Part way in to phase four, one member of the group decided it would be best for them to leave and move to another group. The reason for this wasn’t for the reasons that we have previously struggled but rather that he personally felt he would do better in another group. Our group size of 4 was always pushing the limit and it did feel like the fourth member was getting jobs that, while definitely useful, were not entirely needed. Also his main role was going to be as an artist and he personally didn’t want to spend the rest of the year doing pixel art as one: he was not experienced with it, and two: he wanted a portfolio of more conventional art.
We had a discussion about whether we felt that this was a good idea and, even though we thought there would be merit in him staying, we understood his reasons for wanting to leave.
Now that there is only 3 of us, we have had to restructure the team a bit; I am now going to be doing most of the artwork alongside being the lead designer. I don’t have much experience with creating assets at a controlled level since my previous pixel art endeavours have all been one-off personals works but I think that with a bit of practice and research I should manage.