Welcome to our first real devlog post!
Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to record and edit a video for this game because of how little time we had already! BUT, we made a game and we want to share it on our blog and talk about it a little bit! Only three of our members worked on this project: Brandon, Anakin, and Xaiver. And we each had our own difficulties when making the game. Forewarning, the game is not great. There are a lot of things we had to cut for time, but it’s a working game that you can play from start to finish, so I think that’s pretty amazing! ANYWAYS. Let’s get into the core details about the process!
Brandon – Programming
Programming a video game is always one of those things, at least for me, that’s hard to get started with. It’s always those first few steps that I’m shaky with, but once I push through it I always pick up the pace. In this case, I felt that I started off too slow and focused on unimportant details that ultimately cost us a lot of time. Considering we only had 48 hours for the gamejam, my slowness was definitely a problem. I kept a list of all the things I had done on day 1, 2, 3, and so on, and when I’d look at it, I’d think “Wow I really got a lot done on ‘whatever’ day!”, but looking back now, I realize how little it was in comparison to the absolute BOAT LOADS of work I had to do on the last two days. And I mean it was A LOT. We literally finished the game ten minutes before the deadline. And that was with cutting a lot of corners and disabling features we wanted to implement. We cut out a whole room, a whole gameplay concept, extra decorations and items to interact with, voice lines, sound effects, a journal entry system, a subtitling system. A LOT was missing.
Although I’m sounding like a bit of a pessimist, I’m actually the opposite, I actually think that all of that bad stuff, all that negativity that we experienced with this limited time was a great thing. Obviously anyone will tell you that ‘you learn from mistakes’, but it really hit home this time around. I made tons of mistakes. I mean, hell, the code I wrote that actually did work was pure, unfiltered spaghetti code. (This term, for those who are unfamiliar, essentially means that I wrote code that is in no way efficient, is in no way well-designed, and has way too many interactions and dependencies than it’s supposed to.) The game is pretty much held together with duct tape and hot glue. But it works! And it’s not bad! Soooo, I have to count that as a success. Because I think it was valuable to work so inefficiently. I could see how bad it was while I was writing it, which means I recognize how not to do something, which can only mean that with more time and more practice I will start writing code that’s actually pretty good, and actually reusable. Well, that’s the hope!
Anakin – 3D Modelling & Design
Anakin, as the 3D Model Designer, worked heavily on editing the art asset that came with the competition kit to fit the needs for the game. All members worked together on the design of the map and puzzle challenges within the game to create as cohesive of an experience as possible. The designs for all objects were completely made using either texture palletes in Unity or modelling in Blender. One of the greatest hurdles was creating the map. This was our first 3D game, so the transition between using Blender to create the design and using Unity left us with a lot of back and forth changes between programs, as we ended up just creating the map itself in Unity regardless. Even though we have a finalized product, there is much more content that was cut out that would be amazing to include in a later, more updated version of the game.
Xaiver – Music & Sound Design
Personally for me when making music for anything specific, it’s a little challenging to make music for something that doesn’t quite exist yet. For example, I knew that for the title screen I should make something that sounded somewhat spooky and dungeon like, but my first attempt ended up being too spooky sounding and didn’t accurately capture the kind of mood we were aiming for. As the project came together more, it became clear what music would fit well in certain parts, but even so, there isn’t too much in this project. The sounds throughout the game were a mix of sampled sounds and in-house sounds that were edited and altered to fit the game’s theme. All music and sound was made using FL Studio, but due to some complications there were modifications made in post that had to stay as is due to lack of time, one being all of the voice lines having to much gain on them and sounding too distorted. This will be easily fixed in future updates though.
Conclusion
This game might’ve been a mountain of crap behind the scenes, but it left us all with a pretty good sense of how to tackle our next projects. We all understand the process a lot better. We now know what problems might appear next time, and how to fix them quickly. We now know how to better set up systems and assets that work. We now know how much we can really accomplish in 48 hours of development. All of these things, these skills, are very, very valuable to each member of the team. And it can only mean that our next projects will be all the better!
Thanks for reading our first real devlog for “Krag’s Creations”!
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