Guilded Fletching
Postmortem - Guilded Fletching
Hello everyone! Welcome to the final installation of the Guilded Fletching Production Blogs! If you've been here throughout the entire journey I can do nothing but thank you for following along our journey and supporting us all from the beginning! This semester has been absolutely incredible for The Fletcher's Guild. We were able to complete a total of 502 points throughout the semester and seemed to only become better and better each sprint which only made Alex and myself happier and happier each sprint. We were able to complete some incredible work we will discuss later, but for now, let's discuss the semester and the main points we learned throughout this journey.
As I said earlier, we had completed 502 total points this semester which is absolutely incredible. As a team, The Fletcher's Guild was able to acquire an outstanding sprint velocity of 78 points per sprint which is just incredible. Completing 93% of our total backlog we were left with 44 points total in our backlog, which was solely comprised of User Stories we wished would get into the game such as SFX and ver specific VFX; however, all of the User Stories the team "needed" or "wanted" were able to be incorporated into the game. Please see the two images below for our team's burndown chart.
Points per Sprint Breakdown
Burndown Chart
What Did Tyler Do Wrong?
Throughout this semester as the Producer of Guilded Fletching, there was a variety of things I did right, as well as a variety of things I did wrong or would have done differently in order to better benefit the team and the game as a whole. First, discussing the things I believe I did wrong throughout this semester, I believe that I could have checked in with the team more on tasks I believed they were taking too much time to complete, I also believe I did not take enough time to prioritize features and tasks early on, which ended up leading to cutting certain features. I was also too lenient among the team and their tasks, which will be discussed later, and finally, I believe I did not encourage communication amongst the team early on, I believe if I had encouraged this more early on in the semester, I believe that we would have been able to grow as a team earlier and have more efficient sprints. Now enough with what I did wrong, let me now tell you about all of the great things I believe I did right!
What Did Tyler Do Right?
In this semester, I believe I did quite a few things right throughout the development of Guilded Fletching, the main points that can sum up all of the correct actions I have taken this semester are keeping team members focused on certain features, for example, if a certain Level Designer was working on a level, only they would touch that level in order to keep the level cohesive to that Level Designer as well as to avoid confusion between multiple Level Designers creating the same level. I also believe that keeping personal burndown charts of each team member was also a great benefit to the team, by knowing how many points each member of The Fletcher's Guild was able to complete each sprint, it was very simple in knowing how much work to assign each member when it came to Sprint Kickoffs. Finally, I believe I was able to keep the team motivated and feeling positive about their work. In certain instances, certain team members would have absolutely incredible looking work but not feel very confident about it and think it could be improved in certain areas, and as their Producer, I had to keep them feeling confident that they are creating great work.
What Would Tyler Do Differently?
Throughout the semester I made mistakes as well as accomplished great things that I will take and use for the rest of my career as a Producer, those things I would do differently are, organizing and prioritizing from the start, in order to ensure there are no unnecessary cuts that get made throughout the development process, as well as I would try to not be the nice guy/yes man and learn to act more sternly as well as not being as lenient, and finally, I would preemptively act on any minor problems, to ensure they do not grow into substantial problems that can hinder development.
What Would Tyler Do Again?
As there are things I wish I did differently this semester, there are also a handful of successes I had that I would gladly practice and execute again, they are keeping personal burndown charts of the entire team to ensure that I always know how much work a given team member can complete in two weeks as well as to ensure I never overload them with work. I would also continue to keep the team motivated and always feeling as positive as possible about their work, and finally, I would continue to provide quick and constructive feedback on and submitted work, because the faster the feedback cycle is, the quicker the next iteration can be created.
What Did Tyler Do Learn?
While I had made some mistakes throughout this semester, it was a great learning process, in this I have learned that there must be a balance between being motivating and positive to the entire team, as well as being in charge and knowing when to put your foot down. I learned that organization, communication and teamwork is absolutely imperative when working within a larger group or even just working on the Internet for the entirety of the semester, and finally, I learned that everyone is motivated differently in that everyone has their own goals in life that motivate them to be great, and as a Producer, I was able to find what motivated each and every member of The Fletcher's Guild and assist them in keeping motivated to create the best work they can!
This portion of the Production's side of the Postmortem will be dedicated to providing the Linkedin Profiles of each member of the Fletcher's Guild, please take a few moments to examine their Linkedin Profile if you have been interested in their work throughout this development process.
Warren (Stephen) Rose II: Programmer
Eder Ayala: Rigging
Overall, this semester was an absolute blast... minus having to do all of this online. However, from the incredible team I was able to work with, to their outstanding work ethics and quality of work I could not have asked for a better semester in the slightest. We were able to complete 502 points out of a total of 549 which is absolutely amazing to see from a team of 11. I would work with every single member of The Fletcher's Guild without question as well as be there to assist them in any future projects they may endure. And to you all who have been following us on our journey, thank you so much, it means the world to us at The Fletcher's Guild to have people who follow us and our progression on Guilded Fletching. I wish you all the best and as always, stay safe, take care, and keep gaming!
I'd like to take the final portion of this Postmortem to thank the two professors of this course, Daniel Alioto and Jeff Underwood. Without their guidance and advice throughout the past classes I have taken with them over the past few semesters, I would not have been as successful as I was throughout my time in this course and I am immensely grateful to have been able to learn from them!
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