Story Team Standards¶
First, I would like to direct whoever is reading this to the Story Team Onboarding article if you have joined at any point after the first few weeks or so (probably any day after Sep. 25).If you’re joining before then, I should be doing onboarding during the early meetings once it’s necessary so look forward to that.
I’m Derek Harris, a sophomore in Computer Science who, by luck (good or bad, you decide) would have it, is the story lead for this year. I’m not normally this formal but I feel it’s important to very quickly let you guys know who I am, as I hope you will do for each other. SIGGD is an interesting club because although we are doing work to create a product, it is not structured like a job with manager and employee relationships (generally). Except for having extra responsibilities, I will just be another member of this team working to make whatever story will be supporting this year’s game. My hope is that tasks won’t feel like assignments, and as such I’m going to avoid ever directly assigning them as much as possible. We should all be discussing what needs to be done to arrive at a finished story, and choosing to work on the tasks we want. Essentially I just want a sense of collaboration over simple labor.
However, my ideals may not always be true to what will happen or is happening. Hopefully I will recognize this and any other issues to be dealt with, but this will realistically not always be the case. So I have the first, and hopefully only, assignment for you guys. Pretty pretty please communicate with me. I’m just one guy; I can't figure it all out on my own. If I seem to not be sticking to my proposed structure for the team, tell me! If there is something happening within the team that is making you uncomfortable, tell me! If you have any questions, tell me!! My only real “job” as story lead is to support you guys and I hope you take full advantage of that.
Now for some information relating to work throughout the year. I want to have story team collaborate with other teams quite a bit, which means you guys will not be meeting exclusively with the rest of the story team and I often times. Therefore this collaboration will require a more distinct structure to the story details we discuss. I’m currently running with Red, Yellow, and Green zones for story details. Green zone means we have discussed that portion of the story and know generally what direction we want to go in, but specifics haven’t been completely decided. When you’re out amongst the other groups, decisions revolving around things in the Green Zone can be made freely. However, once decisions have been made on details in the Green Zone, they will enter the Yellow Zone. Decisions can not be made in the Yellow Zone without discussing with the team, as this could undermine other decisions without proper discussion. And finally once writing has actually taken place for details in the Yellow Zone, those details enter the Red Zone. Nothing in the Red Zone should change unless absolutely necessary.
This system hinges on two things, communication and communication. When story decisions/ideas arise while meeting with other teams, please note them down so that we can all be aware of what is happening. And before writing for story details, please make sure they have been decided. Actually putting pen to paper will inherently make decisions that you maybe shouldn’t be making on your own. There will be many decisions that will be left up to individuals when they start actually writing, but certain broader details need to be decided within the group.
This system is likely to change unless it somehow just perfectly works immediately, so I’ll likely be clarifying/changing details with it throughout the year. So if you have any questions, see paragraph 3. Feel free to reach out to me through discord using either the story channel or direct messages. I’ll generally respond faster to DMs but if it pertains to the team as a whole it’s probably better to use the channel.