Group Project work for Udacity VR Nanodegree
RiskyLab
Udacity’s VR Nanodegree program has an option for Virtual Reality team projects where you get to create VR content while working with other students from all over the world.
This is a story for the teamwork project we did whilst undertaking the Udacity VR Nanodegree. The theme is “ Risk”. My team, Team Kernel, consisted of 4 people coming from different background and time zone, scattered around Chicago, Mexico, Brasil and Lagos. Together, we worked on a team project to deliver an amazing VR game.
What Is RiskyLab?
RiskyLab is a game where the user is tasked with cleaning a messy laboratory! We all know it is risky to leave the lab a mess.
The Background
The theme of the project is Risk. Our first thought was a concern about a creative way to implement the theme in our project. How do we design/develop with Risk in mind? What are we going to do with this theme? Lots of ideas came up.
Selection Process
We had so many ideas, to begin with. We evaluated each of these ideas by asking questions like:
Is it related to the theme — Risk?
How big is the scope to build within a given time frame?
With the ideas coming in, do we have the skills to bring the one that will make the final selection to live? Finally, we ended up with RiskyLab because cleaning a messy lab sound interesting.
Tools
Github
We used Github for collaborating on code.
Slack
Slack was used for our communication
Skype
We had our weekly meeting over Skype
Google Drive
Google drive was the one-stop place for dumping quick sketches, 3D assets, sound/music and general documents.
The Process
Selection Of Idea
We had many different ideas, to begin with. We evaluated each of these ideas by asking some questions before deciding on what to build.
Sketching
Assigning Roles
Each team member was assigned a role in the project. The good thing is that we had a very balanced team. Also, team members wear multiple hats and were available to switch role as the need arose.
Working On Assigned Role
Each team member worked on their assigned task and pushed to the repo while we all test as the development went on.
Putting it all together
In the end, we did something. Everyone on the team worked in one way or the other to bring the project to what it is now.
The Result
Next Step
We hope to add more features and possibly push the app to the store someday.
Conclusion
This is a great step in the right direction for all four of us on the journey of VR development and working in a team.
The game was a lot of fun to make — especially because of such a dedicated and hardworking team. It’s amazing that we can make something this intricate when none of us has ever met and doesn’t live in the same country!
We learned a great deal during this teamwork project. Most importantly, we learned to collaborate, appreciate each other and have fun.