The Mistakes We Made While Making Our VR Experience

This is not an easy article to write because as a content creator I constantly try to focus on the positive. However, at a business skills boot camp organized by the TMZ at Ryerson University I was encouraged to write down the top 5 mistakes we made while making Circuit Rider. This was just an exercise, but I turned into an article.

After jotting these down in a rapid brainstorming session, my initial hesitation dissipated as I realized all the things that I would do differently the next time around.

It is important to note that the following mistakes are by no means a reflection of the quality of the team that worked on the project, but rather an opinion of what I feel we could have been done differently to yield a better final result.

1.Too much time spent on writing the script and not enough time building and testing what works and what doesn’t.

As we had a solid idea for the project, but we spent a lot of time refining the script where we could have used that time building the mechanics and design of the world. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like having the script was incredibly important but we should have spent way less time writing it and more time working out ideas as we built.

2. Working with team members that weren’t engaged in the project and rather than letting them go when this went noticed, they ultimately left the project at a crucial time and which compounded the work for the rest of the team.

This is a tough one and firing people is never easy, but my advice here is that if you notice this type of behavior then you need to get rid of those individuals as soon as possible. When people behave like this, it’s because they are not interested in the work enough to give you the dedication that is needed to finish it. It’s therefore better for both parties to separate as soon as you notice this, so you don’t get saddled with a ton more work that you already have on your plate.

3. Everyone on the team didn’t have the necessary skills to build the project.

What happens when 40% of the team have the skills to put together the project, it puts a lot of pressure on those individuals to complete it. If something happens and they don’t have time for the project, it can throw the whole thing in disarray. I would argue that everyone should be building assets and everyone should be involved in the programming. If you don’t have this scenario on your team, then the team lead should be responsible for the coding because it will fall on them to finish it if something happens. I say this because I was the team lead on Circuit Rider and I did a lot of asset building, but I didn’t touch the code or the game engine. This was a mistake.

4.Not having everyone on the same page about what the final product would be.

This is a big one as some people wanted it just to be a demo and some wanted it to be a polished experience. It caused a bit of tension between the whole quality vs deadline debate when the issue of the deadline came up. On this everyone needs to be on the same page or it simply doesn’t work.

5.Having a bigger team doesn’t necessarily mean more productivity.

On Circuit Rider we had six people, but the bulk of the work was done by a little more than half. I think we could have either done more with less people or had people take on more work. If they couldn’t take on more work than get rid of them. It may sound harsh but if you want to produce something amazing, you need to work with only the most dedicated people you can.

In closing, I think whole team of Circuit Rider did an amazing job and I am very proud of the final product. That said, sometimes it is good to reflect on the things you felt went wrong so you can look back and be reminded of all the things that went right.

Circuit Rider will be showcased in Los Angeles at VRLA from April 14th-15th, 2017. It has also been submitted to Kaleidoscope VR Showcase Vol. 3 for consideration as well as the Oculus Rift store. This doesn’t mean it will get accepted.

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