the game). But Tristan proved to be quite an excellent comrade, and brought some very useful insights to our team. I think we did well to start our first meeting by just going out to Gloria Jeans and getting acquainted It worked quite well for us, and I quickly learned Tristan was just as serious about doing well in this subject as we were.
Where working with Dan was more about obscure jokes becoming good game ideas (which has been the case... and we actually are quite productive together), working with Tristan has provided an excellent balance to ensure we don't go too far off track. Usually when I have thought of an idea, Tristan has wisely assessed it based on the previous lecture and tutorial content. It has been incredibly useful for me to keep my mind on sound design over pure zeal for zany ideas. That's not to say Tristan is a killjoy, cause he most certainly isn't. Nor is it to say our team had one half overly crazy, one half serious. Our team dynamics served to bring a healthy balance without these extremes becoming prevalent on their own.
So, where do I fit in? Well, glad you asked. Or rather, I'm glad I forced you to ask. I guess I was the more extreme one, laughing heaps at terrible puns and crazy game ideas, while constantly thinking about the lecture content. However, working with Dan and Tristan has helped me not to be overly in either category, but rather healthily in both. I've found that when I was too focused on the design principles, the creative juices ceased. I also found that when I focused too much on the creativity, it just turned into one long bout of laughter and aimless brainstorming. I think we all helped each other in this area, and we were able to quickly create, as my ITB009 lecturer described, a "high performance" team.
A key point that has been discussed in all subjects where group work has been involved came into full view in this team: it's all about creating an environment for members to perform at their best. We were certainly able to do that, and I think it's a technique that will be invaluable as I go out into the games industry.
I'm not being arrogant, but I say with some pride that our team was a fantastic combination and has helped me develop great creative processes for designing entertainment. This will no doubt serve me very well in the near future as I look out to launch a career.
And just to finish appropriately when discussing our group...
We were an *exceptional* team. We should give it another *try*. Well, I guess I'll *catch* you soon. I know, it's *finally* over.
Usually, overfamiliarity can be a bad thing for the productivity of a group, but in creating a game, past experiences with Dan enhanced our team's outcomes. In some past units, 010 and 711, we've been pretty forgiving of the other's lack of work at times, usually accompanied by a long round of tomfoolery. An excessively long round. In fact, the previous unit's tomfoolery immediately flowed into this unit's tomfoolery. Only this time, it seems to have benefited our creative devices. Our first idea was created by variances of "Epic Fail", the drawing of a hippie-esque whale, and a mention of Pokemon. However, since we'd worked together, we also knew we could just speak openly about the idea and tear it to shreds in the light of the time we had remaining.
Initially, and I've gotta be honest, I thought having an additional member to our dynamic duo may have been problematic. Mainly because Dan and I have work in a very unique... style. Constant programming jokes (that make us shudder), lots of talk about games, and too many in-jokes to remember (and I just lost the game). But Tristan proved to be quite an excellent comrade, and brought some very useful insights to our team. I think we did well to start our first meeting by just going out to Gloria Jeans and getting acquainted It worked quite well for us, and I quickly learned Tristan was just as serious about doing well in this subject as we were.
Where working with Dan was more about obscure jokes becoming good game ideas (which has been the case... and we actually are quite productive together), working with Tristan has provided an excellent balance to ensure we don't go too far off track. Usually when I have thought of an idea, Tristan has wisely assessed it based on the previous lecture and tutorial content. It has been incredibly useful for me to keep my mind on sound design over pure zeal for zany ideas. That's not to say Tristan is a killjoy, cause he most certainly isn't. Nor is it to say our team had one half overly crazy, one half serious. Our team dynamics served to bring a healthy balance without these extremes becoming prevalent on their own.
So, where do I fit in? Well, glad you asked. Or rather, I'm glad I forced you to ask. I guess I was the more extreme one, laughing heaps at terrible puns and crazy game ideas, while constantly thinking about the lecture content. However, working with Dan and Tristan has helped me not to be overly in either category, but rather healthily in both. I've found that when I was too focused on the design principles, the creative juices ceased. I also found that when I focused too much on the creativity, it just turned into one long bout of laughter and aimless brainstorming. I think we all helped each other in this area, and we were able to quickly create, as my ITB009 lecturer described, a "high performance" team.
A key point that has been discussed in all subjects where group work has been involved came into full view in this team: it's all about creating an environment for members to perform at their best. We were certainly able to do that, and I think it's a technique that will be invaluable as I go out into the games industry.
I'm not being arrogant, but I say with some pride that our team was a fantastic combination and has helped me develop great creative processes for designing entertainment. This will no doubt serve me very well in the near future as I look out to launch a career.
And just to finish appropriately when discussing our group...
We were an *exceptional* team. We should give it another *try*. Well, I guess I'll *catch* you soon. I know, it's *finally* over.
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