AMP GamingThis is presented by Team # 8:

Andrea Hudgins: Week 1 LeaderBen Jones: Week 2 Leader

John Hurtado: Week 3 LeaderBrody Kelly: Week 4 Leader

Jeremy Lanman: Week 4 Co-Leader

Abstract

AMP Gaming defines our Professional Goal as a Game Design studio. We list our Professional Mission, Vision, Values, and Purpose statements. We answer the weekly questions from week one through week four. We include our Game Design Studio organizational charts for our Design, Programming, Art, and Production Departments.

Amp Gaming-Professional Goal

Our team’s name is AMP Gaming, and our objective is to meet for at least three hours a week and deliver a final project that will receive an A+ grade and successfully model a game design studio.

AMP Gaming - Professional Values

Here at Amp Gaming, we hold ourselves responsible to a level of trust and cooperation in ourselves, so that we may provide an organized effort to remain committed to providing high quality games.

AMP Gaming - Professional PurposeOur purpose at AMP Gaming is to develop story-rich games that provide a high level of immersion so that our customers can feel comfortable escaping into our games for their entertainment.

AMP Gaming - Professional MissionHere at AMP Gaming we work proactively , collaborate responsibly, and communicate effectively to provide an exceptional final product.

AMP Gaming - Professional Vision

Our vision at AMP Gaming is to consistently release games that receive high praise from reviewers and customers alike, achieve success in each global market, as well as to expand the company and become influential in the industry.

Week 1 Questions & Answers

What Challenges did you face as a team this week?

The challenge for Week 1 was the scheduling and making sure everyone was able to attend the meetings as a whole team.

How did you specifically resolve them?

We were able to schedule multiple short duration meetings where all members could be brought up to speed if they were not able to attend one of the meetings.

Week 2 Questions & Answersi. What leadership types and traits have you seen exhibited by each team member since you started working as a team?

Andrea - Andrea takes initiative, communicates clearly, and has effective delegation skills. (Ben)

Andrea - Participative style with initiative and very effective at delegating the team meetings. (Jeremy)

Andrea has displayed qualities that are similar to the visionary style of leadership, she is frequently the one to set up meetings and start them up. (Brody)

Andrea has been decisive, fair, and consistent in her leadership. When the class started she offered to take the role of lead first and immediately began to organize team meetings (John)

Ben - Participative style. Ben works very well collaboratively and contributes as a team member but when he leads he asks for everyone’s opinions before committing to a final answer.(Andrea)

Ben - Participative leadership style. Ben tries to get everyone to work equally with each other and will listen to all input before committing to a task. (Brody)

Ben - Participative leadership style with a very good attention to detail and a clear talent for leading. (Jeremy)

Ben - Ben has been honest and logical in his leadership. He says how he feels about people's ideas and offers feedback to help improve upon them whenever necessary. (John)

John - John shows precise decision making, as well as excellent communication efforts. (Ben)

John - Was organized and greatly assisted team members when they could not make the meetings. (Brody)

John - Participative leadership style and was a really crucial member at keeping other members up-to-date on missed meetings.(Jeremy)

John - Participative leadership style, responsible, and effective at delegating. (Andrea)

Brody- Well organized, responsible, communicates well, and punctual. (Andrea)

Brody- Responsible, timely, effective work ethic, leads by example. (John)

Brody - Very creative with the development of the team logo and team input, punctual, with a participative leadership style. (Jeremy)

Brody - efficient and focused, an excellent team player and very practical.

Jeremy - Makes excellent group contributions, attends every meeting, organizes meetings effectively. (John)

Jeremy- Is an excellent organizer, shows up on time, communicates clearly and is very helpful in gathering information.(Brody)

Jeremy - Great organizational skills, dependable, communicates effectively, and punctual. (Andrea)

Jeremy - Always ensures everyone is caught up, is clear in communication and contribution.

Week 2 Questions Continued

Week 2 Questions Continuedii. What ethical behavior have you seen displayed by your teammates?

