space's Stanza III Guest Reviews
This Stanza we saw folks like
@Disneypugs. step up and become the team leader while others were sick or busy. It's not easy to lead a team but I think you tried your best and you'll only get better with practice. Some things you did very well was being active and updating the team with information when needed. You always kept the central doc handy to repost when updates were made and around at peak times in the morning and night to keep the flow moving. Something to improve on I think is the need to be more declarative. When you are the leader, your voice holds more weight, and lots of times people are going to remain silent and wait for your decision despite previously agreeing on something. While this round that scenario applied to the vacation day extension, the next round it could be on the direction of the project as a whole - so just keep that in mind for yourself and the future PMs that your voice holds weight.
Another thing to emphasize going forward is to make sure everyone takes turns leading the team and having larger roles for the project. For example - there was a great parrot art contribution from
@Brer Panther this project, while others such as
@D Hindley took on an art role as well as writing and organizing chunks of the project. Next round, it would be neat if those roles were flipped, with Doug taking on just art for the project, while others like Brer took on the bulk of the writing. This will not only lead to nuanced project designs, but also build up everyone's skills as the game moves forward, while moreover ensuring nobody gets overworked. Food for thought! Lastly, for some folks who haven't participated as much throughout the first 3 Stanzas, if you do get an opportunity next round - it would be great to see you take those lead roles so we can all see your talents put on display.
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Now onto the project - Indiana Jones was a really neat choice. With World Showcase delving into more IP in the coming years, and Disney World lacking the classic character in attraction form, an adventure thrill ride in Morocco sounds like a great way to have more Indy in the parks while also bolstering one of the least populated WS pavilions.
The intro was very well done and the picturesque artwork by Doug mixed in with a hidden mickey in the rocks (maybe maybe not?) combined with the force perspective of the Tower of Terror behind Morocco (one of my favorite imagineering feats of all time) was just great. I also appreciate how you took the time out to explain the geography, it was short and sweet, but gives the reader a little added tidbit to inform them of what you based it off of. The map was useful as well as an aerial viewpoint of how to fit this attraction in the pavilion location. The first pre-show was brilliantly written, as was the second pre-show but for me without a map this seems like a lot in a little space. I know you had scaled it out in the chat so it's not that big of a deal to me, but for someone not in the chat it's definitely something that would pop out as 'this is kinda big' The vehicles were an interesting choice and a bit of a step up from the Indy vehicles - so it makes sense to go with something established even if not in use yet. The attraction itself diverts enough away from other Indiana Jones attractions to be its own thing, which is definitely a plus, a ride-layout map would have been cool for this section. I did also laugh at the subtle jab to the Mummy in the guests' thoughts. The post-ride gift shop was also very well written.
Overall, some high points in this project and I think the thing to focus on going forward is to coordinate and conquer. It goes without saying that when busy or sick - that all comes first, but here's to hoping everything goes well next round and into the future and you can implement some of these new tools to your projects!
Right off the bat this team's shining mark is teamwork. With a structured hierarchy established early on with Tiki leading the charge, the fellow teammates in TMNT plus new additions like
@Disney Dad 3000 blended in seamlessly to the flow of the team, offering additional custom artwork and inventive project concepts. This team doesn't needed pages upon pages of back and forth - what I like about this team is the efficiency of it all. From what I could see you had a vision and worked throughout the week to see that vision take flight.
The podcast was a great concept to add some nuance to the project! That's the kind of creativity SA was founded on - not only thinking up the imagineering but also thinking outside the box on how to present it!. The presentation is to me how you get a 'wow' out of the reader (and to be honest at least for me a wow presentation, I tend to overlook small tidbits that I might have otherwise been more critical of if you show effort and ingenuity in these aspects. And that's why my one piece of advice going forward is to continue that trend. One comment in the brainstorming had to do with how to present the music, and the go-to response was to do it how you "usually" do it. But doing the standard won't push these projects forward and won't push yourselves as well! While Google Sites is a great accomplishment, this is the 3rd time using it, and while I think the formatting has improved since Stanza I and in each subsequent round (practice makes perfect) it is also important to not rest on your laurels going forward. See what kind of projects you have, and how you can 'plus' your project in creative ways, either by a novel presentation, format, custom artwork, music, etc If you make the a project goal each Stanza you'll be surprised how much you'll creatively improve.
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First, love the attraction poster - really neat way of adding a realistic spin to the project. That kind of stuff I just get a big kick out of - I enjoy when there's attraction posters, queue health warning signs, maps, photoshop, custom art, yada yada, it just makes the whole project feel so real...like this 'could' be a real attraction. The setting fits in well with the trackless attraction in France, as well as the other World Showcase attractions, including UK and Turkey Pavilion SAU attractions that I was happy to see have a namedrop in the project. Really nice work at explaining the location. The topic of Arabian Nights I think had some sound reasoning behind it and the research into how to design the attraction taking inspiration from dark rides from Efteling and reference images of tourism from Casablanca posters - all really great stuff. The overhead map also helped lay everything out though I do wish there were some labels on it.
Getting into the 'Ride' itself the setting and transitions all flow very well. Some aesthetic conundrums I had were mainly with the setup of posting the attraction layout at the bottom of the page, and not having a delineation between the queue segment and the attraction segment of the write-up, however those are minor tidbits for next time. The attraction itself feels like a nice hybrid of classic dark ride tributaries with the technological flair of the 21st century. Very well written, had a seamless flow to it and I could visualize it through the descriptive text. One thing again for the future that I'd like to see possibly from this team is a dive into custom art. There were flares of it in this project and last, but a scene or two from this attraction to encapsulate the style that shines through in the writing would have made this fantastic proposal even more amazing in my mind.
In the end though - this team I feel has improved each and every round, and if you keep pushing yourselves to try new things in new ways - you'll just continue to grow as the game goes on.
And P.S. as I'm finishing this I'm watching and listening to the unique podcast from Tiki and Mickeyfan - that kind of creativity is what I like to see - keep it up and can't wait to see what you come up with next!
Congrats and good luck to both teams!
