Collaborative report
Roles and responsibilities of team members – P1
Dr. Meredith Belbin’s team roles come from his research into the subject, he found that a successful team was made up of many different personalities. Belbin concentrated these ideas into nine different team roles. Each of the personality types that Belbin identified corresponds with the position that they would likely take on when working in a team.
Three examples of these team roles are the Completer Finishers, Specialist and Team worker Completer Finishers are described as action orientated and who focus on their work and producing functional results. Specialists are people who have skills strongest in a limited area and produce ideas and work with those skills tested and used the most out of all others. Team workers are people orientated and good listeners who take the ideas of other team members into consideration with their own and work well with a team of others naturally.
The responsibilities of a team member usually corresponds with their Belbin team roles, people who are all round people- people will work best in marketing, reaching out and communicating with many people whilst someone who is best with their rational thinking and strategic planning would work best in a lead or managerial role. The responsibilities of someone is directly what their job is, someone who works in QA would have responsibilities tied to making sure the product and work produced matches or exceeds the minimum expectations.
Creating games requires a range of skills, which in the industry is divided amongst team members with their own roles and responsibilities. Artists, programmers, level designers and QA testers all have their own respective responsibilities. These roles can all be split into more diluted roles, depending on the size of the team and stage of development there may be concept artists early on to create an early idea of the game through grandeur and later on in development, concept artists are no longer needed but a character designer will be needed to create detailed drawings for 3D modellers to work on to put into the game. 3D modellers may be split up into working solely on character models, these people may have a better understanding of animation and so the models they create will be set up for animation, as opposed to someone who solely works on environmental assets such as buildings, trees or clutter. Each sector of games development can be split into responsibilities, having sectors of roles for a part of a large AAA game is how massive projects like Ubisoft releasing 3 AAA Assassin’s Creed games between 2017 and 2020, Origins – 2017, Odyssey – 2018, Valhalla – 2020. Splitting a team into roles allows for the benefits of decisive work loads and working to peoples strengths as opposed to their weaknesses.
Collaborative workflows of game design – P2
Collaborative workflows are how a team works together, many people have different ways they structure their workload and having a workflow decided on by a team allows for that team to maintain structure and keep on the same page of development. Examples of these workflows are scrum, agile and waterfall. Each one of those terms refers to the structure that the workflows.
Scrum development is built on periods of 2 to 4 weeks, before those weeks, a suitable marker of progression is decided, an early build of a game with white boxed levels and the major mechanics for example, and over those weeks the team has daily meetings where they discuss progress and overtime, parts of the product that aren’t completed are collected and then revalued at the end of the development cycle before deciding on the next development cycles goals., much like how some debris collects on top of water.
The next workflow method is the waterfall method follows 5 stages, requirements, design, implementation, verification and maintenance. Waterfall development is sequential, the next stage of development only happens when the current step is finished in its entirety.
The third method of development is agile, this method works on a series of sprints. These sprints are started with planning, deciding as a team what content is needed for the game or what state the product should be in at the end of this sprint. Then the team will design what is needed to meet the needs, work on the game for a set amount of time, a week or a month, and over that time, develop the content, test the content, deploy the content and the revue the process and progress that occurred over the sprint and move onto planning the next sprint, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses found during the last sprint. The development method would change from team to team, as it is a collaborative decision on what format to use to best access the teams abilities, as everyone will work best under different situations.