Andrea - Works to start up and set up the meetings on time and is reliable and effective as a leader.(Brody)

Ben - Very collaborative wanting to hear everyone’s input before he makes a judgement call allowing everyone to participate.(Brody)

John - Displays good quality of leadership and work ethic, willing to put forth effort to ensure everyone is on the same page.(Brody)

Jeremy - Works hard and is creative, Often times brings a solution none of us were thinking at the time.(Brody)

Andrea- Immediately volunteered to be leader for Week 1 and always stepped forward to help organize group meetings. (John)

Ben- Would offer ways to help improve group work so that we could achieve higher levels of quality in our final product. (John)

Brody- Would drive the team forward productively by making sure we got all our work done.(John)

Jeremy- Helps the group complete tasks no one really wants to complete. Is willing to step up and finish the job. (John)

Andrea – I have seen honesty and integrity throughout the two weeks we have been doing the team assignments. Very respectful in trying to accommodate everyone’s schedules when coordinating team meetings. Took time out of her day in order to catch me up on a missed meeting. (Jeremy)

Ben – I have noticed good leadership qualities and accountabilities. He likes to take charge of certain areas of the assignment, like making it visually appealing. (Jeremy)

John – John displayed honesty, fairness, and integrity in the two weeks time we have been meeting together. Took his time out to be sure I was up to date on a missed team meeting. (Jeremy)

Brody – Very creative and honest traits of ethical behavior displayed through the short time we have been on a team together. (Jeremy)

Brody - Responsible and displays integrity.(Andrea)

John - Responsible and organized.(Andrea)

Ben - Responsible, organized, and fair.(Andrea)

Jeremy - Responsible, respectful, fair, and well organized.(Andrea)

Andrea - Organized, focused and excellent at communicating (Ben)

John - Hard worker and quality oriented. Never tried to take shortcuts, and ensured everyone was up to date

Brody - Logical and practical. Brody was creative and honest, and gave constructive feedback.

Jeremy - Respectful, and fair working to make sure everyone could contribute even with conflicting schedules.

Week 2 Questions Continued

Week 3 Questions & Answers

1. Are all team members fulfilling their delegated and/or agreed upon responsibilities?

Yes, all team members are fulfilling their agreed upon tasks with no issue or complaint. (Unanimous)

2. What specific responsibilities were completed?

- Meetings were organized by the revolving leaders

- During meetings the scheduled work (i.e. the Game Design Studio charts, TLA, etc) was completed.

- Brody designed the studio logo

- Revolving leaders turned in assignments as necessary

- Group mates who could not come to larger meetings were met in smaller groups to be kept up to date

- The RDT was updated after each meeting

3. In light of your Team Leadership Agreement and combined Professional Statements, was/is there an alignment between what your team members said they believed; what they said they would do; and what they actually did? Elaborate

We have been aligned with what we said we would do and what we ended up doing. A specific example can be seen in our TLA values and priorities. We had stated that we would communicate effectively via Google Hangouts and text messaging and we have done this.

Week 3 Questions & Answers Continued

4. What changes occurred from your original Team Leadership Project plan?

Since week 1, we have clarified our decision making process and elaborated on it, as well as discussed a change to the team’s objective, redefining what our goals were and recording it appropriately.

a. Were any of Kotter’s steps used or could have been used to lead that change?

Yes, we made use of step 8, institute change, in order to update our TLA.

b. How was the change led?

With the use of Participative Leadership we updated our TLA to reflect our new decision making process and we updated our objective to better represent our game design studio.

Week 4 Questions & Answers

1. What positive and negative effects did leadership have on your team?

Leadership had a positive effect on our team because each leader was able to take initiative and delegate. No one could procrastinate.

2. How can communication be improved?

Communication could have been improved by using text messaging earlier into the class to ensure more group meetings were scheduled in a way that allowed everyone to show up too the meetings and minimized the number of extra meetings we needed.

3. Were teammates accountable to each other, especially to the rotating leader?

Yes, every team member was accountable and did their assigned tasks according to what the rotating leader’s delegation. If a group member was unable to make a meeting because of work, they were able to work with the rotating leader in accordance to scheduling a “catch up” meeting.

Week 4 Questions & Answers Continued

4. Based on your personal Leadership Development Goals from Assignment 1 and the Team Leadership Evaluation form, has there been any growth or positive changes between the leader that you were before to the leader that you are now? Elaborate.

(Andrea) One of my personal leadership goals was to improve my delegation skills and I feel that I did a great job with delegation during this project. I was able to delegate tasks to my team members without an issue, I feel that this class helped greatly to improve my self confidence and delegation skills.

(Brody) I do feel like I have improved myself as a leader. I am a bit more confident and willing to work in a group.

(Jeremy) The personal leadership goal that I have been trying to improve is to be a more charismatic leader. I feel that there has been some growth and with more time and practice, I will be able to be more of the charismatic leader I desire to be.

(John) I believe I have improved as a servant leader this month with my goal of creating accountability between me and my group mates. We made sure that everyone got their work done and if someone was falling behind we would remind them of what needed to be done and offer support.

