SCRUM for Two

The Digital Archaeology Simulation project is still alive. If you're unfamiliar with it, it was a 5 week course this past summer that attempted to create a video game geared at 4th graders which realistically depicts the anthropological and archaeological process. It was quite the courageous endeavor, as starting something like this and expecting to finish it completely in 5 weeks is borderline insane. So with that in mind, we set out to complete the guts of the game, and complete them we (mostly) did.

A fellow member in the project and myself are finishing things up(applying the shiny graphics) by working with a few artists, but it's proving to be quite difficult. After having SCRUM guiding us (and some stellar Product Owners), we're now on our own. We both have a lives and other obligations/family outside of schoolwork, so finding time to work on this is proving to be challenging.

I mentioned that we were guided by SCRUM. I really miss it. I don't know how to translate standup meetings, the retrospective meetings, the product backlog, all down to a level that makes sense for two people. We just don't need the daily standups, but the standups definitely helped me personally to stay motivated. Maybe we need them more than I realized. If they last a minute, but that minute saves hours, then it's worth it in my book.

However, not having a strong product backlog might be the biggest issue. Two-player development may not need the hand holding that a large dev team might, but having something to look at and know where you're headed next is invaluable. We could get away with not having daily standups, but a well-maintained backlog would be a game-changer.

The biggest reason we don't have a lot of this nailed down is because we don't have a set time and place to meet and work. Our schedules are too different this semester to sit down daily. Working on this project this past summer, colocation was a given. In the spring during the Morgan's Raid project development, we had a lot of success mainly because of this time and place that was established and well-structured through the course.

This past week we both sat down and worked on a quick backlog, just to give us some bearings. We also received some graphics which we had been waiting on, allowing us to get them in the game. I've said it before, but it still blows me away to see a game take shape right around me. In our case, it really changes the way the game feels.

I feel that we're on the cusp of wrapping up the brunt of the pre-alpha work and we're both excited to get things into the hands of testers. Here's to continuing our progress...one foot in front of the other.