Benefits of remote collaboration – M1
Remote collaboration is the other side of the coin, the downsides of studio collaboration is commonly an upside of remote work. Overhead costs are a major factor in running any studio or office space, add travel costs on top of that and there is a large amount of money to be saved for both employees and management and not only would money be saved, but the amount of pollution also created during travel would be reduced massively. Reduced pollution and decreased costs are certainly an upside of remote, but a major downside is the lack of social interaction. Separation of a healthy work-life balance is much harder to manage when you work and live in the same space. [1-ITPro, 2021] Peer to peer interaction is where many ideas for a project can originate and limiting that interaction to a phone or video call or a messaging system removes the social ideation that creates those ideas. Whilst the world has been in lockdown and working from home as become a much more common occurrence, new resources have been created to make the experience easier, Microsoft Teams existed before the pandemic but since then its user base has multiplied to over 200 million in 2022, compared to its release in 2017 when it had around 2 million. [2-D.Curry, Business of Apps, 2022]. Over this time where more people have joined the platform, many new additions, as well as being available in 181 countries and 44 languages, have been made to increase the productivity of its users, and that has shown through the vast base of people using teams. [3-CitrixTV, 2020]
Benefits of studio collaboration – M1
Working in a studio or office brings many benefits and disadvantages. One of the major advantages of teamwork inside of a studio would be communication, it is much easier to have an informal conversation with someone in person that writing a message or email to that person. Speaking face to face also allows for easier sharing of ideas and expand on points made in the conversation. There is a limiting factor to social communication like this, some people are likely to have social anxiety in some form or another and dislike or struggle with public communications like “water cooler” conservations. Workplace relationships can be built much easier person to person. Working together with a team of people that mesh well together in their personality and friendship can increase productivity. The facilities used to work are all located in one location and as such are much easier to manage and upgrade. A computer or keyboard breaking is a likely occurrence and if you are in an office there is likely to be spares or old parts that can be used whilst waiting for a replacement. Compare this to remote working, not everyone is going to have a spare keyboard or mouse and more likely to not have a spare computer. Waiting for a replacement on one of those items whilst at home is going to interrupt work for a much longer time. The amount of people working in one location can lead to more creative discussion as well as fulfil a social aspect of life, but it can lead to many more distractions. A conversation that lasts too long takes away a good portion of time that could have been spent working. [4- INAA,2020]
Comparing Studio and Remote Collaborative – M1
Whilst both forms of collaboration will have the same workload, the ways that workload is approached will differ depending on how the team interacts. I have my own experience with both forms and my personal preference is studio collaboration. My experience comes from the same project and team, we have worked on a hybrid between studio and remote, on Wednesdays and Thursdays we are together in working on the project and on Mondays we have remote meetings talking about the progress we have made during the time together as well as work on the project on our team related tasks. The preference for studio collaboration is the opportunity for water cooler conversations, being able to approach a member of the team or present the team with information as I get that information happens much quicker then with remote collaboration as I keep that information with me until the remote meetings on Mondays.
Evaluating my own experience
Before deciding on what the game our team would be making, we needed ideas to work with. Whilst working together in the studio, each of us wrote an several ideas of games based around the climate crisis theme, this was the first part of our collaborative process. After writing down our ideas with a brief explanation of it, we reviewed each of our ideas, asked questions about the content of the game, how the narrative could relate to the climate theme and after a conversation between the team, we left the studio to consider our options and what game we would like to work on together and then after having time to consider we held a remote video call where we decided the game that we will be working on.
Video call around deciding collaborative game idea
From my own experience of working with both studio and remote collaboration, my preference for development would be studio. My reasoning behind this is because of how I like to work. My time working on team based projects, I have been responsible for the major gameplay mechanic of the project, in terms of coding ability, I am not strong enough to depend on written solutions for implementing my mechanics so I like to work with individual team members and assist them in working with myself. Over the project, my experience with remote collaboration was through a review at the end of a weekly sprint of an agile development cycle. These reviews where over video meetings where the members of the team discussed what work we had done and what we had ready to share with others, clear up any misconceptions and questions others had before moving onto the next development cycle and planning out what we intended to have done by the next meeting.
[1]IT Pro (2021) The social impact of remote collaboration, IT PRO. IT Pro. Available at: https://www.itpro.co.uk/business-strategy/collaboration/361370/the-social-impact-of-remote-collaboration (Accessed: September 18, 2022).
[2]Curry, D. (2022) Microsoft Teams Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022), Business of Apps. Available at: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/microsoft-teams-statistics/ (Accessed: September 18, 2022).
[3]CitrixTV (2020) Key benefits of remote work, YouTube. CitrixTV. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__tatMZLqxE (Accessed: September 18, 2022).
[4]Benefits of working in an office vs. remote work (2020) INAA. Available at: https://www.inaa.org/benefits-of-working-in-an-office-vs-remote-work/ (Accessed: September 18, 2022).
Planning the collaborative project
Individual ideation and research – P3
Before coming together as a team and deciding on what the game we will be developing, I need ideas to bring forward to the group where will decide on what we will produce. The game ideas need to be relative to the brief, the main considerations to take when thinking is the theme, the game needs to be based around the climate crisis and that it needs to be have levels of some sort that can be developed by the team. I have not worked in a team before when it comes to producing a game and as such some of my ideas where ideas that could not be produced as they didn’t have any opportunities to be developed upon by the team.
This mind map does not only consist of game ideas but a few games that also have a theme based around some effect of the climate crisis as well as several effects that the climate crisis brings for me to build ideas off of. The main idea that I continued to develop was a mix of the top right and bottom right. The idea that brought forward was a open-level puzzle exploration game. The player works for an conservationist group and is sent to many environments around the globe with the goal of saving animals that are endangered or are loosing their natural habitats. Each of these levels with have puzzles for the player to solve, such as finding a way to cross a raging river in a jungle, whilst exploring the environment to find the specific species they are their to find and leaving that location. The climate crisis section of the brief is focused on through the destruction of natural habitats as well as the endangerment of species and life caused by the climate crisis. The other consideration from the brief, levels / teamwork, are brought in through the various environments the player visits which act as individual levels for different members of the team to work on.
