During Guildhall's TGP2, a cohort divides up into small teams to create a CTF mod for UDK.
Cohort 19 was divided up into 5 teams of nine students (one team had eight students).  Typically, these teams would setup their team meeting space in a cramped study corale or in a classroom that offers little personal space.

A fellow production student and I are producers for two teams each (four teams total).  We realized that these teams were going to encounter very similar problems when learning UDK throughout this TGP.  What if we were able to share information across teams and help them learn the editor as a cohort rather than individual teams?  Rather than solve the same problem four different times, we could solve the same problem once and disseminate that information across other teams.

We got permission to use a defunct mocap studio on the first floor of the building.  That is, if we were able to find enough furniture to house thirty-eight students in the same space.

We made it happen and our four teams volunteered to try out the new studio experience.  Here are the perks of going with the studio feel vs. individual team rooms:

Information Sharing

• Faster Learning
• Less Ramp-Up time
• Quicker bug resolution

Underpromise, Overdeliver

• The game's are closer to Vertical Slice than Proof of Tech (at the proof of tech milestone).

Here are the before and after pics:

Before


Early phase of the setup process.  We had dragged in a few tables and chairs, but needed many more before we could officially open the studio.





After


The teams are set up and good to go!  This is one team's space.  We were able to prop up some whiteboards on art easels for each group.


The designers of one team have a nice collaborative work space.


Two art leads from different teams are helping each other with animations in UDK.  This type of collaboration and information sharing has become commonplace in the studio room.