Inter-campus teams

I just finished an assignment where I was working with a teammember from another school at CMU (ETC). We had to design a game together, playtest it, then write up the analysis of the game. It was due yesterday, and we got it in all well.

I recounted the experience to my boyfriend Chris - I wrote up the game rules and ensured the prototype was ready for submission a week ago, I wrote up the playtests and analyzed them, I rewrote the rules and the cards that went with the game, and created the Marketing document that we were also to submit. My teammate - he organized the playtests and put a rather half-hearted effort in with one of the card set designs. Chris said that I should've expected this. I gave him a quizzical look. He explained that Softs (a term meaning a mid-term presentation of sorts) are due next week, with Hards (the final presentation, I guess) due two weeks later, and everyone is on crunch time to get it done. The reason my teammate had teamed up with me is that he was hoping I would do all the work.

Looking back on it, yes, it did seem like I did all the work. I wasn't complaining about that when I was relaying the story to Chris. I was making a statement about how easily my teammate let me do all that. Normally, in my business teams, we'd all be chomping at the bit to get things done. There's a level of work output expectation that we all seem to have. It was rather different - I won't go so far as to say novel - experience to work with someone who wasn't so driven by such a high work ethic. While I've had my issues with teams in the past in this program, in general they've been very good to work with. I'm usually the organizer, getting people together like herding sheep. I didn't really enjoy it - so I was very glad when my teammate took that duty upon himself to be the coordinator of the playtests. Therefore, I felt it appropriate to continue to do the other aspects of the project - i.e. the deliverables.

Now, looking back on it, I can kinda see how I was taken advantage of, but we had the option of doing this project by ourselves and by the fact I avoided having to organize playtests was worth the team setup.

The next assignment is going to be interesting. I'm with a group of students from ETC, and we are required to make a pitch of a game to a publisher. We're to have an organization, roles and titles, and a budget. I'm a little afraid that my teammembers are just going to "let" me do all the business-work while they work on the creative side of things. I'd much rather it the other way around, since I already know how to draw up a budget; they may not. Learning experiences all around is necessary. We shall see.