Believing is Seeing: The Creations of Shelly Warmuth

Honors

Game Design Winner, HG4H Insert Coin Press Release

Quote in Clinton Keith's upcoming book: AGILE GAME DEVELOPMENT WITH SCRUM

Clinton Keith <Clint@clintonkeith.com> to gamenotebooks@gmail.com

Dec 13

Hi Shelly,

I read you Gamasutra blog entry from October, "The Heart of the Team" and loved it. You captured the spirit that Scrum teams must strive to achieve. You are a very good writer!

I was hoping to quote this entry in my upcoming book "Agile Game Development with Scrum", which will be out in several months as part of Mike Cohn's signature series of agile books from Addison Wesley. In particular I wanted to use the following (pretty much the entire entry) in a sidebar in the chapter about teams:

At the heart of the scrum team is the interaction of the team. A daily meeting around the task board is interactive, vibrant, collaborative, visual, and tactile. It is a visual way of showing the goal the team is striving toward and the progress they are making. They, each and every member of the team, are peers.

They own the goal. It's a team effort. They gather around the board to align themselves with each other, to honor each others' contribution to the effort, and to course-correct when they are missing the mark. They argue, discuss, share, learn, continually improve, celebrate, boost each other up, and create solutions.

There is another thing that scrum does for the team: it creates transparency. Since scrum depends on collaboration and continual forward progress, problems are addressed by the team as they crop up instead of dealing with them later or covering the problem under a layer of "spin".

A structured, militant environment will never create a team. A team works together toward a shared goal. A group works together toward a goal given to them. Scrum is messy, and noisy. It lives, it breathes, it stretches, it morphs and it expands. Interaction is the heart of the team. The heart of scrum, is the team.

You'll be fully credited in the book for the quote. If this is acceptable to you, I'll send you a permission form to sign.

Thanks and warmest regards!

Clint

Shelly,

Congratulations for winning 1st place in the InsertCoin Health Game Idea contest. Out of all of the great submissions we thoroughly enjoyed yours for its originality and appeal to families. [...]

We would also like to have a short interview with you within the next few days, let me know your availability to talk.

Thanks,

HG4H Team

Accolades

Damian Kastbauer

11 Dec 2009 at 7:31 am PST

Great summary of the event!

The full audio can be heard here:
http://www.archive.org/details/IgdaWisconsinGameAudioPanel112009

Also covered in the Game Audio Podcast Episode #2
http://www.gameaudiopodcast.com/

A pleasure to be part of the panel.
Cheers!

In response to Wisconsin IGDA Sound Panel Discussion article on Gamasutra.

Shelly,

Hi. Just wanted to say thanks for the Madison Audio Panel article on Gamasutra. You're the best.

-- Ben Crossbones

In response to Wisconsin IGDA Sound Panel Discussion article on Gamasutra.

Glenn Storm

12 Oct 2009 at 7:08 am PST

This is a welcome view, Shelly, thanks. You're observations are highlighting the importance of communication and member buy-in, among other things. Those of us who've experienced both 'divide and conquer' and a more collaborative management style can attest to the prevailing value of the two work environments. Again, I have to point to a management style that goes a bit further and has repeatedly accomplished the impossible. http://www.amazon.com/Organizing-Genius-Warren-Bennis/dp/0201339897 (I should just make this link to Organizing Genius part of my signature or something.)

In Response to The Heart of the Team article on Gamasutra.

David Hottal

13 Oct 2009 at 10:14 am PST

Shelly, I think you have the right mindset when it comes to creating a team. Good article!

Tim, I don't agree with your view. Unless I'm misunderstanding, you're saying that a good team isn't important? The leaders should be those with the vision for the game, and the rest should follow? I also don't see the relationship in your musician analogy. Musicians, generally, work by themselves or in extremely small teams/groups. You have the singer/band and the producer(s). There are many more people involved in making a game and that's where the need for a team comes in.

I believe, a developer without a strong team is more likely to make soulless games. If you're just doing what you're told by the boss you are less likely to be motivated. You want people to be passionate about what they're making. This doesn't happen if they're not engaged. This isn't to say that you want groupthink, etc. You need strong leadership that sets out the vision for the end result, but the rest of the team needs to have input and a sense of ownership. If successful the end result should be an awesome game.

In Response to The Heart of the Team article on Gamasutra.