Podcast Reflection
Over the summer I was obsessed with the game called Don’t Starve. This survival game took over my vacation time as I explored it more and more. Moreover, I fell in love with the minimal yet meaningful plot line of the game. Thus this game instantly popped up in my mind when we had to choose a game to analyze. After briefly explaining the structure and the main idea of the game, my partner, Christine, agreed to settle down with Don’t Starve. Thus we began our process of creating the very first podcast of our own.
Before we could do anything we needed to make sure that we were both on the same page. Thus Christine played and watched some of the walk throughs to get the idea of this game. Then we brainstormed all the tasks that needed to be complete for this assignment and created a checklist. Some of them were very practical, such as renting mikes from the library or picking a person who we will interview in the podcast. Others were more of a content based: which term of Bogost’s we will analyze and composing an outline. We tried to do all of the tasks together, collaborating either face to face or working through google docs. For example, when we were writing our script we met and wrote all of it together.
We realized that the time was our biggest constraint as the deadline was fast approaching. As well as that midterms were in the full swing. Thus we decided to be as swift as possible so that we will have some time before it was due for any last minute changes. We were very successful with that. I personally felt that having checklists and adhering to the schedule helped a lot. As well as that we communicated a lot and made sure that the work is equally shared. Although we were friends before we started working on this project, I feel that we got to know each other much better.
Besides time I felt that the technological aspect of this project would be hard as well. I felt very comfortable in discussing the game, talking about the Bogost’s term and drafting the script. However, when it came down to recording it, I felt uneasy. Although I downloaded Audacity and read instructions upon how to use it, I still felt that I am stepping out of my comfort zone of a sort. But in the end it was not as scary as I thought it would be. We managed to record it and even have music of the game in the background. What helped us was that the availability of Professor Morgen as we could ask a lot of questions directly as well as refer to his websites for the basic FAQs.
For the future I would use the same strategy. Being the lead producer does not mean that that person has to do more work. Sharing as much work as possible helps a lot, because that way you collaborate more and realize that each person has different perspectives. I feel that this makes a big difference when it comes to insights of analyzing the game. As well as that working ahead of time is crucial for this project. What I would like to do in the future though is experiment with the technological aspect. Maybe add more different snippets of music or add something new entirely. However, that is for the future, and for now you can check out the freshly completed podcast about Don’t Starve here.
