Summary:
This week (Jan.17-23), our first instructor meeting was held and resources related to project development were compiled and organized with GSuite. Our team name Embrace was voted and team roles were decided. Our main platform for communication would be through Slack and email and team Google Calendar would be used for scheduling meetings and workshops.
What we have done:
Instructor meeting (Jan.18)
On Tuesday, Jan.18, we started off the project with our first instructor meeting with Ralph and Mike. During the meeting, project introduction and production management details were discussed and planned out, such as individual roles and responsibilities, group core hours, and project names. With their help, we were also able to compile a list of similar past projects, related research, and subject matter experts on campus, which is currently kept in our team’s Google Drive.
Some project examples include:
Some other resources include:
- Dietrich College’s new newsletter (The Garden) on Diversity and Inclusion
Team Name
Following the Design Production Guide from the workshop on Wednesday, Jan.19, we decided that Embrace would be our project/team name. Even though we had to come up with a name before digging into the project and talking with our client, we still believed that Embrace represented the overall inclusive image for a topic like cultural humility. Because there was confusion about whether we would need a team name and another project name, we had some alternative choices like Studio ACCXSS, which was a combination of the first letter from our first names, and CultureU, which took a similar naming convention to the online training courses (ConflictU and CollabU) we did in Building Virtual Worlds.
Team Dynamics and Management
Starting from weeks before the spring semester, we initiated communication with each other about our intended roles and past experiences in the ETC Slack channel. As soon as the semester kicked off, the team dynamic was great and everyone was engaged even though most of the meetings and messages were kept online to reinforce CMU’s policy against COVID-19. One of our team members, Jeffrey, suggested opening up a separate Slack workspace so that we could have different channels of communication and better management over the project. Another piece of advice from Amber was to create group Google Calendars to keep track of our core hours, meetings, workshops, seminars, and anything else that‘s specific to this project. Instead of needing to invite people one by one after creating events, everyone should be able to see them once they subscribe to the calendar. Both advice was accepted and implemented right away and would be managed by Shan as part of the producer’s responsibilities.
Embrace Slack Workspace 
Embrace Google Calendar
Roles
(by the first week and we are expecting slight changes after our project design to be decided around Week 3)
Amber Griffith – Game Designer, 2D Artist
Chao Li – Game Designer
Jeffrey (Chia-Wei) Liu – Game Designer
Shicai He – Programmer
Shan Jiang – Lead Producer
Xiaoying(Alexa) Wang – Assist Producer, UI/UX
What we plan to do:
Next week, we are expecting the first meeting with our client, Ayana Ledford, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Dietrich College. We will be compiling a list of questions about her motivation and needs, which will be included in next week’s blog.
Amber will be our production design person and work on our project logo and icon over the following week.
