Shadow Shooters

Challenges & Lessons Learned

One of the main challenges that this project posed was that I had to create a framework first, which I would in turn use to create a small game. This showed me how important it is to write clean code which you can reuse in multiple places. I had to create the various shapes, colliders for them and the lights. These were the main elements this framework had. Afterwards, I used each element to create the different corridors in the level, the character, the "flashlight" that it possesses, the traps that you can place and the enemies. All this was done with the simple framework I made and the more I worked on the game with my framework, the more I realised how important it is to have a well-structured codebase.

Another challenge I faced was the actual making of the game. Not from a technical but from a design perspective. I had to come up with a game, what I would do in it, what would the end goal be, what would the level look like, and how would I incorporate the use of lights in it. Since I really liked spotlights, I decided I would make a game that focuses around traversing a level using that flashlight. From there I made the level, then the enemies that patrol and the trap mechanic used to kill them.

Ultimately, this project felt like a preparation for my 2nd year in BUAS, where I would have to work on a custom engine. It taught me how important it is to write clean and well-srtuctured code so that it can be reused or developed further in the future. I also learned a lot about what it is to be a gameplay programmer and that even though I am not a designer, coming up with features and ideas myself is very valuable, especially for whenver I begin working with actual designers.