Overall I learned a great deal and gained a lot of experience working on this project. I was excited to be working on juice tasks over the course of the quarter, as last quarter I had to focus more solely on managerial tasks. I learned a lot about Unity's particle system, and it was rewarding and engaging making particles for grail attacks as well as other elements. I definitely want to retain my skills in this area and further improve upon them in the future, hopefully applying them to my senior project game.
I think my overall game design skills have improved as well, and thinking critically about game play loop choices and analyzing the design of Holy Tester was very enjoyable. Early design meetings with the other leads were very productive, and we all showed a clear passion for turning this project into something that we, as players, would enjoy. In general I learned a lot more about the pipeline of making a game as well, and how tasks I would normally think to be simple ended up being just as impactful/bug inducing as anything else.
The biggest problems I faced during the quarter involved organization and team management. It was very difficult to set deadlines for tasks/builds, facilitate constant communication between team members, and keep the game itself organized and stable. Especially with everyone being busy with other classes and their own lives, we were constantly falling behind with what we wanted to have implemented by submission times. There was also a lot of confusion between the artists and developers on what assets were in the game and how they were going to be implemented. I'd imagine that in a conventional studio these problems could be alleviated since everyone is working close together, and can communicate in person. But even with weekly meetings, creating an organized game in which the team is often separated proved frustrating. I've learned that clear communication is one of--if not the most important thing during the development process, and I plan on keeping that at the front of my mind when moving forward on future projects.
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