Year 2 Block D - Specialization and Portfolio Development
April 2022 - June 2022
Overview
The final block of Year 2 focused on specialization in chosen areas, portfolio development, and preparation for industry transition. This included refining technical skills and documenting learning outcomes.
Key Focus Areas: Specialization, Portfolio Creation, Industry Preparation
Weekly Progress Highlights
Progress Report Must be updated every week Students report what they have done each week. It shows in-progress work, provides links to the work, and summarizes the feedback on progress made. Section C – Summary of ILO evidence Must be completed in week 8 Students summarize their evidence for each of the Intended Learning Outcomes of this block, and self-assess based on the provided detailed rubric. Section D – Block Reflection Must be completed in week 8 Students reflect on their progress during the block, and set learning goals going forward.
Section A Plan A
Self-study goals for this block Production Skills
I want to learn how to effectively use Jira, so that I can fullfil my duty as Product Owner to groom the backlog.
S: Learn the basics of Jira using Fabian tutorials. M: This can be measured by me having watched all Fabian’s tutorials. A: I will follow the Jira videos made by Fabian in order to better understand how to use Jira. R: This is very much relevant as in larger teams Jira is an often-used tool. T: I should finish this goal in roughly the first week since I will need to have a good understanding over the course of the block. Resource Management in C++
I want to learn about the intricies of memory and resource management in C++ since I usually tend to stay away from low-level code.
S: Follow tutorials and add a resource management system to my WIP custom engine. M: I want my resource manager’s get_resource() function to be O(n) complexity for the number of resources added. A: There are plenty of resources online to follow about the topic and I am sure I can ask for help from lecturers if I get stuck. R: This is relevant to me specifically since I want to become more aware of low-level coding. T: I wish to complete this small project by the end of week 7.
A
Section B Weekly Progress Report B
Week 1
What went well? I met with my teammates, and we decided on roles for the project. I was chosen after a short debate as the Product Owner of the project, meaning that I am the vision holder for the game. This role makes me very happy since I have played a great deal of Retro 3D shooters, so I think I should be capable of delivering something interesting/fun. What didn’t go so well? We have not been able to fully settle on the game idea for what we want to make. As you can see in red, I ended up working on some unplanned tasks. The first being Planning and Risk Assessment Document which was a necessary step in order to create the Game direction presentation. This was requested by our FPOC teachers who wanted to have a presentation on a high-level plan of what we want to make. What did you learn? I learned that often when we are working in a large team, we need to break things down into the smallest unit of work. There can often be cases when there is unplanned work (things never go 100% according to planning). Action points? We need to nail down our game direction ASAP since we did not have pre-production, we still need the art team to nail down look and style of the game, as well as team-wide setting for the game. What did I do this week
Monday Meeting with team Assigning team roles Setting up team contract Watching Jira videos Tuesday Y2D Kick-Off Sprint Planning Brainstorming Planning and Risk Assessment Document Wednesday Creating Sprint Goals Creating Sub-Tasks Thursday Planning and Risk Assessment Document Game direction presentation Friday Personal project C++ Guild
Week 2
What went well? We were able to nail down the nature of our game and solidified our direction. What didn’t go so well? Nailing down the direction took longer than I assumed. This week I had a lot of unplanned tasks, I tried to mitigate this by talking with our producer to retro-actively add them to the sprint which is what we ended up doing since they accounted for a lot of my time this week. Many of these tasks align more with my PO role than my programming role, but since we did not have pre-production, the team is quite uncertain about what we are making, so together with Attila I worked on creating a more coherent concept. What did you learn? I learned that I need to be more careful of my deviation from planning, since I ended up doing very little programming this week since I focused largely on PO tasks which were not even planned in properly before I started working on them. I also learned that delegating tasks to other people works best when they have some semblance of freedom. Action points? I need to limit my deviation from planning as much as possible. We need to have a stable build for LD always accessible as to not block their work with engine bugs. What did I do this week
Monday Learning log Gun talk with Attila CI/CD Meeting Sketching and noting down game ideas Tuesday Nick Feedback Talk with Attila about game direction Meetings regarding game direction Wednesday Research gtest Solidifying project vision/direction Debugging engine issues Thursday Collaboration and Scope lecture Make demo level Showcase presentation Friday Personal Project C++ Guild
Week 3
What went well? The Sprint Review Presentation went quite well although there were some things we did not take into proper consideration when we created our presentation What didn’t go so well? I think a few things were not nailed down well enough for our game direction and certain teammates were not effectively kept up to speed. What did you learn? I learned that in a big team it’s hard to keep everyone up to speed. Action points? Use the showcase presentations to get everyone up to speed on the progress and status of the project. What did I do this week
Monday Learning Log Implementing google tests Tuesday Sprint Review Presentation Wednesday Sprint Review Sprint Goal for next sprint Sprint retro 2D vs 3D gun debate
Block Reflection
Must be completed in week 8 Students reflect on their progress during the block, and set learning goals going forward.
Technical Skills Developed
- Programming Languages: C++, C#
- Graphics APIs: DirectX 12, OpenGL
- Tools & Frameworks: Custom engine development, The Forge framework
- Methodologies: Agile development, SMART goal setting
- Collaboration: Multi-disciplinary team work, technical communication
Key Takeaways
This block provided valuable experience in specialization, portfolio creation, industry preparation, contributing to my growth as a game developer and preparing me for industry challenges.
This project page is part of my ongoing portfolio documentation. For more details about specific implementations or to discuss this work, feel free to contact me.