Last week started for me and my group with brainstorming possible changes we could make for the game concept “Dangerous Dander”, so that we would make it our own. We decided to change the setting of the game, and thereby also the different types of NPC’s. Most of the changes we made straight off the bat were done to scale down the variation of weapons and power ups available to the player, thinking that we should get down to the core of the concept. Witch to us was the system for the “pump meter” that constantly drops toward emptying while you try to keep it full by punching enemies, if you allow it to reach full or empty the player will lose. We also kept the aesthetic goal of feeling pumped. The dynamic of the group works really well so far, it feels like we’re on the same page regarding the shape of the game we’re about to make.
Starting with Skrum has been a really interesting process! I feel much calmer now that everything is structured up in neat little lines with a set priority attached. It makes it a lot easier to get a holistic approach to the development of the game, whilst at the same time one is able to get in to microscopic tasks without losing focus on the whole. Structuring up the skrum document helped us to realize more specifically the concrete aspects of each artefact in the game, and what it would require to complete them in terms of work effort and “know how”. So basically skrum for the win so far.
When estimating the work hours for each artifact in this week’s sprint plan I found it really hard to determine how long it would take me to complete them. I guess that’s mostly due to lack of experience working for a deadline, and that I will hopefully gain that experience through working on this project. So for now I just overestimate the time frame and add more artefacts if I complete all my work early. Then after the weekly sprint review I will adapt the timeframe.
Nils Wennergren 