Ha! Look what I found…

The Power Racing team photo, about a year ago… Some have left the team, others have taken their place. Still, nice pic!

Anyway, I realise we have to work on ours. Some of the comments made here sort of put Power Racing next to Bigfoot, Shangri-La, El Dorado, Nessie and other believe-it-when-I-see-it objects of our imagination of belief.

However, Power Racing is very much less mythological. I’d say it’s about one hundred percent real.

The reason you haven’t heard from me (or anyone else on the team) in ages is this: we’re constantly working on building the game. And I mean CONSTANTLY, all day, every day, all the time. Believe me, the game is there and it will be released. At this stage there’s a huge amount of time spent on meetings, planning, estimation, retrospections and what have you. I know the guys on the team much rather just get to work, get the code written, the problems solved, the details nailed… bascially do their job. Still they need to put quite a lot of effort into the plan-and-design-process, to come up with some preliminary scope and dates. And if I wasn’t there myself I would never believe how difficult it is and how long it takes.

There are several reasons we haven’t been communicating more regarding release dates, development status etc.

One is uncertainty. We can’t be sure exactly what to release on a certain date. Either the scope or the date has to be flexible. We can’t make any promises, we can just provide estimates based on reality so far.

Another is politics, or marketing strategies. When would be the best time to release this game? Why? How? Business, pure and simple, which is not my cup of tea and someone else’s decision to make.

As this game, product, is being built from scratch we face problems that we don’t have to deal with in Power Soccer. The children’s diseases that only strikes while you’re young. Growing pains, if you’d like. Power Racing doesn’t exist as a product yet, but the game itself does. The people working on it are extremely dedicated and passionate about this becoming the best online racing game ever. This means having opinions on design, how features should be implemented, what solutions would be the best… Discussions and decisions. An entire game has to be thought through, nothing left out. The product managers have to tell us enough but not too much.

Information is a tricky thing. If you have too much it limits you and restrain the creative process. If you don’t have enough you can’t really move forward either.

So, in trying to get the right game out in as short amount of time as possible, we’re walking a thin line that takes us from our product manager’s vision, the producer’s interpretation of it and the developer’s final creation.

And as always I ended up lightyears from the initial subject: is Power Racing just a PR stunt? No people, it’s very much real, happening and coming your way.

It would be nice to show you some new screenshots or an in-game video or something soon. And I know the team would really like to show you our work in progress as well. It’s just a matter of time. So, let’s see shall we, if I can get one of the guys to put together some PR pics or videos soon. But - no promises, just my most sincere intentions.

Do what George Michael would have done, have some faith…

Sincerely yours

/ Linda

After the move-around-the-desks project last week I now have a better view of everyone in the racing team. In a good way. And I’ve got more space now so I can spread my things (gloves, bags, moisturising hand cream, scarves, shoes, post it notes, framed photos of the kids, books, drawings etc) more. And still have enough rooom for people dropping by, having a chat, asking about the backlog, discuss story points or beg me to stop adding weird songs on our mutual Spotify playlists. (I’m actually considering placing a couple of visitors chairs in front of my desk to really achieve that teacher/headmaster vs. “ill behaving kid in school” feeling)

So, the office is in order, everyone’s got their desk where its’ supposed to be. The Scrummasters have been appointed, the whiteboards wiped and re-filled…and - we have new teams!

We’re doing some serious scrum experimenting at the moment, going against the very heart and soul of scrum. We’re actually abandoning the idea of cross functional teams. We’re doing it the opposite way, putting people into either the “client/c++team” or the “webteam” depending on their preferences and skills.

Complete anarchy and major heavy stuff, I know. But we want to give it a try and see how it goes. There will of course have to be plenty of communication between the two teams (who are both part of the racing team) to avoid unnecessary dependencies etc. No doubt, there will be some close encounters and tricky situation but we believe the pros outnumber the cons.

I sense a new era is dawning. One with functional teams, dedicated Scrum Masters (or Master Of Universe as they like to be referred to…), sensibel backlogs and a whole new (gu)es(s)timation process.

