Unit 9 - Group project

We are tasked with researching deeply into a mythology to produce a playable game experience between 3 and 10 minutes long. During the project we must show our planning, research, production, evaluation and a breakdown of each team members efforts to the project.

Introduction:

For this project, I was paired with Joseph Bowman, Kyle Williams and Alex Needham. We were tasked with creating a game/experience based on a non European mythology of our choice. We allocated our own roles into me programming a few puzzles, Joseph programming movement and a couple of mechanics, Kyle modelling some relics and Alex modelling some props and working with Kyle to create a map. 

Week One:

During week one, we were in the middle of a game jam so unfortunately small amounts of work was done for this project during this time. In the spare time we had we started to glance over different mythologies we could use such as Egyptian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean mythology.

Week Two:

Week two is where we started to focus on the project. We looked deeply in detail over the mythologies mentioned and started to come up with some game ideas. We made a mind map of ideas and started to communicate which ideas would work the best. We eventually decided to focus on Egyptian and Japanese mythology to create 2 experiences.

We did a little pitch to our tutors at around this time and figured out that 2 experiences would be too much for the time frame of the project so we decided to go with one mythology which was Egyptian. Me and Joseph focused on researching the mythology in detail while Alex and Kyle focused on designing a basic floor plan as well as looking at some relics to model.

Week Three:

The 3rd week is where we started the planning stage of the project. During this time I started coming up with the idea of creating puzzles for the game. I also looked into history of the gods in Egypt including Anubis. We also decided our final roles for the whole project as well as fill out the GDD together for the project. Me and Joseph worked on some charts such as a GANTT chart which helped us plan our work time.

Kyle and Alex started researching the interior of pyramids in Egypt to set the scene of the game. They worked on some collaborative planning and research slides and looked into ideas for rooms. They also finalised the floor plan they were working on.

Week Four:

Week four is when I finalised the puzzle ideas with some help and input from the other group members. With the ideas complete, I started to program the button puzzle as I felt it could be tedious and I wanted to get the most frustrating out of the way first. I also created a digital map layout of what Alex and Kyle drew to make it as clear as possible as to where the puzzles would be and where all the relics and models would be.

This week I think was one of the most productive weeks as we got the researched and planning finished and were ready to fully focus on the production part of the project. Alex and Kyle focused on models and Joseph began programming the movement mechanics. A great amount of progress was made this week.

Week Five:

Week five started with me finishing the button puzzle and swiftly moving on to the pyramid puzzle. This started with me first making the rotations of each segment on the pyramid on my test project, then adding buttons to make the segments rotate when the button is pressed. Joseph finalised his character movement mechanics and moved onto the lighting and visual effects of the game as well as inserting descriptions of each relic. Kyle and Alex were finishing their models and putting them into the project.

In conclusion this week was also extremely productive as we were developing the game at a fast pace. It was at this week that the project was coming together and was looking like a strong project.

Week Six:

Week Six is where I finished the pyramid puzzle and quickly programmed the painting puzzle. This part felt a little rushed due to the deadline approaching. However I still created an effective puzzle. I also began uploading most of my work onto my website at this point. So I was mainly focused on written work and finishing production. During this time my team was also finishing any last bits of production they had to finish as well as focusing on their written work.

This week was a turning point in the project as the production was close to being finished. Reflecting on this project, while small, I feel it is a strong project that shows my programming abilities. I also feel that as a team, we worked efficiently together to create a strong game project.

Week Seven:

During the final week of the project, I was fully focused on refining my written work to make it as presentable and detailed as possible. I added my recordings of my programming development onto my site and all of my planning, research and production. I also poured alot of effort into the evaluation as I reached the end of the project. My group members were also doing similar if not the same thing. 

Again I feel this is a strong project but there could be improvements such as communication in some areas and my time management as I only finished 3 out of 4 planned puzzles.

Questions:

How well did your group find, access, and pull together relevant research on the mythology you selected and general game design?

initially, we used Wikipedia as a research source which contained most of the information we found. There was some struggle to find exactly who the gods were and what exactly their responsibilities and roles were. We found different forms of relics and items of mythology such as the Ankh and Sekhem. While Wikipedia is a good source of information, it may not be credible as other sources on the internet due to all Wikipedia pages being written by online users.

What sources did you use and how helpful were they? 

Puzzle Types - Steven Clontz 

The source I personally used most was again Wikipedia. I used this website to find most of my information about different Gods, relics and different symbols. This research assisted my ability to create the mythological themed puzzles I created for the project. I also used a website by Steven Clontz that described different types of puzzles and how they work. This worked perfectly for my creation of puzzles and how I could make them unique.

How clearly did you define the purpose, goals, and target audience for your game? 

We aimed our game at all ages to allow anyone to play it. The puzzles I made may be tricky for younger audiences but may be really easy for older audiences as the puzzles are not too complex. One clear goal of our project was to create a functional game that has facts around Egyptian mythology while making the learning fun with puzzles. Overall the aim of our game was to make a fun and interesting experience that anyone of any age can play.

How effectively did you incorporate knowledge of the museum's needs and objectives? 

We made sure to include information about Egyptian mythology as the museum required us to produce a gaming experience centred around a non-European mythology. Egyptian mythology was our choice as we felt the most potential for a game from Egypt and had the most general knowledge around the mythology. One way our game achieves the museums requirements is by letting users roam around freely and learn about Egyptian mythology in a fun and engaging way at their own pace. The puzzles I made engages the user in trying to piece the mythology together using hints but I could have made the hints more clear as some were not very understandable to solve the puzzles.

