Thus, I Give Up the Spear: A Postmortem on Archon’s Aetherial
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Archon’s Aetherial has been completed. It’s a strange feeling to be working on something for an extended period of time and then no longer. It’s like there’s a part of your brain that still hasn’t fully registered that fact. If I could sum up the overall experience of the development process in a word, it would be ‘disappointed.’ Disappointed at the end product, disappointed at myself, and so much more. Even so, there is a silver lining to this cloud. What Went Well –Despite my disappointment, me and my group managed to ultimately, make a game and meet milestones. Personally, I am satisfied with the manner in which I planned out my designs for the assets I created and my overall execution of what got finished. I learned a lot about planning out how to animate something in order to save time and I have worked out a system that builds upon each iteration of the animation. While I am not exactly ‘happy’ as there are some things missing that I would have wanted to go back and complete, I am ‘satisfied’ with what is there. What Went Not So Well –During the showcase of our final product, my group ended up using my laptop for the game which has a 120hz refresh rate for a display. I mention this because there was a bug that was connected to refresh rates higher than 60hz where the game speed would increase when the player would transition levels. Since we never used my laptop for testing, the bug was there the entire time under our noses. While it was amusing and we touted it as a special ‘hard mode’ during the showcase, it could have been caught if I just tested the game one time on my machine. Even if it didn’t get fixed in time, the knowledge alone meant we could have at least worked around it. Despite being done and ready to be implemented, the idle animation for the boss did not make it to the final build so players ended up fighting a static image. Also, the attack animation I was working on had to be abandoned.  In general, the end result of the Leviathan is still a sore spot for me. During its creation (both code and art), there were some major communication issues. In hindsight, if I had either been more insistent in getting the information I was asking for regarding what the boss did or if the group spent a few hours ironing out what the boss did so that everyone was on the same page, this could have been avoided. While it can be important to learn what to do when making games, it could be argued that it’s even more important to learn what not to do. Going into the next project with my next group, I’ll do my best to take what I’ve learned to heart. That’s all for now. Good bye, and take care.  |