Understanding what other games with a similar theme and genre consist of is a good basis to stand on when developing the idea of the game further. Researching narratives based around the climate crisis or ideally heatwaves, I will develop knowledge which I can bring forward in the next team meeting. Taking similar action with the games mechanics will also help in this regard, researching games where light or heat play a major part in its game play as well as what other puzzle games consist of. The game is a puzzle game, the other levels being produced by my team do have stealth elements with a cult of religious extremists, the main mechanic of the game can be considered to be a stealth mechanic. Staying out of the sun acts like staying out of someone’s line of sight or you are caught or chased and end up at the start. My level is split up into three sections, three floors of a skyscraper which each have a focus on a specific mechanic. To know what these puzzles will be I need to know a range of puzzles to base my sections off of. From previous experience with producing my own puzzle game as well as a standard puzzle in many games, the keycard is simple and a good standard puzzle. The idea of this puzzle is having a room with a direct exit but the way is locked , the player is guided through the puzzle with notes which lead to a key for a room with a note or another key. The player is not told which key is for which door but is told which door from environmental story telling.
Scope of the project – P3
We will be creating a 3D 3rd person action adventure game with its own bespoke mechanic, not a simple task to undertake. The scope of this project is set far above what I would be working on if I where to be working alone, working to create a detailed realistic world in 3D whilst creating a game along side that creates a workload much higher then many of the other ideas we could have worked towards. Whilst the scope for the project is set above what I would work on, I am not working alone, other parts of a full working game will be developed by other members of the team. The team work aspect of this project influences the scope of the project, whilst it is till ambitious, working along side other team members will allow us to meet the expectations that have been set for us this project and meet the expectations we have set ourselves. I have worked in 3D before, I worked on a [1] first person zombie game that I intended to be similar to Left 4 Dead. It did not turn out similar to Left 4 Dead, I did not have a deep enough knowledge to work with Unity and create a 3D game by myself, however for this project not only do I have a good knowledge of Unity, I am not alone and the team that I work with will allow each of us to work to our strengths and assist each other in working on a project to completion, even if that project has a scope much higher then a usual project. Outside of my own experience of development and what I believe, what is the scope of a game? [2] “The game’s scope is a term used to define the project’s perceived size and complexity.” (Kramarzewski & Nucci, 2018). Conceptually the games complexity is simplified by the splitting of direct tasks amongst members of the team, lowering the workload I would have to do if I where to be working alone. The size of the game is split between the team as well, each member is responsible for their own level out of the five. [3] This article talks about identifying the scope of the project and highlights this through splitting the game into mechanical needs, story needs, aesthetics, and technology. The technologic needs refer to what is needed to play the game in terms of hardware. The aesthetics are the visual aspects of the game, the colours needed and as games have developed the range of textures, materials, and models. Story is the length and importance that the story plays into the players experience of the game. The mechanics of the game are what involves the player in the game, picking an object and having it in an inventory or taking damage. Going off of these criteria’s I would place the mechanical need at high, the game requires bespoke mechanics; The story at high, the story is the driving force and ties into the mechanics; The aesthetics at medium, the intended style is to use low-poly models with high resolution textures; Technology at a medium, Whilst the game does not run in the browser, no dedicated graphics card would be needed to play the game.
[1] GissepiGames (2021) Viral by GissepiGames, itch.io. GissepiGames. Available at: https://gissepigames.itch.io/viral (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[2] Kramarzewski, A. and Nucci, E.D. (2018) Practical game design, O’Reilly Online Learning. Packt Publishing. Available at: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/practical-game-design/9781787121799/4aab8002-d548-4aec-8bb1-a0967b983772.xhtml#:~:text=The%20game’s%20scope%20is%20a,of%20the%20game%20design%20document. (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[3] Lindgren, P. (2016) How to identify the scope of your game, Game Developer. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/how-to-identify-the-scope-of-your-game (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
Collaborative ideation and research and product brief – P3
4 ideas reduced from several each
Video call around ideation for the heatwave game
Collaborative document for ideation
Collaborative project brief – P4
The game I am working on is a puzzle survival game and based around an intense heatwave brought on by global warming. I will be working in a team with 4 other people. This game idea was decided on after a long process of reduction through in-person brainstorming and discussion through video calls. Details of the game can be found inside of the concept details document below
Video call focused on presenting designs for our individual level
The purpose of this video call with the team was to present our level ideas to each other so that we all have an understanding of what each of us are doing. All of us ended up presenting a different format of design, mine was more of a jumble of designs, compared to Amy’s design which was a level layout rather then an interpretation of visuals.
