Did we move forward?

It is Tuesday morning, 10:31 AM. We presented Office Mayhem to the faculty and game studio community last night, and tonight we demo the game. After that, the faculty decide who moves forward. With that said, this post is going to be in two parts: a ‘before-final-decision,’ and ‘after-final-decision.’

This past week has been primarily focused on readying our presentation and some final bug fixes. I am really proud of the team for not having any crunch time this semester. That speaks more to their work ethic, our team dynamic, and communication skills than my leadership. In an industry riddled with it, I’m happy we weren’t too stressed out at any particular time. Our presentation went well: or so people have told us. I think I held the microphone too low and was a little quiet, but the content was there. We butted right up to the 10 minute limit at 9:45, but we had some good audience interaction throughout. I am pessimistically optimistic.

Tonight is going to be exciting though. We stand behind our build, and I truly believe it is one of the most polished and complete. Regardless of that, it really boils down to if the faculty understand and enjoy Office Mayhem, and I hope that the tutorial eases any remaining friction we have. It is out of our hands now.

Here’s the trailer I mentioned in my last post: we think it perfectly sums up the nature of the game – fun and light-hearted – and a huge thank you to Katie Bullock for creating it:

It is now 7:52 PM, and we have presented our game at demo night. As far as I could tell, we had really positive feedback from the professors that played: people were laughing, cussing at each other, and causing mayhem throughout the office. With that, now begins the long, slow wait to see if it was all enough. Minutes can not feel any longer.

We made it. I can not overstate the pride I have in my team and the work they have done.