POST MORTEM: TIME TO MAKE A GAME!
Welcome back to my final post for Time to Make a Game! At the beginning of the subject I had tasked myself with completing two very specific goals that would ultimately help improve my skills as a Game Developer. These goals were as followed:
Create a simple, yet fun game that was enjoyable to play.
Create a game that would challenge all of my development skills.
As I have just submitted all of my assessment pieces I believe that I have successfully completed my goals that I had set for myself approximately sixteen weeks ago. I can without a doubt say that I am proud of the work that I have completed over the course of this subject as I have not only grown as a developer but I have also challenged myself in a way that I would have previously thought to be unreachable in a solo project. From completing all of the art assets from scratch and programming the vast majority of the code I had proven to myself that I am more than capable of completing more projects that are similar in content.
A lot of things during the course of development had gone right as many of my mechanics and features were added into the game without too much hassle. Detailed Schedules also played a major role in development as I had planned out the development stage right at the very beginning to help ensure that the game stayed on task and would be polished to a high standard before the final submission was due.
This was successfully achieved during the development stage as I was always on schedule and had often found myself at least a week ahead of schedule throughout the majority of the project. This was extremely helpful during development as it helped create more motivation to keep progressing with the game.
Another aspect that went very well during development was the testing phase as I was able to get some very valuable feedback from a number of different testers. These testers ranged from those that enjoyed casual games to those that only played triple A games. This as a result allowed me to gain feedback from a large audience that differed in not only gaming preferences but also gaming skill levels. This testing phase was very insightful as I had not yet experienced a testing phase that had received so much feedback that was not only informative but overall, very positive.
Some things didn't go according to plan though as a few issues had occurred during development that were beyond my control as my programming knowledge really limited how much I could implement into the game. Some of these features included a different scoring system, a more refined spawning method and a better method of purchasing characters. These were some of the features I had planned to implement into the game, but due to the complexity and unforeseen issues of these features I was unable to implement them into the game.
One of the major issues that had occurred during the development process was bugs that were beyond my programming skill level to fix. These bugs, at times, were game breaking as they would cause issues with character spawning and random deaths during gameplay. These issues towards the end of development were not very frequent but would at times occur and result in the player having to reload the game.
Performance issues were also a downfall of Don't Collide as the initial release of the game was intended for Android devices. However, these performance issues caused lag within the game and also sprite flicking when it was built for android devices. Although my initial plans were not achieved, this is something that can be continued to be worked in the future, with the potential to be released on the Google Play store once the issues are solved.
Although there are still some bugs and performance issues that are still occurring during the game, Don't Collide still functions as intended 99% of the time, with the above mentioned issues occurring very rarely. It is to be noted that these issues mainly just occur within the android build and rarely cause any issues with the builds made for PC.
Although I had to modify the initial features and mechanics that I had planned at the beginning of the development stage for Don't Collide, I still would not remove anything that I have added into the game. The reason for this is because all of the features that are currently within the game were iterations of what I had originally planned but had to modify due to my programming skill level.
If I had the chance to modify one thing about Don't Collides features and mechanics it would be to create a more challenging spawning system as the current spawning system within the game is quite standard and could definitely be more improved to make the gameplay more fun and challenging to play.
Overall, I am very pleased with final state of Don't Collide as I have not only learnt a significant amount of knowledge in the areas of Design, Art and Programming, but I have also learnt a number of new development skills that will help aid me in all of my future projects that I complete.
If you wish to play or download Don't Collide you can find the game at the following location:
http://angieharvey.itch.io/dont-collide
If you have any feedback or questions regarding Don't Collide please don't hesitate to comment below or send me an email.
- Angie Harvey