How well did your group communicate and collaborate? 

Overall our group had effective communication throughout the entire project, we were clear with each other on what we all desired on the project and what our goals were. We communicated our ideas clearly and reached decisions without many issues. However there were a few points where we could have communicated better such as the puzzle hints, Joseph made the button puzzle hint but it was not so great due to it not being clear. We had an original idea but failed to communicate enough to develop the idea which was having torches light up when a correct button was pressed. There were also some issues near the end of the project, when joseph added animations that depended on the puzzles being completed or a puzzle object, he added code to my scripts but we didn't communicate which lines were his which created confusion for me when I was creating my written work.

Were roles and responsibilities clearly defined and balanced between each group member? 

My roles in this project was to create functional and fun puzzles that used hints based on Egyptian mythology. I accomplished this role by researching, planning and producing 3 different puzzles which were 1 mechanical puzzle and 2 sequence puzzles. These puzzles worked very well with minimal issues and bugs. Our group was effective at establishing roles as we were clear with what exactly we wanted to do and we all were using our specialty skills. 

How would you rate your individual contribution to the project? 

I feel that I contributed a fair amount of work to this project because the puzzles were very time consuming to make due to testing and overall difficulty programming them. The puzzles I made I feel were of high quality and were tested thoroughly with minimal bugs. One area I could improve is the hints to the puzzles as they are quite confusing and are not very clear. I should have took more time to make them as clear as possible.

What working practices helped or hindered your personal progress? (different ways of working) 

A good working practice that assisted me in creating my work, was planning what I wanted to get done before I start working. This helped me work towards a clear goal in a programming session and helped develop my time management. Something that made it harder was the fact that I work a part time job which interrupts my working schedule for this project. It also affected my motivation and time management skills which I need to improve for the future.

How successfully did your group organise work and meet deadlines? Were any deadlines missed or changed? Why? 

We stayed on schedule by hosting weekly team meetings. Here, we discussed what we should work on for the week and what we fell behind on and if we have any concerns for the project. A deadline we missed was my puzzle completion as I only managed to complete 3 out of the 4 planned puzzles. We could use Trello more often next time to correctly plan out all of our tasks. 

What aspects of your game design and mechanics worked especially well? Why? 

One mechanic that worked very well was the puzzles I created as well as the movement Joseph created. These were successful because they successfully created the foundation of the game idea we came up with. The puzzles functioned perfectly and Josephs movement allowed the player to play the puzzles and explore the map freely. Again my puzzles could be improved if I successfully created all 4 of them.

What problems or issues happened in the development process?  

A problem we ran into during the project was some communication issues that caused some missing features or poor work. For example the puzzle hints could have been much better if we communicated a better idea for them and the presentation of some items and relics were misplaced due to miscommunication. To address these issues as a group we need to work on our communication for future group projects.

What would you do differently next time? 

Next time I would make sure that all my puzzle ideas and environment around the puzzles are effectively communicated and the group is clear on what our ideas are. This will prevent issues such as poor work and misplacement of models. I would also do the animations myself next time as they are in my scripts. This would prevent confusion on who wrote which line of code.

How engaging, educational, and user-friendly is your final game? 

The most engaging feature of our game is definitely the puzzles. Our game functions around the puzzles I made so it is essential that they are engaging and functional. The game is user-friendly to our target audience because the puzzles are not too difficult to complete as long as the hints are understandable which needs improving. The game could also be more educational as we only have written in information about the relics that are unlocked after solving a puzzle. We could have written more information around the map about gods for example.

How could it be improved? 

An area we could expand on is the puzzle hints as they are very simple and are not quite clear on what the solution is to the puzzles, specifically the button and painting puzzle. On the button puzzle the hint does not make much sense to anyone who hasn't developed the game as the colours are hard to correlate to the actual puzzle. The painting puzzles hint contains gods that are not included in the puzzle and can be hard to read. If we improved these areas it would make the game more clear and fun because puzzles that are too difficult are frustrating which is not what we desire. 

Does it achieve the museum's goals? 

To better achieve the museums goals, we could have added more information regarding Egyptian mythology. This would have been better for the museum because it would make the game fit more in a museum and would make the experience more educational for the user. I feel that we had limited information regarding the mythology as we only had information regarding Egyptian relics such as the ankh and sekhem.

What skills did you lack going into this project that you struggled with? How would you improve on those for next time?

One skill I struggles with in the project was programming puzzles in the most efficient way. For example I was not familiar with some programming techniques such as arrays that help greatly with making scripts efficient and more reusable. This is due to a lack of experience in programming in this area. To improve next time, I will research different programming functions and techniques to create more complex mechanics which are more engaging to the user.

If you redid the project again, which role(s) would you want to take on or try next time to continue developing new skills? Why?

A role I would want to try next time would be to program different mechanics than puzzles, for example, movement and level progression. Taking on different roles in the project would further develop my programming skills and make me proficient in different areas of game programming, such as learning new programming functions and techniques.

What part of the game development process (graphic design, narrative writing, worldbuilding, 3D modelling, concept art, level design etc) did you most enjoy? Would you want to specialise in it someday? Why? 

The game development process I most enjoyed was creating ideas for the puzzles and programming them. Programming has always been my passion in game development and this project has further enhanced my desire to improve my programming skills. I would like to specialise in programming because I have a high level of skill in this area and it is my personal favourite aspect of game development. I also feel that this project has allowed me to improve on my current skills in programming as well as learn new skills which is a big help for future projects I create in game development.