The week is rapidly coming to an end, there’s a soccer demo in a few minutes and after that Fredagsfika…

Everyone - have a brilliant weekend and I’ll see you on Monday. (I’ve prepared for my chill out Friday with chips and dip and popcorn and there will be a fire burning in the fireplace and I’m gonna watch Resident Evil.

Milla is my kind of hero)

// L

So there was a Christmas party yesterday. We drank, we played, we Spotified, we cheered, we ate, we drank some more, we danced… And here we are, looking awfully bright and perky if I might say so myself. (thank God there is Helena Rubinstein Magic Concealer to cover up the tiredness. makeup is my best friend)

One of the events was a PS cup that Powdersnow - of course - won.

(Sipwell might claim he would have won had he only been invited, but that’s a different story.)

Proud winner of the office Power Racing tournament was… Erik H! Power to the racingteam! My guys truly are the best… And they’re happy too!

(notice the mega cool five of a kind t-shirt that Per S m-a-d-e for the event)

Then there was some Guitar Hero action and for the first time ever I beat Erik in a game, something I guess will never happen again.

(I actually beat Josef too, come to think of it…)

Here follows some random evidence of friendship, joy and beer:

Then we left the office and went to Platå, a restaurant/night club in Linköping where we had some food,  glögg, beer and cocktails.

Quality dude meets code dude.

Code dude happened to grab Emperor of Fun’s nose

Chancellor of Surreal vs. Per “Tropic Thunder” L.

From all of us, to all of you - a very, merry Christmas!

Completely forgot to tell you, we had our weekly demo yesterday (part of the sprint review: demo, retrospective and impediment backlog) where everyone (external stakeholders, other teams etc) gets to see what’s been worked on during the sprint. Or rather, what’s been worked on and finished = what stories are “done done”. Done done means, according to our definition of done, that the code is deployed to next release environment, comitted to sprint branch, tested and bug free and we’ve not added to the technical dept.

So, there’s been much sound work done lately. As you know we’re working with the Supernaturally Talented guys at Pole Position. Erik and Bernard are working hard to get the tools and program adjusted, tuned and just like Pole want them to be. And at yesterday’s demo  we could “show” some new sounds! Updated curbs, environment and transmission sounds if I’m not mistaking. And there are plenty more to come during the next couple of months.

One don’t always realize the importance of sound, until it’s removed. Sound has a magical impact on our perception of presence. Add that wind, vague noice from the gravel or curbs etc etc and suddenly you’re THERE. You’re actually in the car, on the track, going like a billion km per hour hopefully in the wrong direction (adds that extra sense of recklessness that is SO much fun)

Whether it’s environmental sounds or music, it’s superior when it comes to adding nerve, atmosphere and …well presence. Imagine that tear filled ending in any rom com without the violins, the stabbings in Psycho with the sound muted, Silent Hill with a mix-tape soundtrack consisting of all the greatest hits by Vanilla Ice, 2 Unlimited, Britney Spears and Ace of Base… it simply wouldn’t be the same.

Sound matters. And to sort of prove my point I activate the classic Powerslave album, anno 1984, now transformed into a spotify playlist. I couldn’t be happier if I was twins. 

When you look out through my window, by my desk, this is what you see

(no photoshopping done here, I swear, this is as damp grey dystopian sad it really looks!)

What can I say? Look up “dull” in the dictionary and there you have it! The back of our office building in early December.

But inside the office things are really cooking. Oh yeah. Per is being his usual creative self and suddenly I’m not the only one doing manual work, using scissors and scotch tape! Excellent! But what is he doing?

Any takers? Oh come on, just one guess? No? He’s rearranging the backlog of course! Like hello!? Just gotta love that out-of-the-computer-thinking. Why keep it in Excel if it doesn’t feel right for you? Free your backlog! Let’s do it old school.

And on my way back from the kitchen (with like the 8th cup of tea today, spiked with honey) I found Pow who’s wearing green today! That just had to be documented. Green is such a perky color.

