Moonke GAG: Reflection document

 

Introduction

Within this reflection I intend to talk about how we worked as a group as well as how I worked individually. I will also go in depth about what I would have done differently if I could redo this project, and what I aim to focus on in the future to ensure that games I make are better.

Group reflection

Overall as a group we worked fairly well, we sorted out our roles very early on which helped us to know exactly what our part would entail within the project. We initially each came up with a plot idea as well as a theme, meaning we could all collate our ideas so that we were all happy with the final plot line/theme of the game. Although there was some confusion from the group when the plot was written out after minor communication issues, we sorted these out in the end so that everyone was on the same page before starting any major work. The concepting stage allowed the concept artist to do the majority of the major concepting, although myself and the coder also helped out on a few pieces, such as minor enemy concepts and prop design. Once basic concepts for certain elements such as the player and the enemies were completed, I then went into maya and started to model them based off of the orthographics provided. I made sure to gather opinions on what I was doing along the way, making sure what I was doing was definitely what we wanted. While modelling the concept artist also carried on concepting new elements in the background, as well as making UI screens. The coder also started to code using basic mesh blocking techniques so that when the models were implemented the game ran smoothly. Unfortunately, a lot of code wasn't done for when the models were eventually implemented, meaning we were slightly behind on schedule, but once the models were in the scene these got finished quick. Once level 1 had been built, and we were sure that the code worked as intended, we sent the game out for playtesting, this however may have been a little too late in the project, as we had a lot of feedback of which we were running out of time to fix. We did however take all of the playtesting feedback into mind and changed the parts of it that we knew severely hindered gameplay, such as the camera and prop clipping issues, as well as the player being able to escape the map. With the deadline sneaking up on us we decided that the original number of levels we wanted within the game was going to be too many, so we had to change the amount of levels, this caused minor issues when it came to storytelling, as we now had to fit the plot line into less space, we did however manage this after debating on how. When it came to time management, we were mostly organised, although we did have a few moments along the way where things were not being done on time, although these things were owned up to, and eventually finished. We also had group meetings once, sometimes twice a week to ensure that we were on track with the project, and to discuss what needed to be completed that week and who by, as well as discussing how we could help each other if maybe one member of the group was overwhelmed with their workload.

Individual reflection

As the 3D artist, my main job was to follow the guidance of the concept artist’s vision to create a 3D environment for our game. I first started by modelling the player, as I had never really modelled a person before and I knew this would take me the longest time to complete fully. I then moved on the other elements that I knew might take me a while, such as the enemies. I was aware that my skill set was there for less organic shapes, as I had experience with modelling these in the past, and i knew that modelling organic shapes such as living beings would take me a lot longer to do, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't holding up game production by modelling these further down the line. Once these were done I moved onto the elements I was sure I had the skill set for, such as weapons, and props. I made sure I worked within a strict time limit for making these things, and focused on game elements that had code attached so that they could be implemented within the game and the code could be added. Once all of the modelling elements were finished I took all of my models into substance painter and began texturing them, alongside getting help from the other members of the group so texturing got done quicker.

Improvements

If i ever were to do this project again there are multiple things I would change, these things include:

• Making sure playtesting is done earlier so bugs can be fixed within the time frame

• Making textures more detailed

• Making models more details

• Making sure scenes are finished earlier

• Making sure Code is applied to models as soon as they are implemented.

Going forward

Going forward I would like to focus on making more in depth models that translate better. Another thing I would really like to improve my skills at would be concept design, as I would like to be able to concept future models before diving into modelling them. I also would like to get a better understanding of code and why it does what it does as my current knowledge is quite vague.