Continued Research
After researching some narratives that have some relation to the game idea, I have created a mind map to create a strong narrative premise that I will present to the team and they will present their own ideas where we will choose one or a combination of them all that we agree meets are own image of the game in our mind. On this minds map, I have also summarized the plots of some narratives I have researched to the points that relate to my narrative ideas. To create an effective story, researching the narrative of games with a theme related to a subject of the climate crisis will help in doing this. The theme of our game is rising temperatures which has resulted with the temperature if the world rising far above what it is. Raft [1] is a survival game in which the player builds up their raft to sail the seas the have risen due to extreme global warming which has melted ice and caused sea levels to rise. [2] The narrative of this game has the player follow a breadcrumb trail of information about the location of a utopia, a spot of land on which humans can live. As the story continues, the antagonist of the story is revealed to have forced out people from their settlements and has the people trapped inside of a skyscraper with a peak above the water. The story ends with the player freeing the people and trapping the antagonist instead of killing him, which would create ludo-narrative dissidence as the players goal is to help others.
Another game which has a narrative tied to the climate crisis is Biomutant [3], the 2021 RPG was developed by Experiment 101, a studio bought by THQ Nordic. The game takes place years after an apocalyptic event, in a world where humans are extinct and small mutant creatures are the intelligent life on the planet.[4] The story follows the players journey through branching narrative paths which impact the world. The main focus on the story is the Tree of Life which by way of natural disaster is under threat of oil seeping through the soil. The decisions made by the player change the ending of the game but the representation of the climate crisis. Chemicals dangerous to the environment seep into the soil of the world through the use of pesticides or fertilizers as well as many harmful by-products of humanity such as micro-plastics, nuclear waste, electronic waste, or land fill sites. The effects of soil pollution lead to catastrophic effects on ecosystems and effect humanity as well, the contamination of soil leads to worsening crop yields which lead to food shortages and as the population continues to grow, this aspect of the climate crisis, like all other, will bring issues that humanity may not be able to face. The effects that are caused by the environmental issues in the pre-apocalypse world in Biomutant can bring a more nuanced world building when it comes to development of the narrative I will be working on.
Outside of games, there is an antithesis of the heatwave narrative of our game, Snowpiercer was originally a graphic novel 1982 called Le Transperceneige, and was later adapted into a film released in 2014 [5] and an on-going TV series which started in 2020. The version I am familiar with is the film and so my research here will be based off of that. The background of the story [6] revolves around a train that constantly moves around a frozen earth, all who are alive are on the train as it is the only bastion of mankind. The story is about creating an equal life for everyone on the train as the further carriages of the train house the lower class and is representative of slums whilst the ones closer to the front act as everything from schools to saunas to night clubs. Having the difference in class is not something that I would say would be represented through our game, civilization is not centred in one location, the world is scattered. But the journey of someone seeking a better life and a higher calling is something to consider in the narrative of our game.
[7] Knowing is a 2009 disaster film about a solar flare that scorches the Earth, not to dissimilar from the working idea for the game which takes place in a post-apocalyptic scorched world that is ravaged by an intense heatwave but it is caused by unaccounted climate change as opposed to a solar flare. In Knowing, at the end of the film the solar flare demolishes all in its path, so much destruction is caused that life would not be able to continue into a post-apocalyptic state, which is the intended setting for this game. Research into this movie gives an upper-bound on the scale of destruction for when it comes to designing the world and history of the game.
The idea of the game is set inside the bounds of the climate crisis so creating an event on a cosmic scale as seen in Knowing would be out the question as it is not in the believable bounds of the climate crisis and would be counter-intuitive as the work and ideation that the team has already put towards would need to be re-considered to account for any large changes made. The aim of the narrative is conveying a message to the audience about environmentalism, the way that this is done in game can be through the design of the environment and levels but it can be taught to the player though the story that they play through in the game, research into other narratives bring formative ideas together that will create a deeper narrative in the game and communicate our intended message to the audience. The approach of the narrative in the game is split into five sections, one section for each level that the game will have, each level is representative of a step in Todorov’s equilibrium narrative theory, the overarching narrative follows the main characters journey to an outpost of survivors in the arctic, where the temperature is stable due to the increased global temperature, the characters purpose for being there is to help the community with their knowledge of medicine and burns, the arc of the character is the main development of the story and the world that they go through and their reaction to the long lasting effects of the unaccounted climate crisis which lead to the eternal heat wave is how the message of environmentalism is going to be conveyed. The game presents a bleak world but the main characters determination to help and assist others in need is intended to bring hope to the players that even through the world is in crisis, it can still be helped through courage and determination.
