Post Mortem: The goal of this section is to reflect on your year and identify critical points of learning.
In your reflection consider - What went right? What went wrong? Why did things go right or wrong? How did things go right or wrong? How did the important events you chose to focus on affect the overall experience?
What is the final takeaway/newfound insight that you are leaving with?
Throughout my year in Capstone I faced several critical moments that would inform my decisions during the overall experience. However, I would like to talk about a single experience that really helped to inform the rest of my time at Full Sail University.
As a game design intern, my role was to help student teams flesh out their design by helping to implement various aspects. As such, the relationship I had with teams was often tense. I was an outsider who, more often than not, was coming in during a late stage of development to help address design or usability concerns. One such experience with a team early on in my capstone would be critical moment of learning.
I was helping a team of developers who were trying to implement some unique design elements into their game. Their implementation left play-testers confused and overall progression in the game was not clear. My role was to help the developers understand the concerns of their target audience and recommend ways to help balance the design between the two parties. When it came time for me to make recommendations, I addressed the group in a casual way and ran through a bulleted list of suggestions. I got blank stares and no response. I considered that there were different methodologies to learning. Perhaps my dry, non-visual approach wasn’t easily conceptualized by the developers?
I tried again, this time emailing them a PDF with recommendations and step-by-step instructions. There was media imbedded throughout the file: images, videos, and gifs demonstrating a certain design element or possible implementation. This got a more positive reaction and I got actual feedback. I realized the audience I was working with simply needed a more visually-stimulating presentation. I made a final PowerPoint presentation, with limited text and more imbedded media. I used screengrabs of other games that the team was trying to emulate; showing them creative ways to implement and balance features. This moment taught me that everyone is different and I can’t make assumptions about how someone else might learn or conceptualize material.
There were a few things I did wrong in this situation. The first was making the assumption that the way I processed information would be similar to the rest of the team. Making a better effort to get a feel for each team member early on would have helped me. I also think it went wrong initially because I didn’t fully grasp their inspiration. Once I had a better understanding for what games had inspired their work, I had an easier time relating material to something familiar to them that also drives their passion.
I think the most important thing I did right was to keep trying until I could make a connection with the team. They could tell that I put in the effort and appreciated it. Going forward, we all worked better at communication to help achieve their goals. I also carried this on to the rest of the teams I worked with during my time in capstone. I strove to place communication above all else. Going into the industry, this experience will help me greatly as I will work at studios of a variety of different cultures and size. Being flexible and adaptable in how you communicate with your team is vital.
