Darryl Long

This is a post mortem for the game I Really Need This Job, it will analyze techniques and methodologies throughout the development of the project. Overall the project went extremely well and Nick and I are planning to continue the project after its completion and handover date. It is a CSV based puzzle game where the player plays as an intern who is delivering coffee for their boss.

Scope

The scope of a project is an issue that is discussed frequently during game development, often developers find that their game is too out of scope for development period that they have. We were able to keep the to keep the scope small due to the constraints that were given to us during the start of the project. While thinking of ideas we were constantly aware that we needed to create 20 levels for the game and it needed to be loaded in through CSVs, so a simple grid loaded puzzle game was created. Having a smaller scope for the game had positive effects on the game including:

• Faster Prototyping – Having a simple premise for the game allowed us to create a prototype for the game quickly and test out the core mechanics to see if they were fun. This lead being able to take advantage of four different playtests in a three week development period.
• Game Mechanics – We were able to test and really focus on the few game mechanics that were in the game and really focus on getting them to feel right.
• Assets – Due to the small scope of the game, it wasn’t as asset intensive as it could have possibly been. We were able to get all of the audio and art assets into the game and working cohesively with the game.

There are a number of actions to replicate the success in scope and recreate the positive effects in future projects:

• Research and Brainstorming – Researching topics that adhere to the constraints of the project is an essential part that if done well will assist in the success of the rest of the project.
• Documentation – Proper feature and technical specification documents assist with understanding the scope of the project early and cut back on features if necessary. Documenting projects effectively is essential to successfully scope out a project.

Programming

Being in charge of the programming aspect of the project there were a number of programming problems that I needed to work through for the success of this project. This functionality was things such as loading CSV files, player movement, and trap functionality. I was able to successfully create the gameplay functionality required to have the game run effectively. There are a number of actions to replicate the success in scope and recreate the successful programming in future projects.

• Technical Specification Documentation – Creating a technical specification document allows an idea of the programming aspect of the project to be realised before writing any code. This means that the programmer will be able to identify how each of the scripts will work with each other before writing them. Therefore in future projects, I aim to write out a comprehensive technical specification document before beginning to write the scripts for the project.
• Scope – A smaller scope allows for finer tuning and multiple iterations of the scripts to be written and corrected. It allows the programmer to focus on only a few aspects of the project in the time given, being able to fix bugs and improve the functionality of the scripts.
• Testing – Continual testing of the game allows for bugs to be found earlier in the game’s development cycle and fixed before the handover date.

Feedback and Pivoting

Receiving, analysing and adapting to feedback is an essential part of game development, it allows for players to give meaningful feedback that has an impact on the game and it continually evolves the game to become better and better. During this project, we were able to have two pitches and four playtesting sessions in the span of three weeks, this allowed for a feedback to be given and changes to be made and additional feedback to be given from the changes. This success can be attributed to:

• Rapid Prototyping and Small Scope – The small scope of the game allowed us to create a prototype quickly for testing. This prototyping allows us to receive feedback on the premise of the game quickly and adapt to it.
• Analysing and Adapting to Feedback – Collating feedback through Google Forms, analysing and identifying the feedback given on the game allows us to iterate on and improve the game.
• Taking Opportunities – Taking all opportunities to receive feedback on the game.

There are a number of actions to take to repeat the success of analysing feedback and pivoting.

• Scope – Keeping the scope small allows the first iteration of the game to be created quickly and be able to be tested.
• Taking Opportunities – taking opportunities to receive feedback when possible.
• Analysing Feedback – Collating and analysing feedback through Google Forms.
• Making Iterative Changes – Making iterative changes to the game dependent on the feedback for the game and the final vision.