[1] Raft (2018) Redbeet Interactive. Available at: https://raft-game.com/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[2] Raft Story (2018) Raft Wiki. Available at: https://raft.fandom.com/wiki/Story (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[3] Biomutant (2022) Available at: https://www.biomutant.com/en/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[4] Majoros, E. (2021) Biomutant: 10 things everyone missed in the story, Game Rant. Available at: https://gamerant.com/biomutant-story-details-missed-hidden/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[5] Snowpiercer [film] (2014). Mazzo di Rho (MI): Koch media.
[6] Snowpiercer (2014) IMDb. IMDb.com. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/plotsummary/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[7] Knowing (2009) IMDb. IMDb.com. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448011/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
Climate crisis theme – D1
Following the brief, the games theme needs to reflect the climate crisis through in some form. Outlining what aspects of a game the theme correlates too is an easier place to start as the climate crisis is not a simple topic to evaluate. In terms of games development and the theme of the game our team has to produce, the negatives and positives that relate to game production are specific challenges for games development. The theme of a game is the why, why does the world look the way it does, why is the player doing this, its the context behind the content. The theme brings cohesion to the game but in doing so limits what the content of the game can be, a simplified version of the critical evaluation of theme in video games. What does the climate crisis theme bring to our project and what does it limit in the project? There are many aspect to the climate crisis and through the ideation and planning process, the team has decided to focus on rising temperatures, which in the game world has been caused by unanswered global warming and a heatwave that causes the suns light to be deadly after exposure.
Whilst going through initial planning, some key story points where discussed, working backwards, the story points need to be supported by the chosen theme which will then be split up and be worked on collaboratively by each person and their corresponding level, this is the case with each aspect of development that I have split up through this evaluation. How is the story related to the theme? The story follows one man, Gary, who has taken herbalism as his calling in the apocalyptic world, gathering medicinal plants to assist those harmed by the suns heat. This equilibrium of his story is based upon the main character learning and living through the climate crisis, directly relating the story to the theme. Another example of correlation between story and theme, looking towards the end of the project, the last level of the project takes place in the top floors of a skyscraper, Early in the story, Gary is told of a bastion of humanity, a place where the crisis of global warming has the temperature at a tropical level, the arctic. On the top of this skyscraper is a helicopter landing pad from which Gary will be taken to a place where his skills as a herbalist and knowledge of burns will help many more people then he could have staying where he was. Focusing on the story beats alone, the skyscraper does not serve much purpose other then a point to continue on, but creating a deeper back story for a location pivotal in the story would create a immersive world where the player can learn more about what the world was. There where many factors that influenced the downfall of the world, but what of the ones that attempted to lessen the impact of global warming? That is the purpose of this location, many sectors inside of the building where focused on creating a remedy for the earth, one section that Gary ventures through in the story was an herbology sector, where plants where genetically modified to have a greater yield for ingredients, some of which had effects post apocalypse, as they are a major factor in helping heal intense burns. The reason of creating and highlighting a location that tried to fix mistakes and help humanity was created to act as inspiration, the focus of the climate theme for the game is to bring attention to it, creating a story where nobody helped and humanity was most likely doomed creates a depressing environment for conveying a message of betterment. The visual design of the game can be as realistic or stylised as the team chooses, but the environment of the game world needs to reflect the theme, otherwise aspects of the game that can be taught to the player through understanding will be lost, showing and not telling is imperative to creating an understanding between the player and the world. In terms of the negatives of this, it throttles the freedom of environmental design, needing the world to reflect each aspect that the game contains relating to the climate theme limits the creative possibilities that I could influence through the design of my portion of the game.
Project management – M2
Production schedule week 1
As of yet I have not produced any work so I have no content to reflect on, after this first week I would like to have finished the whiteboxing for the three levels and have a starting point for the heat mechanic. In terms of other programming, I do not have any other tasks set by our team as what I am working on is the sole mechanic that reflects the climate crisis through gameplay, which is not an aspect of the theme of the game (which is what the brief asks us to do) but introducing the climate crisis through the narrative and then influencing the gameplay from that will create a greater impact on the player.
Production schedule week 2
After the first week of development, I am slightly behind schedule. A large reason behind this is the sunlight sizzle mechanic. I have made progress on the script but finding a solution that worked went through a few iterations which was considerably more complex then what I thought it would have been, even though the script I have so far is quite small. The work that I have not done is related to the third tower, not meeting this first deadline on the development of this area of the level is not a dramatic issue as the complexity of the area is not very high. Tower three consists of an array of solar panels, a control center for the panels and a heli pad that the player needs to reach, I have some solar panels in and a spot for the heli pad defined but it does need 1-2 hours of work.
