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.: 28 August 2007
During the summer term break, 31 students from Singapore, including 6 NUS students, spent 9 weeks, from 9 June to 11 August 2007, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working together with MIT students and faculty as part of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab (http://gambit.mit.edu ). During this exchange programme, the students had the opportunity to work on research-based games projects, attend seminars provided by MIT professors, engage in cross-cultural interaction, and were exposed to the overall games production cycle.
Three CNM students were selected to take part in this summer programme: Yeo Jing Ying, Joshua Wong, and Donny Kristianto.
A write-up by Donny Kristianto:
What did your work at Singapore-MIT Game lab (Gambit) involve?
The project we developed under the supervision of the Education Arcade Group in MIT during summer explores the use of games to promote learning through authentic and engaging play. The project employed 'Scrum' Agile Development methodology and my role was project manager or 'Scrum Master'. Being the "Scrum Master", I had to facilitate communications and remove impediments in order to meet project goals. Day to day activities involved planning and prioritizing of tasks, communicating project progress to the team and the product owner, as well managing all aspects of production including design, development and testing.
How did your CNM background help you in your work?
Other than project management, I was also involved in design and development. The modules offered by CNM under the interactive media track, such as Game Design, have provided me with a solid foundation in dealing with design challenges during the course of game development. On top of that, the research skills and theories I learnt from communication management modules, such as conducting user testing and focus groups, also played a huge role in shaping overall user experience of the game.
How did you benefit from this experience?
Learning to work with and manage a group of people with different professional and cultural backgrounds is certainly the most rewarding experience I got from this internship. I learned a lot about managing differences in thinking and working styles and the experience gave me valuable insights that were not taught in school. Learning about the relatively recent Scrum methodology was also a rewarding experience because the methodology is a significant development in the overall effort to manage the ever growing complexities and costs involved in game development.
A write-up by
Yeo Jing Ying:
The two months I spent at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab is an experience I will never forget. I learned many interpersonal skills from team members and other people. I also gained some insights of the game industry.
I found MIT students to be generally more vocal and outspoken than students from Singapore. MIT students would speak up and comment critically about game design ideas. Being the game designer, I had to learn to accept diverse views and make decisions regarding game design that best meet the research goals of our product owner. I became more prepared to throw away initial ideas we had in the first few weeks of the program. Although there were conflicts at times, they were eventually resolved because we were able to communicate and compromise, thus making it easier to come to my final decision.
In addition, it was my first experience designing a game that is more aural than visual. There were many obstacles to overcome and issues to consider. User experience and interface were the main focus due to our unique target audience and the research goal of our product owner. There were many areas that team members had to learn and research before we understood what we had to design. However, we all went through it together and managed to pull it off with great teamwork and cooperation.
Through this game development project, I also understood the concept of productivity level. Although we did "crunching" at the end of each sprint, we were encouraged not to work more than 8 hours a day because productivity would drop. I found it to be true because if we allow ourselves extra time, there would be less pressure to complete the tasks. Hence, I realized that strict deadlines or milestones helped to increase our productivity.
Furthermore, many useful talks were conducted. We learned about the business aspect of the game industry and gained more knowledge on the various positions in the game development process.
I strongly encourage the next batch of interns not to miss the opportunity to participate in this program. You will not only learn more about yourself, you will also learn about team spirit, compromise, interpersonal skills and the game industry. Just be prepared to face challenges along the way.
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