God, this phase has been all sorts of hell. From the realisation that I had a project that was becoming far to massive to handle all by myself, to attempting and failing to join a more established team (which I’m still up for, but I don’t want to do anywhere near the amount that I would probably need to for the teams that Adam has suggested me to join. The point of joining a team is cutting down on work, and the ones he thinks I could join would be mostly the same amount of work with none of the enthusiasm), then a frantic re-evaluation of the project in order to make it a manageable second semester project instead of a Triple-A monstrosity that would make most small developers weep at the prospect of making, at least within the time we have to work within.
I’ll be honest here; I really don’t like where this project is going, from a scope point of view. With this phase, I planned to work out the viability of the idea I went forward with, and if it looked too big for me alone, I would join a team so as to make sure that second semester wouldn’t be literal hell. What I didn’t account for was that other teams were already making their scope around their current members, and adding me to that mix later would require an increase in scope in order to make best use of their time. I spent so long pining after this dream game (which this project represents, to a fairly large degree), that I failed to join soon enough that the games could be made with me as part of the team. Had I joined either in phase 3 (which I didn’t because I liked my own theme of Transhumanism too much (aka pride)) or the start of phase 4 I could have prevented this, but, as with all cases, hindsight is 20/20, and its too late to change that outcome, unless someone decides that they don’t agree with Adam and they do need my skillset. I honestly doubt this, as I can tell from my discussions with George that he is reluctant to have me on the team he is co-managing, and I have come to the realisation that most of the other reasonable games within the class don’t require the skills I have and want to develop further. Alas, with no real alternative, I will be making my own game, and have had to make massive scope reductions to compensate. At least I will enjoy the final product once its done, I suppose. Not going to get much joy during development due to my massive workload, but hey, the game is cool in my opinion, and I really think that, provided I pull it off, having a 3D game with a heap of assets that I made inside it will be an amazing example of my skills as a 3D artist, and should make it slightly easier to get a job, hopefully.
Now, enough wallowing, and on to my actual work this phase. For the most part, I feel content with my mechanics and world. I had fun coming up with the world design, as it was based on a personal project that I keep thinking and expanding but never doing anything with, and this project was a great opportunity to actually do something with the ideas that I have been keeping in my head for so long. Admittedly, I am worried that the world design stuff comes across as a bad original fanfiction, but that’s something I’m going to have to live with. I also enjoyed doing the mechanics design for the game, as this is a game that I designed for myself, having played similar games such as Monster Hunter and the like for pretty much all my life, on and off. The design of the mechanics is all centred around my personal favourite mechanics are for such a game; I took the speed of Armoured Core For Answer’s melee weapons, the focus on movement from Doom (2016) and the melee style of Monster Hunter, and put all of them in a blender along with my world, which resulted in the mechanics for this game. I do think that it’ll work as I intend it to, but I fear that my research question has become a distant memory in regards to the design choices I have made in this phase. In the place of making the player question the morality and ethics of modifying ourselves via strong gameplay, I have shifted to focusing on making the best combat game I can possibly think of (at the moment, at least), and have shifted back towards the idea of the Feeling of Awe and Cool that I described in phase 1. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I worry that I have lost some of the innovation that I was aiming for in phase 3. I definitely believe that, from an innovation standpoint, the VR puzzle game was the superior idea, and I do wish I could have made that instead, but the design challenges there were even worse than in this project. Instead of scope, I would be dealing with Unknowns instead, which are far harder challenges to solve within a limited time frame. You cant just cut back with the problems caused by unknown elements, as the elements are, in this case, intrinsic to the core experience. I have to say that I am glad I didn’t pick that idea to take forward, as that would be even more daunting an experience to go through. I’ve already been pushed to the edge (in fact, I nearly had a panic attack once I realised that I couldn’t join a team that I felt comfortable within), and I dread to think where I would be if the stress of this project was any worse. Then again, I’m not sure what is required of the final build for the showcase, and if its more than I can take on I worry what will happen in the next semester. I have to admit, my enthusiasm for this game is massively dampened by how daunting the work will be.
One thing I wish I had done more for, however, is visuals. Being the only team member, I am in charge of, well, everything. My plan for a fair bit of this was to get as many designs done as soon as I could, and cut down on time spent on 2D concepts in semester 2. However, its been tough to get through the massive task that is designing a whole experience, and as such I’m not as far through the concept work as I’d like. Not a great place to be, in all honesty, but what’s done is done.
All in all, I am happy with my design work this phase. I like what I’ve come up with, I like the experience I have in mind, and I feel like this project will get me the portfolio I need for getting a job. The only problem will be the workload; we’ll have to see how it goes next semester.