Production schedule week 3
Over the last week, I have caught up with the white boxing of the third tower section of the level and have changed the schedule in some capacity, I have changed the order I am working in as I have started importing assets into the level before bringing in scripts. This is partially because the scripts are a team effort, I am waiting on some scripts whilst the other members of the team are waiting on my sun sizzle script. Work on the sizzle script has been slow as due to unforeseen issues, my laptop has died and as of the start of this week, I have not yet been able to replace the parts that have stopped working. Even though I have not been able to work on the game as much as I need to (some work to the level design such as the white boxing and the importing of assets was on my laptop when it died) the main idea that I had for the temperature would not work to well. I intended to use a while loop for when the player is in the sun. Using a while loop for this could work but the way the temperature bar fills would stutter which would effect the game play, the character steps into the sun and immediately the temperature starts rising, having it rise chunks at a time would still give the player a visual input to move but would not create the tension that it should have. Going forward, the temperature is going to be set as a float (a number that can be not whole) so that I can have a bar that fills smoothly and have more precision when it comes to going in and out of sun quickly.
Production schedule week 4
Over the past week of development, I have put my focus towards getting the sun sizzle mechanic to a point of game play, it still needs some features such as playing sound effects, UI and using the modern scene manager but the mechanics of the mechanic is complete and in the projects of my team mates games. Creating this mechanic was overall a difficult process taking 3 weeks in total, along side other work, but now that it is done I will be able to focus on the content of my level with the next issue being the third stage of the level. The original puzzle I had for this section will not work as what I had envisioned was rotating solar panels to rotate the shadow but what I needed to do to make this mechanic work is rotate the sun, something which would likely break the immersion of the player. The idea I currently have for this is having the focus stay on the sizzle mechanic but use the solar panels as a maze wall instead of a puzzle piece.
Production schedule week 5
Over the past week, I have worked on bringing in assets for the level, I have the packs downloaded but using them in the level takes a considerable amount of time then usual as this game is visually realistic as opposed to my other games. I have also worked on the puzzles of the game, I have a script for the first puzzle and then the second puzzles scripts are handled by a team member so that leaves the third puzzle, which as stated last week is no longer the solar panel rotation. After some design consideration and factoring in what I have available, the third puzzle is now ….
Due to having to change the third stage of the level and the sun sizzle taking much longer then anticipated, the changes to the schedule reflect that most of the work for the third stage is yet to be done. The process for this work will go much quicker as I have no tasks to do in the mean time such as working on scripts and gathering assets.
Production schedule week 6
Over the past week, I’ve gathered up some sounds for the level for implementing after the mechanics and designs for the third level are finished. I intended to work on this part of the level over the past week but after some user feedback I have gone back to change the second section of the level. This section as it was, was to large which left the level feeling empty, having the second floor be empty didn’t assist in this either.
Whilst changing the design of the level to be smaller and more detailed, I have changed the section to be closer in design to my original concept. Taking this time to improve on my past work has its benefits. The third section of the level can be cut down to bare essentials and so in this time, working on the rest of the level to a higher quality will influence the overall experience of the game. Over the next week, I intend to finish off the sun sizzle script, the major work that is needed is UI elements and sound. I have worked with both of these in past projects and I have tried putting sound into this script already but the sound played multiple times per second as it was playing each time the timer value changed.
Finishing production – P5 P6
More for COllaboration where level fits into game
The deliverable product that brief required our team to produce is a series of levels with a theme based on the climate crisis. Each member of the team has produced their own level which match up to produce the first act of a game based upon the climate crisis. All of the work I have done towards this project has resulted into my own finished level, all of that work is the production of a deliverable product that matches what the brief required me to do, which can be played on my itch.io page.
The presentation of the game can be seen here: https://gissepigames.itch.io/heatwave
The presentation of the finished project is mostly seen through the itch.io page, where all of my games are uploaded to. The store page gives me some freedom in the presentation of the game before the player downloads and plays it. I have worked through this process many times in the past and so I know what I need to do to present a game. What I haven’t done in the past is work collaboratively and on an in depth narrative. Both of these need to be shown on the page which does create some change in my normal presentation layout. Highlighting the collaborative process is done on my page with a small description about how the game was worked on, how each member assisted in the teams development and what I worked on for the team:
This is the fifth and final level of a collaborative project, each member of the team produced their own level and worked on their own mechanic for each other member of the team to use in their level, I was reasonable for the heat / temperature mechanic.
Next up is the narrative, I have presented the narrative in the same manner as I highlighted the collaborative process, with a description about what Gary, the main character, will face in this final stretch of his journey and what will come next in his life:
Follow Gary the botanist on his treacherous journey through the immense heatwave that burns the sky of a post climate crisis apocalypse Earth. Gary is nearing the end of this journey, at the top of a skyscraper of the botany and science company, Solaire Botánica. Here Gary will learn about the motives behind the seemingly climate conscious company.
