Post-mortem: Cosmic Crucible of Chaos (week 13)

Hey guys, this is a more formal piece of writing then what I have previously thrown at you, it is a post mortem document based on our game, “The Cosmic Crucible of Chaos.” I hope you enjoy:

The Cosmic Crucible of Chaos is a pixelated top down shooter which is planned to be developed on iOS but at the current point in time has been tuned entirely to a PC build, where an alien race consisting entirely of anthropomorphic animals battle it out on earth during their holy tournament which ultimately leads to its destruction.  Gameplay consists of shooting at objects in order to push them at the enemy and deal a heap of damage while also picking up weapon power ups in order to gain an advantage.

The Cosmic Crucible of chaos has started off as a college project from which we are getting graded on, but there have been plans on further developing and fleshing out the game in the future to present to a larger scale audience and perhaps at some point release it on the video game market depending on the popularity of the game. The game has been in development for about 13 weeks by The Republic of Cheerful which consists of 3 individuals and myself using Unity 4 engine. The team consists of a team leader, programmer and 2 artists, although on occasion roles did crossover where necessary. This document will outline what went right, what went wrong and how we could avoid or fix the situation in the future.

What went right?

Team work and communication-

Team work was a huge factor in the creation of the cosmic crucible of chaos and was definitely a strong suit that we all shared. Of course at the beginning of the project things were a bit stale and awkward because we hadn’t really talked all that much but eventually our relationships grew and we became a lot closer.  One individual was a little distant but he was still able to contribute with the project wherever needed so that wasn’t negative to the project in any way.

Although one of us was technically the project manager, we often worked things out together and only looked to them to discuss what was needed to be done next so it felt like we were working on equal ground. There were very small amounts of conflict about ideas and implementation but they were sorted out quickly and in an orderly manner which are expected in a group environment and those situations were dealt with very well.

The style-

In the Cosmic Crucible of Chaos we wanted to achieve a game with bright and colourful 2D sprites as a homage to the classic game frogger. We achieved some very vibrant visuals throughout nearly every aspect of the game that was implemented and were very happy with how the style of the game turned out. This was true to everything except the slippery slopes stage which was added very late into development which used very saturated colours and no shading.

Besides from the visual style, the style of the music was very impressive and suited the action packed, pixelated gameplay that the Cosmic Crucible of Chaos contained. It was really good to get someone outside of the college to work with us in the creation of the music. This was a good learning experience as it took a couple of weeks to get the musician up to speed so he can understand the feel of the game that we were going for instead of the extremely short time we thought it would take. This shows that not everyone will understand the style of the game instantly.

The documentation-

The design documentation for the Cosmic Crucible of Chaos has been covered in great depth and detail in order to portray exactly what the team have been aiming to achieve in our game and how we’ve been going about achieving that thing. Our team leader has remained on top of the written work and put a lot of effort into creating the most detailed design documentation possible. I’ve always been pretty terrible at written work but through my observations over this trimester it is best to get on top of the written work before it begins to stack up, for example my blog posts. By getting the written work out of the way, it allows more time to actually work on the game.

The enjoyment-

Pretty much everyone that tested the game really enjoyed the mechanic of shooting traffic and other objects at each other and it showed, every time we got someone to test out the game, people were very vocal about what was going on screen which was an extremely good sign to see. In fact at one point we asked 2 random individuals at the campus from a different discipline to test our game who had no idea who each other are, after playing, they instantly started introducing themselves to each other.

The enjoyment of the game has seemingly always been there since very early in the project but over time it grew through enhancements such as visual upgrades and the addition of new mechanics. This sub-heading is definitely the strongest point of the game by far because we were aiming to create a wacky, action-packed shooter, reminiscent of good-old frogger and we hit that nail right on the head.

What went wrong?

Planning-

Quite often we sat around for the first hour or two of a studio session trying to figure out what we needed to do which was quite a waste of time especially when we didn’t have access to the project to work on it. This could have easily been avoided if we just planned ahead so that we could use our studio time to the fullest. In the future this could be prevented if there was a set day to communicate what needs to be done during our studio time so as soon as we get in we get straight to it.

 On the flipside before we left the studio we planned what work needed to be done in our own time, this was very helpful although it didn’t really help with combining our work as much as we could have in class.  If we hadn’t wasted the first hour or so of most classes we could have potentially completed the game. This has been a great learning experience as I have discovered the importance of planning in a group project and for my next work I would like to organize a day to begin planning the work we need to do at the college or perhaps even just talk about what we need to do on the train there.

The Scope-

The scope of the game wasn’t too much of a problem as we were fairly accurate with how much we could get done, the only problem was we ran out of time to implement the single player mode which was a bit of a letdown because of how much effort was put into the creation of the assets for the single player mode. If we had an extra week or two before assessment we could definitely implement a very simplified single player mode with basic AI, but a single player mode nonetheless.

 To be honest I’m not really too sure how we could have avoided this but I’d say the best way to do so in the future is just aim to implement one game mode and if the time is available, then add more if such a thing is possible.

Arriving late-

We had a fairly common problem that occurred very often on and off for different individuals including myself on a few occasions. This was late arrival to class which in itself wasn’t a huge problem, indeed it would be a little more beneficial if we weren’t 10-20 minutes late but it didn’t cause too much damage. What did cause a lot of damage though was on a couple of occasions individuals were between one and three hours late which really set back the project to an extent and prevented the project from achieving its full potential.

 This has one of the most simple yet possibly one of the most difficult fixes depending on a number of factors, this fix is leave earlier, something that we need to get into the habit of to insure we are on time. The only problem is that on some occasions it is impossible to make it on time but in order for that problem to be fixed there needs to be a little bit of notice beforehand so that if any problems occur the remainder of the team can sort things out and have access to your work beforehand.

Conclusion

At the Republic of Cheeerful we are very proud with how the Cosmic Crucible of Chaos has turned out and how close to complete the prototype has become. It has been really fun working with a group of people I haven’t really talked to before and creating a strong relationship with them. The freedom that the development of this game provided allowed our imaginations to run wild and is very much a manifestation of our crazy ideas turning into reality. At this current point the game is not complete although it is nearly what we would consider complete and we are planning on working on the game in the future to make it a more fulfilling experience and perhaps release the game to the public. We look forward to showing you more of this game in the future.