Building Alliances: Studio Expectations

Group Feedback and Communication:
As a group, we have been working cohesively to create the necessary pre-production assets for our project. Over the weeks of the project, we have been approaching our work and expectations in a professional manner, using a large group chat to communicate, with separate areas of this chat relevant to different aspects of the project. This has helped us to organise our work and show, clearly, where we stand between different aspects of our work. At a glance, we can see how much 2D art has been produced, our topics of research, and potential ideas for future developments. This has assisted us in knowing what each of us are working on. Additionally, the group chat allows for us to each give feedback on work, ensuring that produced assets continuously improve and that future goals are known.

As the 2D lead, I have been receiving constant feedback, especially for thumbnail sketches and initial designs: this feedback has allowed me to narrow down avenues for potential designs and gain a better understanding of stronger ideas.

NDA and Contract of Engagement:
Additionally, we have each signed a mock NDA and Contract of Engagement. These are forms that dictate how we are to respond to group work and how we will contribute to the project overall. The NDA states that we are not to disclose information confidential to our project without the knowledge of other team members. As such, in this mock NDA, group members cannot disclose information about our intellectual property to those not in the studio, including 2D artwork, 3D models and other relevant assets. In our NDA, this confidentiality lasts until late January 2025 or until the project is otherwise finished.
This agreement is relevant to our work as many real-world game studios operate under a similar premise, using non-disclosure agreements to keep proprietary game information private to the company. This could be used to keep trade secrets proprietary to a company hidden from those outside the company and limit how far such information could spread (Jackiw 2017). This comprises a more legal aspect of the game development pipeline that nonetheless affects how we would work in a studio environment.

We also all signed a "Contract of Engagement" that dictates how we will work within our group. This contract binds us to a standard which we must keep up with, including completing project tasks on time and holding responsibility for the area of project work that we oversee. As with the mock NDA, this expires in late January, or otherwise when the project is finished. This document acts as a mock contract of employment, used in the industry to stipulate the responsibilities and rights of an employee of a company (Gov.uk 2024). Our contract fills this space and discloses our own responsibilities. 

Environmental Impact Statement:
An Environmental Impact statement has also been produced, disclosing how our studio will attempt to lessen our impact upon the environment. This includes lessening our use of paper and recycling materials.

This is important as such expectations constitute how our Studio would be expected to interact with the environment. These efforts are crucial in ensuring that our activities in the studio do not have a negative impact on the environment, which could include spreading pollution in waste materials or excessively and wastefully using electricity or other expendable resources. When taking such efforts into consideration, in personal research it became apparent that we must do what we can when such negative elements of the industry are examined: for example, when considering our impact with wider regards to the ripple-on effect that our products may cause, the machines they are played upon, such as consoles, phones and computers, are often created using materials that have been mined in environmentally damaging and unethical manners (Fletcher 2024). Though such activities may be out of our control, recognising them is important in understanding how the industry we are a part of impacts the environment and how personal mitigations may be made.

On the topic of console materials, common components such as tin, tungsten and gold are often sourced from "Covered Contries", which includes the Democratic Republic of Congo and its bordering countries (Valentine 2020). Companies must disclose to the US or EU how many materials are sourced from these regions, which may use sales of such materials to fund war efforts, with such militias also known as using forced labour and violating human rights (Valentine 2020).
Such sourcing of these materials can bring up concerns for both environmental damage and ethical practices. This type of environmental impact does not only affect the planet, but also the people who live within it: accordingly, Nintendo, as disclosed in a 2024 report regarding mineral sourcing in the games industry, source 99% of their materials from regions excluding Covered Countries (Amaan 2024). Such efforts go towards ceasing the funding of human rights abuses inadvertently made at a distance by the games industry as a whole.

In personal terms, we are choosing to take a practical approach in making our actions environmentally friendly. This includes recycling waste paper as opposed to merely throwing it away. Recycling paper moves it into the production of new products as opposed to simply having it destroyed, which means that less new material must be harvested, lessening the strain on the planet that such production has (Enviroliteracy 2024). Though this may seem like a small step towards helping the environment, we feel like it is important nonetheless, as such efforts constitute a wider whole that lessens the adverse harm occurring to the planet. Even though we consistently use electricity to power computers, used in artwork and game production, and though we may use paper to sketch or write, we will do what we can to lessen our overall negative impact, and our Environmental Impact statement is a reflection of this.

Bibliography:
Amaan, 2024. Nintendo praised for its improvements in sourcing minerals from conflict zones [online]. My Nintendo News. Available at: https://mynintendonews.com/2024/09/02/nintendo-praised-for-its-improvements-in-sourcing-minerals-from-conflict-zones/ [Accessed 18 January 2025]

Fletcher, C., 2024. Game Changers: Achieving Sustainability in the Video Game Industry [online]. Earth.Org. Available at: https://earth.org/sustainability-and-the-video-gaming-industry/ [Accessed 18 January 2025]

Enviroliteracy Team, 2024. How Does Recycling Paper Help the Environment? [online]. Available at: https://enviroliteracy.org/how-does-recycling-paper-help-the-environment/ [Accessed 18 January 2025]

Gov.uk, 2024. Employment Contracts [online]. Gov.uk. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions [Accessed 26 October 2024]

Jackiw, S., 2017. Full Disclosure on Non-disclosure Agreements [online]. Game Developer. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/full-disclosure-on-non-disclosure-agreements [Accessed 26 October 2024]

Valentine, R., 2020. Conflict minerals: Which gaming companies may have funded human rights abuses in 2019? [online]. Games Industy.Biz. Available at: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/conflict-minerals-and-gaming-which-companies-may-have-funded-human-rights-abuses-in-2019 [Accessed 18 January 2025]