After a perilous journey from his forest steading, through the burning sun, Gary reaches the skyscraper where he will be taken far north to the Arctic outpost, where his taught skill and that which he has learnt on his path will be put to the test helping the residents in the Arctic.
Find the key cards to unlock the door to the next floor where you must find how to knock down a large I beam to reach the helipad where you will meet the pilot and finish the level.
There is much more text here then what is highlighted for the collaborative process. Both descriptions are boiled down and whilst I could remove information from the narrative blurb, it would take more away from the players understanding of the game. Along side the descriptions of the collaborative process and narrative I have an outline of the controls for keyboard and mouse as well as a controller and then as a sentence where I ask any players to fill in a questionnaire where I can learn about their experience and obtain some feedback about the game. Along side all of this text, I have a series of screenshots so the player knows what to expect in the game and an image for the background of the page that matches the heatwave and climate theme of the game. At the bottom of the page, there is a section for the game credits where I have credited each member of the team as well as each person and site that I have used assets from.
Game Credits
Kieranmcg – Team member, Heatwave Level 1 https://kieranmcg.itch.io/
Clostick93 – Team member, Heatwave Level 2 https://clostick93.itch.io/
Bpeo – Team member, Heatwave Level 3 https://bpeo.itch.io/
Amy’s Games – Team member, Heatwave Level 4 https://amyjade13.itch.io/
Jordi Krut – 3D modelling – Modular office interior – Creative Commons Attribution
“Modular office Interior assets (Post Apoc)” (https://skfb.ly/6STzy) by Jordi Kruk is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Thesighet – 3D modelling – Office box and lamp – Creative Commons Attribution
Terrasquall – 3D modelling – Sci-Fi office pack – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/free-sci-fi-office-pack-195067#description
Ethan Taylor – Textures – Cyberpunk material pack – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/cyberpunk-material-pack-six-high-quality-materials-188067
FrOzBi – Textures – wood pattern materials – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/wood/wood-pattern-material-170794
Unity Technologies – Programming – Third person character controller – Non Standard EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/starter-assets-third-person-character-controller-196526
Nathanael Gazzard – 3D modelling – Rubble Pieces Package – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/rubble-pieces-detailed-package-74004
“Green Keycard” (https://skfb.ly/F7UT) by sookendestroy1 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“G U N Key Card” (https://skfb.ly/6UTzN) by sebyseb is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“Papers” (https://skfb.ly/6Zo9M) by Cassy is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“Helicopter” (https://skfb.ly/6yUvF) by irs1182 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“Solar Panel” (https://skfb.ly/ooyOn) by Harri Snellman is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
https://gissepigames.itch.io/heatwave
Marketing strategy – M3 D2
Feedback of the project – LO4
Audience feedback – P7 D3
Understanding what the audience thinks about the experience is an important part of post-production. Along side the presentation of my page, I have a link to a questionnaire where I have posed a dozen questions about the players experience playing the game in order to gather feedback that I can use to identify areas where I am weaker or stronger which I can then look back on to inform future development of games I make. What are my areas for improvement? Reviewing the results of my questionnaire will highlight those, starting with the representation of the climate crisis theme.
During pre-development our team decided that the climate theme will be represented partially through a game mechanic, a mechanic that I was responsible for creating. Looking at the feedback of the 1st question, when asked about the representation of the climate theme, half of the responses mention the sun sizzle / heat mechanic, one response says the theme “didn’t seem to come across that well”, with a large portion of the game, environment and gameplay, being related to the theme this review shows how a lack of description in game about the history of the world and introduction of mechanics brings the players understanding to the forefront and without doing that, the theme does not become prevalent to the player. The second question is directly about the players understanding of the heat / sun sizzle mechanic, with this being a prevalent representation of the climate crisis theme, the players understanding of the mechanic is crucial. During development I took steps into making this mechanic apparent, two sliders representing the temperature and the health. When the player is in the sun the temperature rises and when the temperature is full, the health bar depletes. Developing the mechanic myself, I believe I became complacent with my natural understanding, I knew what everything was doing because I made it do it. My understanding does not correlate the players understanding, and the responses to question 2 “did you understand how the sun sizzle mechanic works?” shows that 4 people didn’t have a clear understanding of the mechanic. They understood that walking into the light raises one but didn’t know which was which or didn’t notice one rising to begin with. Looking towards future development and areas for improvement, if I have something directly correlating to the theme, I should explain that to the player, highlight how it works and make sure that the theme is represented through the players eyes. When it comes to the collaborative development, issues that players have with this mechanic are directly related to my incomprehension of player understanding of the mechanic.
