Production Process
Challenges

Cycle 1

- We had problems staying focused on specific tasks through completion. We found that assigning deadlines to them made them instantly more important.

- As week four rolled around, and we still hadn't received the piece of equipment we were planning our experience for (a SkySkan dome), we realized that should have been planned for. We can only rely on ourselves in the entertainment industry, and should have realized the situation 2 weeks in.

- We had trouble working as a team, so we assigned specific time slots each day when our group would be working together, raising our efficiency.

Cycle 2

- We were definitely overscoping -- trying to plan an entire game. We were told that we couldn't possibly do what we wanted to in the allowed time and do it -well-. So we scoped back. We realized we should have been focusing our energies on much smaller ideas, although the grandiose plan we had initially was great for ideas.

- "Make sure nobody is cold, tired, or hungry." Or hot. We were hitting 86 degrees in our project room, people were feeling sick, getting headaches, and were generally less productive and less happy. Getting our ventilation problem solved made worlds of difference.

- Making a design document was a great help in managing our resources and ideas, as well as unifying our vision. In addition, we needed to rely less on person to person communication for clarification because all we had to do was consult our document.