BlogPostMortemUpdated

 From a Designer and programmers perspective the whole process has been rough from the start. From the start my team and I had poor communication but that was on me for poor leadership if that's the right word, anyways we started off slow but eventually after the 2nd sprint we made a good jump towards things and actually made good progress. We weren't really able to catch up at first but I think we ended where we wanted to be.

The first question about the development process is what went right? One of the first things that comes to the top of my head is communication with each other. As a team we agreed to set aside a day to meet to talk about our progress and also to see where we were on the sprint. We also used that time to talk about any issues we had with the project and also came up with some fixes. 

Another thing that went right is being able to be open- minded. Everyone including myself were able to list ideas if we had any to make the game feel or look better. We never had issues when it came to sharing ideas so I feel that was one of our strong suits as a team.

One other one I can think of is problem solving. We never really had any issues when it came to helping others with problems we had. We were always pretty quick to help each other when it came to programming problems or even things for the levels. It's important to not hide when it comes to problems because it's better to get it fixed early rather than later.

Next is what went wrong in our development process? The first is project management meaning the first couple sprints could have turned out a whole lot better but it was on the team leader which is me to fix that issue. It did take me two sprints to get everything sorted out but we were able to get it going in the last three sprints.

The next is Lack of Focus. This was due to me having other tasks from other classes and just outside work. It's my responsibility to make sure I give myself enough time for all my class and outside work and it's one hundred percent my fault for not being able to complete as many tasks as I wanted to.

Another thing that went wrong is blocking and that wasn't really a big issue but it happened a few times. When I say blocking, I’m talking about us having cards and were blocked by another card that someone is working on and that was just due to poor planning which could have been avoided.

Throughout my game design class, I had the opportunity to explore the world of game development and create my own game from scratch. Looking back, there are a few aspects of my development process that I would handle differently if given the chance to start over.

One important change would be to create a clear and detailed project plan from the beginning. Initially, I had a general idea of what I wanted to achieve, but I now understand the importance of having a well-defined roadmap which is the backlog. By outlining specific tasks and milestones, I could have managed my time and resources more effectively.

Another area for improvement is conducting thorough research and prototyping. Instead of diving straight into development, I would take more time to understand the challenges and opportunities. Exploring different mechanics, seeking inspiration from existing games, and creating prototypes would have provided valuable insights and helped me refine my ideas.

Additionally, I would emphasize the significance of communication and collaboration. Working in isolation limited the feedback and perspectives I received. In the future, I would actively seek opportunities to engage with classmates and instructors, sharing my progress and seeking their input rather than waiting till the playtest day.

Lastly, I would prioritize playtesting and gathering user feedback. Although I tested my game during development, involving others early on would have been beneficial, because it's always best to playtest early and often but that didn’t happen that much so I’ll use that for future classes. By collecting feedback from players, I could have identified and addressed some of the potential issues, resulting in a more polished and enjoyable gaming experience.

In conclusion, if I were to redo my game development process, I would focus on creating a comprehensive project plan, conducting thorough research and prototyping, communication and collaboration, and actively seeking playtesting and user feedback. By incorporating these changes, I believe I would have achieved even greater success in this game development process. For sure one of the things I will focus on in class is just focusing more and more playtesting.