Episode 50 - Game Review: Among Us

Speaker 1: Get ready for your semi-regular dose of random ideas from the guys at Codeelation. We like to talk about big ideas companies that are winning, and those that aren't along with current events in our crazy world of software startups. So come along with Erick and Josh, who challenge you to think big, start small and turn your ideas into something on this episode of, from idea to done.

Erick: Welcome everybody. We a little different this week and when we did this before, but I forgot to save the recordings. So today's idea is an app review and we did a team building exercise and now a couple of weeks ago, and we all downloaded and played the among us app. And it's kind of been blown up the app store and it's kind of a fun thing. And so I thought that I would just have everyone who played it. Um, just, just give it a quick review. And so before we really get into that, I wanted to just introduce everyone. And so everyone, can we just introduce yourself quick and we'll go with the alphabet. So we'll start with Maddy.

Maddy: Hi, I'm Maddy, uh, marketing specialist at Codelation

Erick: Yes and Suman

Suman: Hi I'm Suman, software engineer here at Codelation

Erick: And Tyler.

Tyler: Hi, I'm Tyler and I am a software engineer here at Codelation

Erick: And I am me, and that was a quote from Suman in like the first time that he was featured on the podcast, which was a delightful introduction of himself. So yeah, we, uh, we're going to talk a little bit of this online murder, mystery staff. And so what is your guys's overall review of among us? And we'll start with Maddy.

Maddy: I really liked the game. It's not complex. So, you know, you can teach pretty much anyone to play it, which is something nice about it. So you can force all your friends to download it and play it.

Erick: Or your coworkers. Suman?

Suman: Yeah, it's a pretty good game. I think this game won some kind of award yesterday night, uh, from one of the game journalism thing. Good game.

Erick: It won an award somewhere for something. Perfect. Tyler, what were your thoughts on it?

Tyler: I really liked the game. It was simple enough to pick up really quick. And then once you did, you could talk and have fun with everybody you were playing with.

Erick: No, and, and I, I actually, I really liked it. And so I thought it was fun when we played like in the office a while ago. And so I thought I'd bring it kind of to everyone. So what are your thoughts on doing it as like a team building activity for the remote workers? And we'll start with Maddy again?

Maddy: Uh, I think it's, I think it was a really fun game and like tool to bring everyone together because all we had to do is hop on, I think we might've done slack or zoom call and the game, you can play it from mobile or your tablet or your computer even. So it's pretty accessible. And like I said before, easy to pick up. So that's why I think it's a good tool.

Erick: And, and again, I liked it because no matter if you played before, hadn't had the learning curve is relatively quickly, even if you don't know what you're are even into apps or games at all. So, you know, what did you think?

Suman: Yeah, I agree with you and Maddy is a pretty simple human, pretty easy to pick up. And it's, I think for remote people, I think it's pretty easy to yell over slack and

Erick: It is pretty easy to yell at Tyson over slack. Other, what are your thoughts on bringing it to the remotes?

Tyler: I think it's a really good idea. Sometimes it's hard to remember that the remote people aren't robots. So being able to talk to them and have some fun, really does turn it into more friendships,

Erick: You know, and I threw, we just kind of threw these together and I wanted to do this mostly because I was going crazy in my quarantine, but half our team thrives in a remote environment, I will never understand that. But, uh, I don't think working remotely is going to be going away anytime soon. So do you guys have any tips for working remote? We'll start with Maddy.

Maddy: Um, one thing that I would say is wear something comfortable. I know some people like to put, actually put on their work clothes to get into the work mindset, but I use it as kind of a little treat, like a good aspect of working from home is that I can wear fuzzy socks.

Erick: You could totally your fuzzy socks sitting next to me just says it, but I think it is important to, to reward it, make some kind of treat out of it. Cause I, like I said, I, it drives me crazy. Assuming you're much better at what are, what is your tip for going remote?

Suman: I think my tip is to separate work and non-work spaces. So that'll be pretty easy to, uh, to get through your work days, work hours, I think.

Erick: Yeah. I think it's really easy to blur the lines when, when you're working from home and when you do that too much, it, I, it was stressful me when I first started trying this remote Atlas, Tyler, again, you're one of the better people at work in remote. What are, what are your tips?

Tyler: Uh, it's really easy to not take any breaks. And you wonder why at 11 in the morning you are burnt out. So for me, I have to force myself to take a five minute breaks every hour or so just to make sure I am still energized for the second half of the day.

Erick: No, I liked that. And I mean, I struggle with it. And so knowing that my cat videos every hour acceptable is kind of, that's a good idea. And so, yeah, I, but I do, I, the part of remote that I don't like is I really enjoy being around people and bringing together and accomplishing that is kind of part of my job too. Do you guys have any other ideas on activities that we can do to include, you know, everyone remotely and as always, we'll start with Maddie?

Maddy: Um, I I'm one, I really liked playing the games personally, but I know that's not for everyone. So maybe if we tried to do more like happy hours or, or lunches, maybe we'd be able to get more of the team in and see some more faces popping in

Erick: Karaoke party. That's what I heard. So what would you want to do as a remote worker?

Suman: Oh, I don't have any other IPDs on the line now. Always insightful,

Erick: But I will say you, you don't have the ideas, but you are always very willing to participate. So I thank you from that as the person who has to answer that question for our team. So Tyler, what, what ideas do you have for something to bring us remote people together?

Tyler: I think we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, but maybe if as more online games become popular, maybe we could take advantage of the internet and hang out with some of the people in different games.

Erick: No, I like that as software engineers, I think we should take advantage of the internet. That's the good quote from this episode. So yeah, we'll wrap this up. Um, I want you guys to rate among us on a scale of one to 10 and if you're feeling extra talkative, like Suminoe is, is why did you score it that way? And Maddie,

Maddy: Um, I would probably rate it a five or six if we're talking about games in general. I mean, but if we were talking about app apps, I would probably give it a seven or an eight. It does have some issues with crashing, um, every once in a while, just cause the servers get overloaded, but this game was actually getting, going to get had like a sequel in the works, but then the original game Bulloo up. So they had to like scramble and go back into developing and maintenance for this game. So I don't blame him for that.

Erick: I think that everyone in on this call would be okay with you not getting mad at apps for having bugs Suman. Why did you get assigned?

Suman: Yeah, I think there are some, uh, network issues and some bugs, but besides that, it's a pretty good game. So I'm going to go for eight and they have a new map coming up. So it's pretty excited for that one too.

Erick: Replay value! Tyler, what do you give it?

Tyler: I would give it a seven. It is a simple game, but it's easy to catch on to, so it deserves a few brownie points,

Erick: You know, and again, I, I give it a seven just on the game. I think I'd probably give it an eight on the, something to do as a team distantly. And like I said, it's won awards and it's according to Suwon at one, a random award for something somewhere. So, I mean, there's gotta be something to that and I liked the design and it's pretty simple and it's fun. And so, yeah. Thank you guys for stepping out of your comfort zone and jumping in on the old, uh, the old podcasts. And so, yeah, so that does it for our review of among us. Thank you for listening. We're hoping you know, of a startup that could use our advice or random thoughts, send them over to correlation.com to hear the next podcast.