On Friday (15/08/08), there was a small discussion between Alvin, Melcolm, TJ and Terence (me). There were a few notable problems about the studio that was discussed, and we arrived at an agreed solution (among the four of us) for all of the problems. Below are the problems and what we think should be done to fix the problems.
- Lack of seriousness towards the studio: During studio meetings, there was very little seriousness in most of the members as we sidetracked extremely frequently, leaving us with very little done afterwards.
- Members need to learn to draw a line between work and play and keep their jokes and stuff unrelated to the meeting to after the meeting (meaning try to keep from sidetracking). This does not mean that we throw out all traces of informality between us—it just means that during meetings we should give all our attention to the person heading. The person heading the meeting should also prepare an agenda for the meeting to keep us focused.
- Gist of the whole thing: have a “let’s get work done” mindset during studio meetings.
- Schoolwork: Members do not finish their assignments on time, leaving us little time to do extra work during school terms. If we put everything off to the holidays, we aren’t going to get a lot done in 3 years.
- Studio members should always try to finish their assignments earlier than the usual DGDD student, so that we have time to do miscellaneous stuff.
- Moreover, if a person can’t even handle his schoolwork, how can he handle the extra obligations of the studio?
- Group democracy
- Not really a problem, but everyone should have a say in the studio, and any form of proposal should be put out and discussed before it is implemented, so feel free to comment on the above two points if you have qualms with it.
We also discussed about what we were currently planning to do for the holidays, and concluded that instead of the initial plan, which was to do a piece of work based on our specialization revolving around the theme of sci-fi, we should have everyone do a small proposal of how they want the first studio project to be like, and the proposal that most people like will be chosen as the first project of our studio (the person who proposes it will be the project head). The former plan will get us nowhere, as different people have different interpretations of sci-fi, and we’ll more than likely get into conflicts about the context of the game. Moreover, by seeing everyone’s proposals, we can see who are the potential people who will take up the role of handling game concepts and mechanics in future projects. The specifics of the game proposal plan will be further discussed in studio meetings. Everyone will still have to do up a piece of work that reflects their specialization in the studio.
Studio Plans for the Holidays
We also briefly discussed about how the studio should spend the holidays, and I’ve briefly worked out a timeframe of potential studio activities. Everything here is tentative—expect more things to be thrown in as time passes.
Our focal point: To have conceptualised the project we are doing and the platform we are doing it on by the end of the holidays.
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Timeframe |
Plans |
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Week 1 (18/08 to 24/08) |
NIL |
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Week 2 (25/08 to 31/08) |
NIL |
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Week 3 (01/09 to 07/09) |
01/09 – Studio meeting to confirm game proposal procedure for project and finalise member specializations, and also to discuss on the above issues and what we’re going to do for the holidays. |
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Week 4 (08/09 to 14/09) |
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Week 5 (15/09 to 21/09) |
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Week 6 (22/09 to 28/09) |
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Week 7 (29/09 to 05/10) |
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Week 8 (06/10 to 12/10) |
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By: Terence
