PFD Week 7: Establishing significant communication

"Establishing significant communication"

This is the 7th blog in the series where I actively talk about the progress I'm making on my chosen professional skill titled, "Game Development through Team Collaboration".

This week will talk about the physical meeting I initially planned and the future of the project.


Physical meeting in a beneficial environment

This week focused on improving our team's communication through a physical meeting I had initially planned and considering the future direction of our project.

During the week, I visited a game developer meetup at a local pub with two team members of mine, the team lead and our artist. During the evening, we stayed in contact with our other two team members via Discord, keeping both of them up to date.

We also took the opportunity during the meetup to pitch "Hell's Champion" to some other developers. It was great to hear what they had to say and receive thoughtful comments on our concept. This helped us see our project from different perspectives and provided us with new things to think about.

After talking to the other developers, the three of us met to talk about where we are at with our project and where we want to go from here. This face-to-face conversation really showed how much clear communication is a part of our team.


Physical meeting discussion - Addressing Scope Creep

One thing we talked about a lot was scope creep, or uncontrolled growth in the scope of a project after it has been started. Scope creep is a significant challenge in game development, manifesting when a project’s original requirements expand uncontrollably as new features or changes are continuously introduced. This unplanned growth can disrupt timelines and inflate budgets, potentially compromising both the quality of the final product and the overall project viability. To mitigate these risks, it is essential for development teams to implement strict scope management strategies, conduct regular project reviews, and maintain clear communication among stakeholders (Gamasutra, n.d.).

Because of this, we focused on building a feasible demo, a vertical slice that shows a small, polished piece of our game. We all agreed that we need to make sure we manage closely the scope and do not introduce new features unless absolutely necessary.


Conclusion

Overall, the meetup was a great experience for our pitch refining, gaining constructive feedback, and improving team coordination. The game developer meetup was a truly enjoyable and informative experience. I loved meeting people and finding out their specific passions and skills within the games industry, feeling the benefit of being able to incorporate my own projects with the network around me. We will be using these lessons to keep our project organized and smoothly running from here onwards.


References

Gamasutra (n.d.) ‘Managing scope creep in game development: Strategies for success’, Gamasutra. Available at: https://www.gamasutra.com (Accessed: 24 March 2025).

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