Notes on Evaluation

Here are the written up notes from the meeting, they've also on my own blog if for some reason you care.

Positives
In a lot of people's eyes the very fact we managed to finish with everyone completing at least a small number of assets is a decent positive in itself. However, in the broader scheme of thigns there was a unanimous agreement that the major benefit of this project has been a general increase in Max competance, both in terms of speed and skill. Similarly, there has generally been at least some greater familiarity on the technical side relating to engines.

Negatives
The primary negative that most people have is that as a group we suffered from awful communication throughout the project, and relied too much upon the blog to communicate and not enough on face to face. This in turn lead to the secodn biggest problem, that our concept was at no point really defined, and everyone tended to have varying images of what the final piece was - also a factor in this was lack of later stage concept art to nail down what the level was going to look like (rather than the ealeir what *could* it look like). Another by product of the communicaton was that people tended to get pigeon holed in their roles, which other than Carter no one needed to do really. The art style being completed earlier, plus a more defintie asset list which didn't leave room for interpretation would have also helped everythign to be more cohesive. At the end however, it was also questioned whether the groups where too large for the project - meaning that some people never had much important to do.

What we have learnt
Obviously following on from the issues, the importance of communication has been demonstrated very clearly. In addition to the improved modelling, most people stated they felt like more competant texturers than previously, including how vital a colour palette is, both in havign one and ensuyring it is adhered to. Additionally most people now have at least a passing familiarity with Unreal.

What would be done differently
We suspect that if repeated, the Tech lead (Carter) should also be group leader, and for the most part, the other roles aren't needed - beyond the art lead defining the art style (although that should probably be more public in its creation).The concept would also need to be nailed down in a much clearer way, which would partially be achieved by a more rapidly produced art style guide, and later a more specific asset list. Also of note was that i would probably be easie to start with limited ambition and then later add to it time permitting. More regular communication is obviously also needed with people meetign face to face (although not necessarily in a formal meeting) quite regularly.