#portmortem

What’s one thing you’d change about how you developed the prototype? 

In terms of how I developed the prototype, the one thing I would change is allowing for more time to input more elements. For example, the implementation of audio for certain movements such as shooting the bubbles would make the game more engaging for younger audiences. 

What’s one thing you’d change about the design of the prototype? 

My postmortem of book reading for chapters 13-16.

Project Planning:

I found it interesting reading about the project planning for game development. As I’m studying computer science (programming), my projects quite often use agile sprints to track project progress. While this isn’t something that was utilised in depth for this project (whether or not this was done correctly; the team only used a general timeline for the project), it was interesting to see how it can be applied to a different style of project.

Communicating Designs:

One aspect of this that we did utilise for our project was using a flowchart to map our game. As we have an open world plat former with (although limited) multiple levels, we created a flow chart to track how these levels connected to each other (copy of chart included below). The other aspects of this chapter were similar to what was done for Assignment 2, by providing visualisation and description of the game. The description part in particular I thought was relevant to me as it explains to list game’s details with specifics that I didn’t realise was necessary for an early stage game idea (something that affected my result for Assignment 2 - I hadn’t realised the level of detail that was required - not just that players move left or right but what button/s were used to do so, or what number of health they start with/is taken when they are hurt).

Game Industry (Genre):

The main thing that stood out to me for this chapter was that when I was applying these genres to our game project, it wasn’t clear where it fit. The best suited may be Role-playing as we’ve given players a character in a situation and they have to make choices, but this is combined with more action (less story) than what is usual for a role-playing game. Our game could also fit into Experimental, as it has a unique enough concept/design (with it being an open world plat former with different, almost puzzled levels). One play tester had even mentioned that it was somewhat similar to Super Meat Boy, which is one of the games listed under Experimental.

Selling Yourself:

I found this chapter was of less relevance to me personally, as this unit for me isn’t a stepping stone to learning more about game development or becoming a game developer. In saying that, the general concepts (aside from specifics of pitching game ideas) can be applied to most careers if there is a need to showcase completed work.