And to the left of Pow, there are some clever people trying to get some work done (he just bugs them):

Stroll on, move on, keep going. Behind that 90’s shade of blue wall you find Per, now busy with more manual work. Very refreshing! But there’s a terrible story behind this picture. You wanna hear it? Well, Tomas U, the man ripping out the sensitive parts of Per’s computer, is up to his neck in some Very Important Stuff, like making inspirational material for Power Racing. The problem is, he needed more memory. Well, not him, his computer. So he simply hijacked Per’s. “The RAM or your Jolt” he said. Of course Per let him take the memory.

So there you have it, even the nice ones go a bit crazy when the computer runs slow.

Our very great executive producer and Scrum Officer, Richard, is holding 3 times 2 hour scrum sessions with everyone. Very good initiative! We all need to be on the same level with things, especially something as fundamental as our production/development method. Thank you Richard! (and look, aren’t the racing team just the cutest?)

// office blogger No 1

No no no - I’m not gonna announce the release date. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. No. You have to wait a while longer.

But I have fantastic news. We have a new Product Manager! A very talented and dedicated person who’s gonna be in charge of setting, and maintaining, the vision of the game. Scoping, prioritizing, high level design… Basically being Power Racing’s dad. From a Product Managers perspective he’ll point out the direction and I’ll try to keep the team moving that way, avoiding the every day obsticles of game development.

And who is he, you ask? Well, let me introduce… (drum roll) Tomas Dunard! 

Isn’t there a certain…je ne sais quoi, just oozing around him? A certain air of divinity, one could say.

Tomas has been in the company for some time but has very recently (like…yesterday) taken over the PM role for Power Racing. I’m very glad to have him on board and I think Tomas is going to do a great job with Power Racing.

Welcome to the family!

I realise from time to time that most things in the world - inside and outside of game development - can be solved if you just talk to eachother. Maybe not toothache or bad weather, but most other human related issues.

An executive producer who spoke at GDC said something that really got stuck in my mind, that a producer shouldn’t just sit behind their desk, they need to do the walk and talk. Just go around, saying hi, checking how things are going. A lot of problems can be avoided if they’re caught in time. And a lot of times you manage to get there “in time” if you just ask questions. Talk… It sounds easy, right?

During my first six months or so working here I rarely spoke to people without feeling either guilty or stupid. Guilty for disturbing their peace of coding mind. Stupid because I had to ask so many question. It was a rather frustrating time. In order to be a good producer I needed to understand what they were doing and in order to understand I had to ask. But how could they respect me if it became obvious how little I knew? And what if they couldn’t do their job properly cause I constantly pulled them out of their natural work flow by asking [stupid] questions?

I know, no question is stupid if it’s an honest one. But still. Here I am, trying to be “boss” and running the project - but I don’t know what a poolserver is? Great… Apache who? Demons? Are they evil? Extrapol…what?

Time went by and I learned a lot, from constantly listening to the developers discussions and sitting in on their meetings. Occasionly I still asked questions, but with the basic knowledge in place the process was dramatically shortened.

What I’m trying to say is that communication IS the sh*t (pardon my French). It’s the coolest thing ever and a very nice way to get well-read and educated. You get to talk to people who know stuff that you don’t and you can even drink coffe in the meantime.

I rarely, or never, feel stupid anymore. Not just because I’ve actually learned a lot of the basic stuff and keep up with the shop-talk at the office. I’ve also come to realise that not knowing everything doesn’t necessarily make me a worse producer. It’s just hard getting used to when you’re a control freak like me

I suppose it’s a lot to do with feeling comfortable with the people around you. My team knows how much I appreciate them and hopefully they notice how much I enjoy working with them, so I think they’re pretty comfortable with me being their producer ( I also bribe them with candy, cake and ice cream from time to time). And they are so generous with straightening out all the tech questions I might have and keeping me updated with what they’re up to, that I couldn’t be more comfortable with being in charge of this project.

So, don’t stay in your seat all day sending out e-mails that might be misinterpreted. Don’t wait for that scheduled meeting before you speak to your team members. Get up, do the walk and talk. Listen and learn. (and when you meet your friends and family next time, dazzle them with your extended vocabulary…)

// Linda  - Certified Annoyer