Meetings are not fun. Or at least, they’re not supposed to be.
Somehow, team meetings for Between You, Me, & the Trees were a blast. Every meeting felt a little like a holiday. We got new art asset presents, celebrated what we had accomplished that week, and watched the game gradually become something more real.
One of my favorite parts of the process was how collaborative it felt. Everyone had a chance to weigh in on things like character design, and seeing those different perspectives actually shape the game was so cool. It never felt like I was just completing my piece of the project and handing it off. I felt like I was contributing to a collective mission and helping figure out what this experience should become.
That collaboration also made the project feel personal in a way I didn’t necessarily expect. As we talked through the characters, their experiences, and the world we were creating, I kept finding connections to my own Queer and neurodivergent lived experiences. Those connections gave me another way into the work and made me think more deeply about what it means to create something that can resonate with people whose experiences don’t always get represented.
By the end, I think what I valued most wasn’t just seeing the game come together. It was getting to be part of a team where the process itself felt meaningful. We made things, shared ideas, celebrated each other’s work, and built something that felt like it belonged to all of us.
Turns out, meetings can be fun. They just have to be the right meetings