Today was supposed to be a great day. The Co-Signers team met this morning to discuss the short amount of time we have to get to Alpha (end of the semester on May 3rd). That's not a lot of time for a 2-player asymmetrical couch co-op game. However, we got MASSIVELY roadblocked today... Want to know why? READ ON.
So after a quick team meeting this morning, the faculty wanted to meet with all of the students in our cohort that are in certain tracks of the program. Producers were to meet with Roger, engineers with Bob, and artists with Craig. The producer meeting went very well, mostly questions about how to get the engineers to do what you want and etc. which has not been a huge problem for this team. Also, this concern from my fellow producers kind of alarmed me a little bit because I do not think of the engineers as my employees and I am their boss. We're students in school. We should all have each other's backs and not create some entitled hierarchy in a studio-sim environment. The industry will allow us to do that later on if we get hired into our sought-after positions.
Anywhoo...
When all of the meetings ended, the Co-Signers' producers returned to our team's engineers all huddled around a table speaking about something feverishly. When I came to the table, they all looked up at me with a concerned look on their faces. When I asked what was wrong, I got an answer which sort of blew me away. Every single engineer now wanted to change our tech from Unity to UDK. Now, because I am knee-deep in developing Reveal for Ubisoft in UDK, I know the trials and tribulations that go along with people simply learning how to use that engine. It was immediately clear that they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. So, I asked why they wanted to to UDK. Did they think it was the best engine for the game we were making? Nope. They wanted to change the engine because Bob suggested it and because UDK experience is a requirement for a bit of the jobs they have been applying for recently. Essentially, in order to make themselves look more marketable, they wanted to gut The Co-Signers by switching engines just before Alpha.
Now, because I am a results oriented person and I'm one of the few people with any UDK experience on the team - I decided to lay down a challenge: Recreate our 4 day prototype with Unity in UDK within the same time frame. None of the engineers were willing to accept that challenge and instead wanted to keep on complaining about their futures and market value with UDK experience. Before having a complete melt down (I did not need this after flying back to Utah after a 2 week life-changing event), I grabbed Roger to talk some sense into my team. They still did not budge. Finally, I got a hint to a solution from them from one sentence "If we had a UDK class, none of this would be talked about". I turned to Roger and harshly demanded this class be made for the spring 2014 semester. He said he would look into it. But I was a man with a mission to save his game at that moment...
So I walked across campus to the North Lab and laid out the argument to create a UDK class for the engineers in the spring 2014 semester and was met with, "that's a good idea, we'll get on that now". WHEW! So that is in the works and the guys have calmed down a bit but they want to shop some industry-pro opinions while we are all at GDC next week. I'm fine with that, I just hope they all get a little more comfortable with themselves over the next week.
For me, the rest of the week will be crunching on Reveal due to the fact that the competition is literally the week after we all get back from GDC. But I'll have more on that later...
To work!
Trouble in Paradise
