Week 11 Journal

Week 11

8/12/07

This week saw the start of Milestone Two. The first team meeting took place on Monday. I helped the team with Brain Storming ideas for the level. It was decided after the Brain Storm that each team member should go away and draw up their own plans ready for the next team meeting on Tuesday.

During the Brain Storm it was decided by the team that the level will be set in an office block, this is so the décor can remain neutral and not have any influence over the test participants.

Over Monday night I thought up plans that could be used for the office idea. In Tuesday’s meeting I discussed my idea with the team. In the end the team decided to use a combination of two maps drawn up by team members. While these maps were refined during discussions a level flow was produced. This is so each team member has a clear understanding of how the level will be set out.

On Wednesday the team met up once again to discuss the level plans. It was decided that Microsoft Visio Plans will be drawn up of each floor of the office. Each team member drew up the plans of a floor each. I draw up the plans for the third floor with the help and input of all team members. Now these were complete we could show the Supervisors our plans on Thursday.

For the supervisors meeting on Thursday (See Team Blog for more details) we discussed the level plans and the ideas we have for our final artefact. An important point that was raised was that we would need a control group. This is to make sure that the colour change in our level is going to make a difference and give us valid results. This point is very important to the project and will be discussed by the team next week.

The final team meeting took place on Thursday afternoon. This was to discuss the level design chapter of the design document. As Milestone Manager I discussed with the team who would want to do each section and these were assigned once each team member was happy with what it was that they had to do. The Gantt chart was then updated with the help of the team.
This week I will be writing the level flow and the Gameplay elements sections of the design doc. I will also be adapting the draft questionnaires which were discussed during the Supervisors meeting.