Final Reflection

My primary job this trimester was to create 3D assets for our Level Design project, Relic Rally. At the beginning, we decided to split this between two artists - myself and George. I chose to work on the Nordic and Ancient Greek levels, because I’m really interested in the aesthetics of both of these ancient cultures and wanted to challenge myself. 

Although the overall art style was to be simplified and stylized, I also wanted to maintain historical accuracy as best as possible. This helped with narrative consistency as well. The game is set in the present, so if the characters were running through perfect, pristine temples it would not make sense. 

Another artistic decision was to take a modular approach. I had suggested this method because I hadn’t tried it before, and thought it would be interesting to learn. 

Even though I was just doing asset production for most of the time, I volunteered to be the new Project Manager in the last week or so. 

For Rapid Prototyping, I created the five required games, including the Final Prototype that we took to Showcase. This one was a table-top RPG-style game dev studio simulation. 

I chose it because I believed it would be the easiest to execute with what little time we had remaining, and I still needed to focus on Relic Rally. However, the prototype that I liked best was actually the first one we did, in Week 1. 

That one allowed me to think about environmental storytelling in Unreal Engine 5 without having to worry about any mechanics or programming. 

My tasks throughout generally included research, organization and coordination of information, and visual design where required. 

I definitely feel I have a better understanding of asset production workflows in a studio environment. Having said this, I need to work on planning the way I create these assets. 

For example, texturing models was extremely tricky sometimes, as I hadn’t considered which assets would need to be tiled at the beginning. I’d also need to think about the intended use of assets, for similar reasons. 

In terms of specific technical skills, I learned how to create prefabs from objects and materials in Unity. This wasn’t something I would’ve even thought about if it weren’t brought up, so it was a good lesson. 

During prototyping, I got a taste of programming in Unreal Engine and I have mixed feelings about it. It was really hard at the time, but I liked node-based coding more than written. 

Relic Rally was a baptism of fire when it came to the difficulties of working in larger groups on a single project. Communication was definitely the biggest problem, by far. 

I also felt a little restricted in my role, as I would’ve liked to experiment with level design and UI too, but I didn’t want to interfere with someone else’s jobs or overwork myself. Finding that balance was hard. 

As Project Manager, I had a tough time keeping people on track and working. It was the last week before Showcase and there were some members of the team that I just could not get a response from, no matter what. I tried to be assertive without verging into aggressive, and to trust in them to do their work, but it was a challenge to keep my frustration in check sometimes. Eventually, I had to step back and concede that I’d done my best and couldn’t do any more. 

I really struggled to settle in this trimester. I’m not sure why, but I had been low on energy the whole time, which made it difficult to stay focused. This meant that I had to make an active effort to concentrate, and by the end of Week 12 I was exhausted. Hopefully in future it won’t be such a Herculean task right from the outset. 

Over the break, I’m planning to get industry-standard texturing software like Substance Designer. I wish I could’ve used it for Relic Rally, but I didn’t have it at home or the time to sit at uni and learn. It will be a really good skill to have, though. 

As well as art processes, I could improve on general communication in future. I think asking more questions and being more engaged in the greater production would’ve helped quite a bit this trimester. 

Finally, leaving things to the last minute. I personally slipped up with Prototype 4 - it was just too easy to put aside to focus on Relic Rally, and that’s exactly what happened. As a result, I didn’t feel I’d done my best work on it and that was another part of the reason why I chose it for the Final Prototype. 

On the whole, I am, of course, hoping for a high mark. I did my best and worked really hard during the whole trimester. 

My documentation is probably what I’m the most proud of, to be completely honest. I know it’s super important for getting my foot in the door before graduation, so I put a lot of time and effort into it. I also felt that I communicated well, but the objectivity of that remains to be seen. 

For fear of being overconfident, I’d like to say that I’ve achieved a high Credit or Distinction.