The game was a massive success, and every member of our team is proud of what we have produced, It seems to have reached above the expectations of many people, including members of our own team. It is a well polished and refined game, with an attention to detail evident in all aspects. But most importantly it is a genuinely enjoyable game to play. Many people have expressed a desire to be able to play it at home or see the project continued on. Myself and others in the team have also expressed a desire to continue working on this game beyond this module.
The final product shows that our team ultimately worked very well. Everyone made a contribution to the project, got along with each other and had a willingness to work together. However it is not without its faults.
Overall the team lacked in communication for the majority of the project. In the early days we often worked independently, sometimes only sharing our work in team meetings. This often made it difficult for myself to keep everyone going in the right direction as I lacked the proactivity from some of the members to give feedback at every step of the way. As the deadline approached, it became much more unified in aspects like testing and the trailer. largely thanks to more people attending the test sessions and being present in labs during crunch time.
I’m not a programmer or team leader by nature. Despite that, I feel I did a good job. I believe my personal attachment to the project and hard work in producing the majority of the games foundations is what allowed my team to focus on the incredible presentation of the game. I probably gave myself too much to do, and didn’t exactly give others much opportunity to help in my side of the project. However, this being my own game concept, I had the motivation and attachment to put everything I could into it and produce it to the best standard I could have hoped for. I wasn’t the best in keeping others updated on my work or being proactive with directing other people as I sometimes left it up to them to seek me out for assistance. This lack of feedback to my team was largely due to a lack of time, and my tendency to get in to a flow state that compromises my journals as well. I did give a lot of feedback and assistance to others that may not be present in the journal, but hopefully its effects are evident in the harmony of the final product.
Reece was incredibly hard working and proactive in his teamwork. Despite having a lot going on throughout the project, he was still able to apply his talent and knowledge to the project every step of the way and never let other commitments compromise his work. His largest contributions were the frog model and rig, and the Kuwahara filter that tied the art style all together. The project would not have been the same without his efforts.
Josh can get incredibly enthusiastic in his work, sometimes to a fault, but most often to great benefit. When he gained a passion for a particular aspect of the game, he would go above and beyond in pursuing it. This sometimes made him a bit difficult to direct, especially since he is difficult to communicate with when he’s not actively working at home. He would often spend time on aspects I didn’t specifically request, and forget about ones that I did. However that is not a major fault, as that enthusiasm is what produced a lot of the visual design that people were so complementary of. He also had a willingness to work side by side with myself and other team members.
While foliage modelling may seem like a niche role, there is a LOT of foliage in this game. Alex just got on with working, and did a lot of it. Almost every bit of foliage in the game is modelled by Alex, with even more that weren’t in the finished game. This was either due to a lack of time to implement, or because he very much directed himself using what I had written in the GDD, often resulting in assets that weren’t intended for this slice of the project. He lacked a bit in communication and following my direction, as I often wouldn’t see his models until they were already finished. He missed aspects outlined in my style guide, which I did deliver quite late to be fair. Overall, he was hard working and built the foundation of which the gameplay environment was built on, so there’s no major complaints.