Assessment & Review

3to1 Games : Criteria for Review

Purpose and Overview

As an employee and student with 3to1 Games, and Warren Tech Game Development your performance is assessed using the following criteria. All criteria are assessed not only on understanding, but on demonstration of that understanding consistently over your time in production here in this program.

To reiterate: It is not only doing something once, and you’re done. These criteria must be demonstrated over time and consistently for you to earn the most positive assessment.

There are two ways of demonstrating these criteria for assessment:

Day-to-day work habits: This is the obvious, show that you understand by implementing these principles in your daily habits and actions.

Work Progress Blogs: Some habits and criteria listed here are best demonstrated through a written record of your process, and we do this through a published, work-process blog. Learn the requirements for blogs here

As a Syllabus

3to1 Games is a studio, and operates as one, but we are still a class that gives grades. These criteria below can be considered a syllabus for the purpose of your assessment. Content is ongoing and student driven, but these criteria should give a basis for review when receiving grades. For more specific examples of how these criteria are used, see our example form here

Professionalism

You understand that showing up, being present is the first part of everything else. If you're not there, you can't build games, teams, or skills. (The Practical: More than two absences per month makes a passing grade in this program nearly impossible.)
You treat co-workers (classmates) in a professional, respectful way at all times, regardless of the manner in which they present themselves, their origins, or their abilities.
You keep humor under control and make sure jokes and comments never demean, or diminish others, or use derogatory epithets in group or individual conversations.
You contribute in meetings by making points concisely, and clearly and then yielding the floor for others’ comments and input. You avoid interrupting others when they are speaking.
You keep expressions of anger and frustration to a minimum, and you make sure any emotional expression is appropriate to the situation.
You keep behavior appropriate to the task at hand and leave personal biases — both positive and negative — out of your interactions as much as is possible.
You are a game fan on your time, and a game developer when at work (in class).
Your breaks are yours. However, not only your time but your focus and attention is towards your work when not on break.
The quality of your work shows through in everything you create for your team and projects. This quality always continues to improve as you become more valuable to yourself and your team and project.
To enhance your productivity you prioritize your project and team goals, and minimize distractions, making your work usable and functional in a minimum amount of time.
You look at your work and your behavior in a constructive, but critical fashion so you can always be growing and improving in all of the criteria listed here.
You look for ways to help your team, without needing to be asked, and you know that you are always working when you are on-the-clock (in class).
You understand that considering how your actions affect others is necessary when judging how best to help your team and your project.

Skill Building

You understand that learning how to learn technology is more important than learning the technology itself.
You do this by building skills as independently as possible, while also knowing when to ask for help, and who to ask — whether a supervisor or co-worker.
You recognize good resources for learning any given technology, and know the limitations of all resources.
You handle the frustration of poor documentation — a frequent occurrence in technology— calmly, and with a good attitude.
You take personal responsibility for learning and are not dependent on others for progress, no matter what barriers may be in your way.
You understand and openly admit when you do not understand something, and you recognize when it’s time to ‘hit the books’.
You prioritize your learning so you can be the most help to teammates and ongoing projects.
You know that pitching to help others is part of your job, and you never deride others for needing help. Looking down on others for lack of knowledge helps no one.

Collaboration

You understand that collaboration requires not only your own input and imagination, but you recognize and value the contributions of your team.
You know that teamwork requires a diverse, and sometimes conflicting set of ideas, and you have learned to welcome all contributions towards a collective final goal.
You are aware that, important as your idea is, implementing an idea that is mostly from someone else is also a large part of collaboration.
You understand that good collaboration requires practice, just like any skill, and you know that proper practice and learning of collaboration requires taking both personal, and collective (project) risks.
You know how to read the room, and understand when you need to work with others, not slowing production by presenting and lobbying for more ideas of your own.
You understand that a core part of collaboration is the honest self-assessment of your capabilities, and you never promise what you can't deliver just to improve your stnding with the team.
In collaborating you know your own expertise and respect the expertise of others in their discipline, knowing that feedback outside of your expertise may be overriden by factors you may not understand.
You speak up and present your ideas clearly, knowing that collaboration is a dialogue, require all parties to contribute.

