Grouping Up and Setting Out

Work to have done: pitched and read pitches for collaborative projects – which it turns out will all be in Twine; skim through the Twine 2 wiki

Plan for the Day:

  1. Finalize Doodle poll, groups.
  2. Read about and discuss collaborative workflow options in general
  3. Set up group repos
  4. Walk through collaborative workflow pattern in GitHub
  5. Make a plan with your group!

1. Finalize Doodle poll, groups.

If you haven’t yet done so, please do register your votes in the Doodle Poll. I’d be grateful if you were willing to do some of the projects that don’t already have too many people… but if we need to do multiple versions of some starting points, I’m sure it’ll be interesting to see how they vary.

For reasons of logistics and participation, I do want to keep the teams at 2-4 people, not more.

As these finalize, I’ll write them on the board.

2. Read about and discuss collaborative workflow options in general

While you’re waiting, take a handout; it’s a short scan from Writer/Designer on collaborative workflow options.

If you have a group, discuss in your group! If not, read on your own.

Consider: what are your gifts, and what are your gaps? How might you prefer to collaborate on this upcoming project?

3. Set up group repos

Now that we have groups, go sit with your group members!

I’ve set up some base files again, which you can access at the link below. Before you go there, choose one person from your group to create the team; once they’ve done that, the others will join the team.

https://classroom.github.com/g/6F7HZC0t

Let’s see what’s in the repo:

  • a README.md you should probably rename at some point
  • a how-to folder, with its own .md file explaining how GitHub’s going to help with the collaboration.
  • a playable Twine game walking you through the collaborative workflow

4. Walk through collaborative workflow pattern in GitHub

Let’s try it out! Designate one “driver” for the moment to do the Setup steps, and follow along with me.

In a nutshell:

  • Pull, import, work;
  • Publish to File;
  • Add, commit, push

And repeat!

5. Make a plan with your group!

Basically, have a look at the Group Contract questions in the handout, and talk through them. Be sure you know how to reach each other before you leave today!

You can write down your proposed plan in the file PROPOSAL.md; I’ve added some prompts to that otherwise blank file to show you what I’m looking for.

Your homework is to finish this proposal, so you might as well start while you’re all in one place, no?

EXT: If you feel good about your plan in general terms, consider making a shared task list that you can check off. GitHub has some tools for this if you want to explore them, but lo-fi is also fine.

Homework for next time

  • Finish your group proposal if you haven’t yet, so you’re ready to get working toward a Twine preview by next Tuesday’s class.
  • Read up on the documentation, watch tutorials, and reverse engineer Twines you enjoy to figure out how to achieve your goals!
  • Divide and conquer where you can, and share with each other what you’re finding…