Author: Suning Yao

Success

Our team was very efficient on this project, largely because it was a great workflow for our collaboration. We started by assigning tasks based on each team member's strengths and expertise, which allowed us to maximize everyone's skills and achieve our goals more effectively. For example, Yanglin volunteered to create Sprite herself, while Suning volunteered to do all the sound and music. More importantly, we ensured that each team member had a specific role in the development of the game assets (both characters and items). This approach allows each person to focus on a specific aspect of the game. It allows us to work on the game simultaneously, minimizing conflicts in the code and developing the game in a more efficient manner.

Our workflow also allowed us to provide feedback to each other, further enhancing our progress on the project.

Another one of the highlights of our project was the level of attention and originality we paid to static resources. We took the initiative to create almost all of the sprites independently, including all of the animations for the characters and props. This allowed us to achieve a unique look and feel for our project. In addition, we made sure that the sound effects were completely in-house, using instrumental simulations, which greatly improved the overall quality of the game and the feel when playing. As for the soundtrack, we also composed it ourselves, making sure it complemented the theme and feel of the game. We put a lot of effort into making sure our project was top-notch, and we believe that these little details and originality make a huge difference to the final product.

Overall, we're proud of the work we've done and we think it's a testament to our team's hard work, dedication and commitment to delivering a great final product.

Challenges

In terms of game development logic, we had several coding challenges that we had resolved. For example, the game's resolution and the way the dialogue system is arranged can be problematic on some screens. We also need to increase the complexity of enemy AI and interactions. This process was difficult because it involved examining the interactions and logic of multiple characters.

Collaborative development is another challenging task in itself, especially when it comes to refactoring code with many dependencies. For example, if the scene name changes, it may be necessary to change the level name, label name, script name, etc. Additionally, we found it difficult to make subsequent changes without abstracting the logic out or translating it into Prefabs. However, to minimize conflicts, we prefer to add new code rather than replace existing logic that can be removed. Also, it's important to note that taking a modular approach to coding helps in the long run because it makes debugging and maintenance easier. We will consider doing this in future projects.

In terms of game design, we need to work harder on some parameters and positions of the game itself. Debugging all the physical logic can be a particularly annoying process. However, we managed to optimize the overall experience through extensive player testing and self-testing in real games. This allows us to gather feedback and adjust the game's difficulty and progression accordingly. We also found that details such as color changes can affect the player experience and affect difficulty adjustments.

What We Learned

In terms of task assignment and project management, we needed to be more granular in our assignments and make everyone's tasks more detailed. This would further reduce conflicts in the development process. For example, forcing everyone to do only their own tasks, rather than modifying the parameters or location of some components without the knowledge of others. In addition, we should be more aggressive in our progress. In this Beta test, we were even doing a lot of modification and compilation when we started the test. Although this process was done in real time and based on feedback, it still resulted in some imperfections in the Beta version.

Another thing is that, although our original resources were very good (Sprite and Sound), they were prepared too early and some of them were not even used at the end of the game. We need better time management. Professor told us that we could add these things later in the game to optimize them, but we added them in between the actual development process, which caused some process delays, so that some game logic might not have time to be added.

Future Revisions

Future game aspects can be optimized as follows. 

More complex interaction with enemy AI and attacks. Our current enemies are in essence only moving on the ground and attacking with thrown objects. We may later need to add different effects such as teleportation, spells, etc. This will flesh out the game and make it more playable.

Longer game flow. At the moment, only four levels are too few, and the game flow is only a few minutes per level. We can probably add some infinitely generated levels to make the game mode richer, and let players play the game after they finish the story mode. The endless mode also fits well with our LIFE theme, such as reincarnation and afterlife of characters.

Richer game story and transitions. The framework of our LIFE story has been built, but the stages may be a bit too fragmented. We can add more transitions and animations to show our character's transition and growth in LIFE, which can show the changes in the whole mission.