Communication

You communicate with your team well, using all channels of communication, not just the immediate methods (Discord, Slack, messaging, etc.) but organized team communication avenues like Kanbans, Wikis, etc.
You know that the use of source control is vital to the health of a project, and you adhere stringently to naming conventions, source control procedures, and established code structures -- knowing that this can be the backbone of good communication.

Field Expertise

Art

You demonstrate that regular practice is the core of being a good artist, and you practice daily.
You understand that any character, whether fantastical or real, requires an understanding of underlying anatomy, and studying anatomy is a practical, valuable skill.
You show patience for mastering each media type, and that this mastery must be acquired separately for each type.
Your work shows a complete mastery of fundamentals: Line Quality, Light and shadow, shape, proportions, etc.
You show in your work that proper composition must be considered whether the work be a simple line or shape, or whether it is a complex interplay of characters, environments, and light.
You understand that criticism is the foundation of growth within the creative process, and you accept, and provide constructive criticism freely, providing both positive, and negative (growth) feedback.
You understand your own and others strengths and weaknesses, and work within your strengths for production, but within your weaknesses for practice.
You know that originality is a core part of your job. 'Borrowing', plagiarism, and even tracing, is never a part of your work. You understand the difference between using a reference, and stealing art.
You understand that originality and creativity are necessary, but empathy is also required. You try to avoid offensive stereotypes, and cultural appropriation in your work.
You share and invite others to see your work. Understandng that work unseen is not work, it is a hobby. To be paid to create, your work needs to be seen.
You know that a commercial artist must create work towards a standard, specification, or application, and you unhesitatingly learn what is necessary to provide your work in a proper manner for your team.
You demonstrate many styles, knowig that the more versatile you are, the better your employment chances become.

Code

Coding is frustrating! You deal well with frustration, and take it in stride, and when it gets the better of you, you have ways of coping that don’t involve burdening others with your frustration.
Code is only partially about the code itself, you understand that it is also (and even primarily) about finding and solving problems (bugs!).
You understand the intentions of your teammates and you actively help them find solutions that they may not know are possible. You make things work, so you help others find out what will make what they do work.
You understand that ‘functional’ is only the beginning, and that optimized, streamlined code allows more complex gameplay, and better visuals.
You investigate the best tools for your work, and constantly update this knowledge to the latest technology, but temper this so that ‘cutting edge’ does not become ‘bleeding edge’ and hamper your productivity.
You help others investigate better tools to do their job, recognizing that your unique perspective on a project may allow you to see something that others might miss.
You show within the functional code you write that you can never work in isolation. It's not just you who needs to understand your code and how it works, others need to be able to read and understand your code and determine your approach from the code itself. This means descriptively named variables, functions, and classes, thoroughly commented code, and descriptive commit messages in source control. You know that not only will your teammates thank you, your future self will thank you.
You know that the use of source control is vital to the health of a project, and you adhere stringently to naming conventions, source control procedures, and established code structures.

Design

You show on a daily basis that an idea in your head is useless to anyone else, and only by expressing that idea in a way that others can understand (and act on) can progress be made.
You recognize that your job is at the core of everyone else’s work. Without your detailed guidance, nothing can be built, because no one can understand what needs to be built. You meet this responsibility with determination and focus.
You speak clearly, concisely, and can express complicated ideas well and in a way that others can grasp.
You write clearly, and your writing is organized so that your team can find the details they need to do their job simply and easily.
You recognize others’ expertise, and utilize that expertise fully in working through complex game implementations.
You bring into your own designs the input of others, showing gratitude, and giving credit, while integrating ideas as a collaborative ideal.
You know that collaboration rests heavily on your shoulders in the team. Without your willingness to actively promote collaboration, an idea will remain static and weak.
You work shows an understanding that emotional conent is often core to your work, and needs to be included.
You know that design is by nature collaborative and will often fail when a designer dictates approaches or ideas, rather than consults with experts on best approaches.