(Ben) I wanted to improve my focus as a leader, and this project allowed me to work from start to finish on one project at a time to make the greater finished assignment. Also, I was able to improve myself as a participative leader, practicing the things i’ve learned.

AMP Gaming-Production Department Chart

Lead Producer: Andrea Hudgins

Art Director: Brody Kelly

Design Lead: Ben

Jones

Tech Lead: John Hurtado

Co- Producer: Jeremy Lanman

Amp Gaming-Production Dept. Responsibilities

Lead Producer’s responsibilities include: Making sure tasks are completed on schedule. Facilitates communication amongst team members. Tracks progress.

Co-Producer responsibilities include: Assisting the Lead Producer as needed.

Art Director responsibilities include: Coordinating a schedule, delegating tasks amongst the artists, reviewing art assets, and coordinating resources.

Technical Director responsibilities include: Coordinating a schedule, delegating tasks amongst the programmers, and evaluate software implementation.

Design Lead responsibilities include: Review lead design and Game play test sessions, suggest creative ideas for game environments, and resolve and iterate on game environments to guarantee great play experience.

Designer: Brody Kelly

Test Lead:Andrea Hudgins

Test Team:John Hurado, Jeremy Lanman, Jane Doe

Design Lead:

Benjamin Jones

Design Department Organizational Chart

Design Department Responsibilities

Design Lead responsibilities include: Review lead design and Game play test sessions, creates and designs levels for game projects, and resolves and iterates on game environments to guarantee great play experience.

Designer responsibilities include: Responsible for individual tasks pertaining to element creation: such as character, level, story and event creation.

Test Lead responsibilities include: Facilitates testing, collects feedback and data from testers. Reports findings to Lead and Designer.

Test Team responsibilities include: Tests builds as needed to look for bugs, glitches and gives feedback on enjoyability.

Amp Gaming-Programming DepartmentLead

Programmer/Technical Director (John Hurtado)

Game Coding Lead(Brody Kelly)

Graphics Lead/UI(Jeremy Lanman)

Networking Lead/IT(Andrea Hudgins)

Game Coding(Ben Jones)

Programming Dept. Responsibilities

Technical Director responsibilities include: Coordinating a schedule, delegating tasks amongst the programmers, and evaluate software implementation.

Game Coding Lead responsibilities include: responsible for implementing the code framework of game assets as instructed to them by the design department

Game Coder responsibilities include: Working with the lead coder to develop framework code for the game and its assets.

Graphics Lead/UI responsibilities include: Creating a user interface to the specifications of the lead and updating the company engine.

Networking Lead responsibilities include: Building, Managing, and troubleshooting a network and/or server for any potential multiplayer aspects to games.

Amp Gaming-Art DepartmentArt Director/Lead Artist

(Andrea Hudgins)

Animation Lead(Jeremy Lanman)

Animator(Bob Lane)

Character Modeler(Ben Jones)

Terrain Lead(Jim Bob)

Prop/Building Modeler

(Arizona Smith)

UI Art/FX Artist(Bobba Fett Jr.)

Game Art Outsourcer(Ted Bear)

Terrain Artist(John Hurtado)

Art Department ResponsibilitiesArt Director/Lead Artist: Reports to lead producer, supervises and unifies the vision of the artistic appearance of the project, gives feedback to other artists, keep projects on budget, and responsible for scheduling and maintaining a timeline for project completion.

Animation Lead: Reports to art director, ensures quality of all artwork, and gives feedback to other animators

Animator: Uses art assets that were created by team artists in order to create animated assets, adheres to project scheduling, and maintains a quality finish project.

Character Modeler: Creates 3-D models of characters and creatures according to the style and aesthetic set forth by the art director, maintains a quality finish project, and adheres to project deadlines.

Prop/Building Modeler: Creates 3-D models of various props and buildings according to the style and aesthetic set forth by the art director, maintains a quality finish project, and adheres to project deadlines.

Terrain Lead: Reports to art director, manages terrain art for the game, ensures quality of work, and gives feedback to other animators.

Art Department Responsibilities Cont.

Terrain Artists: Model, texture, and create collision in 3-D for game environments while proactively seeking feedback from the Lead Artist.

UI/Effects Artist: Creates and designs UI assets and effects for projects, including menus, hud elements, and particle effects.

Game Art Outsourcer: Organizes and outsources project assets as needed to external companies for completion.

Amp Gaming-Organizational Chart

References

Spaulding, S. (2009). Team leadership in the game industry. Boston, MA: Course Technology, PTR/CRM.