Overview

This post discusses the daily meetings we had throughout gold standard, along with a review of our meetings as a whole throughout the project.

Technical Description / Explanation 

Gold Standard, in my opinion, has been the strongest stage for meetings and team communication. We have held fairly consistent meetings, sometimes led by me as Nathaniel was off a few times, that have really helped us to know where to focus our efforts on and where to cut for time. As a result, we have come to the end of gold standard with a very strong and polished game that's only missing a few sprite assets here and there. We also held a MoSCoW meeting that helped us to decide what was a need, a want, and what we can safely cut. For example, we decided to cut the collectables we planned to implement as we felt they didn't really contribute much besides story and plot. Additionally, cut-scenes were cut to decrease development load, which was a difficult decision as they would've helped to explain the game to the player (in conjunction with the collectables) and the main character's motivations.

The only major change to our meeting format for gold standard was the MoSCoW meeting we held at the start of this sprint outlining where tasks lie in terms of priority. This included what we needed for the game to be complete, what we should include to enhance the experience, what we could improve that has less of an impact, and what can be safely cut to save time for more essential features. This helped us to all figure out our most important tasks and targets and let us communicate what we all personally thought was important, helping to shape the team's task priority. For me, my main tasks were asset implementation and bugfixing.

Reflection

Overall, our meetings for gold standard have been a significant improvement in all areas. They have contributed much more positively to team cohesion and project progress. My biggest takeaway from our meetings overall is that they are necessary for any team larger than two, as they help to ensure everyone has the same vision for the project and lets developers discuss their problems and grievances with one-another in a controlled and neutral environment.

Our MoSCoW meeting was somewhat helpful, but mostly acted as a writing down what we had already discussed prior towards the end of beta. I was well aware of my tasks and expectations from the rest of the team, and completed every task that was marked as a must, along with both of the shoulds (although the puzzle was replaced with a fade to black).

I personally don't believe the infrequent meetings had as severe an impact on gold standard thanks to our tasks and goals being simple. Everyone was fairly productive throughout this stage, with Archie working from home to produce as many sprites as he could in the short amount of time we had left in gold standard.