Marine Majesty Post-mortem

Initial Prototypes:

Working As A Team:

After forming our team and choosing the three prototypes we wanted to create, we first discussed what roles everyone would have. This was quite a positive experience as each person seemed to have something that they were particularly good at – for example, Minnie specialises in music and I specialise in the art of games.

This was useful in the production of the prototypes, but also in gaining experience of what it’s like working in the video game industry as each person had specified roles – rather than everyone doing a bit of everything.

For the most part, the concept of everyone having their own job to do worked, however if someone did not do their specific role properly, then the whole prototype may be ruined. Thankfully for the prototypes, that did not happen and we managed to get all three completed on time.

Cut Content & Deadlines:

However, to get them finished, we had to cut some content. This was no one’s fault in particular – more so, it was the deadline that we had been given to complete three prototypes.

Crunching is a period of time when developers have an increase in workload in order to complete the game on schedule (Marks, 2022).

Whilst I am sure this experience was nowhere near as stressful as crunching is in the video game industry, it was a good first experience of working on a deadline as a team. In the past I have worked to deadlines individually, however, having to rely on my teammates to also do their jobs in order to meet those deadlines was a new experience for me.

Although having to cut some of the content was necessary to complete the prototypes, some of the content we cut was crucial to the game mechanics. For example, the wave system in the top-down shooter. Without it, enemies just spawned constantly and there wasn’t a proper end goal or gameplay loop.

Therefore, in future group projects, I would insist that creating the core mechanics of the game should be the priority. That way, any cut content would just be bonus or more complex features that could be added in after choosing to advance the prototype. This would also limit the need for crunching during the prototype stage, as the main focus of a prototype is on the mechanics.

Choosing The Game:

Unfortunately, my least favourite part of this entire process came when choosing which prototype to carry forwards. This is due to Minnie practically choosing which game we were doing all by herself. Since she was working on the PowerPoint, she wrote the slide for which game we are choosing to carry forwards, and without consulting anyone beforehand, she chose her own idea – Marine Majesty.

Whilst the game itself turned out fine, in the future I would prefer for such a huge decision to be made after a team meeting. In this meeting, we could discuss multiple factors such as how viable each prototype is and what potential challenges or problems may occur when expanding them.

Overall, I think as a team we handle this situation correctly by not causing any unnecessary drama or disrupting the team dynamic. However, the single largest decision of the whole project being made by just one person is not something I would want to carry over into future team projects. 

Marine Majesty:

Production Schedule:

For the three initial prototypes that we created, we used HacknPlan to update each other on our progress and to stick to our set deadlines. This worked very well for us as it led to everyone contributing and being on time with their work.

However, after the first week or so of working on Marine Majesty, the use of HacknPlan suddenly stopped. I can’t find a particular reason as to why, but instead we just told each other the deadlines we wanted things done by and sent the work to each other on Microsoft Teams.

This was still an effective method as we completed all of the work on time, however, it may have been easier to stick to strict deadlines by using HacknPlan.

One form of tracking my work that I did not use was a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart is a bar chart that is used to plan and track specific tasks for a project (Ramos, 2019). Whilst I did complete all of the work that was set to me, a Gantt chart would have helped me to plan out my schedule and workload in advance – which would have limited stress.

However, some of the work that I did was handed to me right at the end of the project – without any warning. The Manta Ray boss arena, for example, was supposed to be completed by Tom. Since Jack was unhappy with how his version turned out, the job was handed to be on the 28th April – with a deadline of the 3rd May. A Gantt chart would not help in this regard as the request was so sudden.

Therefore, whilst a Gantt chart would improve the planning of my designated tasks – it would not have been useful for the sudden and unexpected asks of the team.

Overall, although I did complete all of the tasks on time to the deadlines set to me by my team, in future projects I will make use of HacknPlan throughout the project, as well as using a Gantt chart. This will lead to a more planned out experience and it should mean I can complete the work with less stress, as I will always know what work is still left to do. Nevertheless, unexpected occurrences happen during group projects, which often leaves you with more work to do than originally planned. This could limit the potential use of Gantt charts, but I do not think that it makes them obsolete.

Level Design:

My role in creating Marine Majesty was as a level designer. Since this was something I had never done before, I researched many level design techniques, such as funnelling before the reveal and affordance – in order to gain a better understanding of what makes a great level (Shaver, 2018).

I believe that I was successful in incorporating some of these techniques in my level – such as the tight cave section leading to a wide open area being an example of funnelling before the reveal (Norberg, 2020). However, I would have liked to have researched and incorporated even more advanced level design techniques (such as landmarks) – and I will aim to do so in the future.

Working on the Expanse level for this game has made me realise that being a level designer is a potential road I could go down as a career path in the future. Before working on this game I never considered it, however now it is one of my favourite aspects of game design. One aspect of level design that I am disappointed about not having the opportunity to work on is lighting, as it is a crucial part of guiding the player subtly on where to go. Whilst I did assist Jack on where to place certain lights, it was not the same as being able to tweak and mess with them yourselves. In future projects, I hope I will get that opportunity.

Conclusion:

Overall, my experience of working on Marine Majesty was a positive one. Although there were some things I would change and improve upon in the future, such as planning out my schedule with a Gantt chart, that is part of the reason for these group projects – to make mistakes and learn from them.

This was my first experience of working in a group to create a finished game and so this will be a useful experience for not only the video game industry, but any industry – as working as a team is crucial to many jobs. I learnt how to communicate effectively with my team via Microsoft Teams and HacknPlan, which meant we stuck to our deadlines and finished everything on time, however, the use of HacknPlan decreased dramatically when working on Marine Majesty compared to the prototypes – which is something I would like to change in future projects as it is a very useful resource to help keep on top of the work.

Perhaps the most impactful aspect of this project was discovering that being a level designer may be something I want to pursue further beyond University – as this was my first time designing and creating levels in Unreal Engine.

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