Our team fell apart. Long story short - Patrick admitted he was not interested in the game anymore, and Kai said he was indifferent. This was a huge blow to me as I was starting to get so passionate and excited for the game, especially since I had a hard start getting into my own project. It broke my heart a bit because I was coming to enjoy working with those guys. At the same time though I understood that I cannot force someone to be passionate when he's not - it has to come from the heart. After a quick talk with Adam about what to do we decided to disband for sure.
Then there was Kaja, who a few days before the drama said she wanted to work on the project. Although because of what happened the following days I was unsure if I wanted to stick with my game. But here is the thing - I came to love my game so much I didn’t want to let it go. So I went to talk with Kaja and told her that she needs to make sure she’s passionate about working with me and for my game.
Later in the week, we agreed to work together. She wanted to be a co-creator and that is what I needed. But with how close the hand-in was, we decided to finish the semester working separately, and then we would join forces for the 2nd semester.
Overall this semester was very busy but I got the chance to explore and learn about topics not necessarily connected with the games industry. That in turn taught me how even things that are not related to each other at first, if explored more there will be connections found. Everything is an inspiration as long as you have a creative and critical approach and are not afraid of challenges. I have learned how to be open-minded and have awareness of all the social and environmental issues. I have learned how to start the process of creating quality content.
At first, I was reluctant to agree that games should always have a meaning, as for me they were a form of escapism. With the progress of my research though I realized that everything has a meaning, but sometimes that meaning/idea/message is presented in a very delicate way. It’s not about shouting your ideas across, it’s not about shoving the world problems in the faces of the players, it's about making the players realize it themselves. It’s about showing the facts and letting the players think by themselves.