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Post Mortem

A topic by tdelarosa723 created Sep 20, 2017 Views: 292 Replies: 9
Viewing posts 1 to 4
HostSubmitted

Hey everyone congrats to everyone who participated! Thanks very much for your support. To everyone who submitted a project, I will be busy today and will be playing your games later tonight. Talk to you guys later

HostSubmitted

Wow great games guys! Congrats on finishing something. I know we all could develop further on them but actually submitting something is the point of these jams. 

Now its time for a post mortem

My game is obviously unfinished graphically but mechanically I am glad I have a decent flow. I definitely over-scoped the project, ultimately I bit off a bit more than I could chew. My list of models and characters was so overwhelming towards the end. I had semi-achieved my previous goal which was to put music and sound in the game. I think I have a good process going, I just have to apply myself a little more. I feel like I could've invested more time in the game than I did. The main thing is that many of my testers had found my game "fun and amusing" and that is positively motivating! I want to keep that up obviously in the games to come!  

My goal for the next project is interesting looking UI instead of the lackluster, low quality images I have made in the past. Also let me know if this is a game you would be interested in seeing finished.

Great work everyone  and hope to see more of your work on the 3rd Optical Jam. 

Submitted

 agree that you could work more on the images, as you have good ones mixed with bad ones, and so so one. The corals are looking good, the algae that have movement could also be 3d,  and the little green cubes I imagine them as rocks. That's the major thing I see that could be improved.

I think bloop game should be finished, as it is so positive and fun.

Submitted

Really great games! 

 I didn't really know how fun a game jam could be before I tried it. Thank you very much for the fun topic and for the motivation to actually finish a game. This was my first almost finished game and also the first game jam.

I learned a lot of new things while doing the project. Some of these are how to store data in Unity so that it is kept for the next launch of game - you can keep your upgrade progress and level progress.  Also after receiving some of my testers' comments I now know not to make a game extremely hard for myself as for the first time player this makes it "hard, unforgiving and frustrating". There were some challenges I had to face but the overall spirit of the Jam kept me going and finding solutions. Probably most of my time went on the upgrade system. 

My plan for now is to develop on that game further and fixing some of the issues which frustrate the players: 

  • Health needs to be more obvious - some of the testers couldn't understand how they die when staying still as the health indicator is on the top and it makes it hard to keep eye on.
  • Difficulty - Need to add some balance or maybe an interactive tutorial explaining the mechanics of the game. Players don't like to read long texts and this leads to them missing the core points of the game and gameplay.
  • Sounds - I need to put more work on sounds. Also add options for sound volume and On/Off. 
  • UI - currently really basic and also after a few tests I noticed that it is messed up. Probably will go for minimalistic UI  in game and will add more stats on the other screens.
  • Animations - Although the art is not much, some animations will bring it to live.
  • Content - more levels and some interactable items - like an wooden plank you can pick up to block enemy fish attack.
  • Balance - Maybe buff the upgrades as currently it takes a lot of these in order to notice a difference. The enemies must give some kind of visual warning before rushing you  - maybe in the form of exclamation mark when you are noticed and short preparation for an attack animation.

This list could probably go on... 

@tdelarosa723 - Your game deserves to be finished, please do finish it if you have the chance!

See you in some of the next jams guys! 

HostSubmitted

This is a great self-evaluation. You made some interesting points. Good luck with your future development :)

Submitted

I agree with all the implementations you plan to make, it has a lot of potential.

Submitted

Thanks both of you for your comments and motivation!

Submitted

I like to make colorful things, so this goal was achieved.

I also improved my Game Maker drag and drop skills.

-The UI and The End are missing.

-The sounds for each scale are missing.

-Clickable effects like bubbles coming out of the fish, and eye closing are missing.

-Needs a better background.

-The scales do not go back to its original place when not matched, need to fix that, maybe assigning a profundity level for each of them (on Game Maker). Not sure if it is possible, as each pair is an instance of the same object, and the levels are placed on the object.

-Need to add an escape button to exit game.

-Need to add info.

-I need to make an alternate one button control for disabled persons:

  •  Clicking the button will make it select another scale, waiting will select current scale.
  • When scale is selected, just keep clicking until matching scale is selected and wait.
  • Both will disappear.

-I need to make also alternated keyboard control for blind persons.

  • Scales can not be seen, but each one has a random key (QWERTY and so on) assigned to them with corresponding sound.
  • When sounds selected are matching, they disappear (having silence or another sound on its place.)
  • When sounds selected are not matching, they make a Fail sound.
Submitted

You are a great person! I would love to see this game finished and bringing joy to disabled persons!

Submitted(+1)

Thanks. It costs us nothing and we still learn in the process. There are not many games thinking in people having a hard time controling the mouse or a keyboard, and some are really expensive, as it is a small market comparing to the majority of the gamers.