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Case
Study: Virtual U
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Topics
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The Development
With Dr. Massy driving the overall design and algorithm development, the foundation made $1 million available to sponsor the research, design, and development of the model. It was decided early in the process to use a seasoned development studio. Underscoring the importance of strong due diligence and the interview process, the first development team resulted in a false start due to poor development skills. The second development group, Enlight Software of Hong Kong, did prove successful. The team's strong experience with similar management strategy titles, including its well-reviewed Capitalism program, proved a good match. The key to the development partnership was that an experienced development team was married with a topic expert who further enhanced the process by bringing his own extensive programming background to the project.
Development first focused on the underlying engine and data set. The primary design was developed in tight coordination by Enlight's chief programmer and developer Trevor Chan and Dr. Massy. The design input was enhanced by contributions from an ad-hoc steering committee of various university professionals and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research in Higher Education. The Hong Kong-based Enlight staff handled all aspects of the actual game engineering, including programming, artwork, and sound. Coordination with Dr. Massy and Sloan Foundation personnel consisted mostly of emails with occasional face-to-face meetings.
Development moved quickly at the outset, but poor planning and program development management, coupled with development team turnover within Enlight, severely hampered the schedule. Additional production management with game development knowledge came on board toward the final 20 percent of the project, but had this help been available at the beginning of the project scheduling issues might not have been such a problem. In addition, some issues concerning its design may have been better addressed. In the rush to get the project going, some decisions -- such as whether to make a version for the Macintosh, or what all the goals and challenges to the player would be -- hadn't been fully developed. The model itself was exquisitely developed but the game, which worked from that model, hadn't been as well specified. This underscores the need to have a development manager in place with an understanding of gaming and development to guide the process.
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