Moving forward to the narrative of the game, a major part of what our team intended to develop. How well do players understand what is happening, do they like how the story was told and would they change or add anything to how narrative is conveyed? The first two questions are answered with a yes or no, half of the responses said yes and the other said no when asked if they understand the meaning of the narrative. A lack of understanding on the players side is understandable, in my level the narrative is not present enough to deliver an impact on the player, a short sentence at the end and some documents that don’t relate to the narrative but relate to a separate story, the bulk of the narrative isn’t delivered in game, it is on the page where the player downloads the game. I would say the people who understand the narrative are the people who have the context from reading the description but I cannot fault the other players for not, conveying a narrative about a game should be done through the game and that is the major takeaway when moving forward. The next question is about the players liking the representation of the narrative in-game, again the answers are half yes and half no, the same people who answered yes to one question answered yes to this question, which is an understandable result, if you do not understand the narrative you won’t like how it is told as you didn’t know you where told it. This question emphasis the same point of player understanding but the answer is answer for me to take away is how I tell a story in a game as opposed to telling the story.
Wrapping up the review of feedback I have a section dedicated to additional feedback where the players can write any thoughts that they have that they did not have an opportunity to touch on in the rest of the questionnaire. One point that has been highlighted outside of the questionnaire as well as in this section, mouse / camera movement is not smooth, when the player uses the mouse to look around, the screen jitters along rather then rotating smoothly, this issue is not present when using a controller and was not present early into development and I haven’t been able to diagnose the issue as it is not present in the other levels of the game. The next two are tied together, short and narrow, more threat and obstacles and another calls it underdeveloped and says it needs more testing and development. Both of these are reasonable responses. During development, the time I took to work on the sun sizzle mechanic ate into the development time of the level, which lead to me cutting content from an already sort level which has lead to the game being short, on a narrow path and underdeveloped, that is because the level is. The game only has the player explore a small area in the first section, the second is a timed platforming section and the third section of the level is empty with no content for the player to go through. The first section was narrow as the player does not have any cause for exploration, the keys they collect automatically open the doors, eliminating any mystery and solving from the section. The second section was short because I ended up not having a use for half of that part of the level. The player only needs access to a small portion of the building and the full content from the section would still be present. The third section was underdeveloped as the content planned was cut due to development time on the sun sizzle mechanic. The cause behind this is my mismanagement of development, taking on such a large and important mechanic ate into my development time for the level. Overall the scope of the entire project was very bloated, I have learnt from the past that a 3D action adventure game is not a project that is achievable without a long development time, never the less, our team being able to develop what we have is an impressive project. Looking forward, if I where to work in a team I would like to manage our scope and keep the project manageable in order to meet the criteria and the product we have set out to meet and create. Ending on a brighter note, an additional piece of feedback is not feedback but mentions the audio in my game. Audio is not something I have spent a massive amount of time on in the past but I did set time aside specifically for working with audio and it is nice to get a positive message about the work I have done here about something that I haven’t worked on before and this message makes me want to work towards putting the audio in future projects in order to give the same impression to my players.
Good practice & areas for improvement – P8 M4 D3
Looking back on the project and my first time working collaboratively on a game there are a few points that I would like to raise about myself when it comes to my role in collaborative work. Examples of myself undergoing good practice during development is my communication. During development I contributed by developing the main mechanic, sun sizzle. Over the course of our project an example of my good practice is my communication of development. The rest of the team was eager to bring in my mechanic as it was a representation of the theme and history of the game. Communicating progress allows for the rest of the team to be up to date with development and understand how the mechanic works. During this development, I was given feedback about the work that I had done and what the team thought I should do next. Creating it myself I had an understanding of how it worked but my team did not so I listened to the feedback and considered how I can make the mechanic communicate to my team easier and so I worked on bringing the scripts together and creating a simple UI that communicates the mechanic inside of the game. Communicating my development and taking on the feedback and constructive criticism and working with that to help my team is a prime example of good practice.
Looking towards ares for improvement, in any future projects I want to have more involvement with the concept of the game. With this project we where all part of developing upon the original idea although the constant development with ideas about the world and history of what we could do did not match up with what I could do, in comparison to the last time I worked in 3D and developed an action adventure game the result was no where near to what I had intended to create, that is not the case here, given the scope and design of the game concept, the work that has been produced is impressive, although due to the increase in development that a 3D game needs, my level ended up short, narrow and underdeveloped, as was pointed out in the feedback that I have received, though this is not all bad, the length and size of the level means that the simplicity does not overstay its welcome although the game being underdeveloped due to development time taking much longer then anticipated lead to a lack of obstacles and threat and in-balance with the level design. In any future projects I am going to limit the scope of what we or I intend to create.
Jacob's game journal 