A day late but worth the wait! In this high signal-to-noise roundtable episode, each member of the club picks a topic that they are particularly passionate about:

Stephen shares his wisdom and guidance about playtesting your work early and often, Martha helps you get your act together in a practical discussion about project management, and Mark tries to explain the obligation he feels as an artist, but picks a weird hill to die on as he wrongly insists that Portal 2 isn't really about anything.

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Intro

Ice Cold Games

@zacharyjohnson

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[0:03:27] Demoing and Playtesting

[0:33:26] Project Management

Trello

JIRA

Agile development

Waterfall development

Kanban development

"The Blue Yarn" - 99% Invisible

"NUMMI 2015" - This American Life

David Megarry's Three Questions all project managers should ask:

“Do you have all the resources you need?"

"Do you have any roadblocks or impediments?"

"Are you on schedule?”

“A project manager (PM) is more of a problem solver than anything else. If you don’t have the resources, the PM finds them. If there are roadblocks, the PM helps to find a way to get around them. If not on schedule, the PM alters it or adds more resources or changes scope. Above all, the PM communicates with management as to the state of the project so they can make proper decisions and not be blindsided or surprised.” -David Megarry

[0:52:56] Messages and Meanings

Summerland, a novel by Michael Chabon

"A Closer Look At How Three Assassin's Creed Games Have Handled Slavery" - Kotaku

"For Honor’s accidental alt-right connection" - Polygon