Last Day - Postmortem

Overview

I had the goal to create a short action adventure game. I wanted to develop my skills in Unreal Blueprints, Project management, and Level Design.

What Went Well

• I was able to prototype mechanics.
• I am happy with the amount of time spent on prototyping and project set up. I felt I did a good job not getting too caught up with polish, or how props looked. I made something that worked. :)
• Working on Signs and Feedback for the player to understand the mechanics helped me learn about Shaders, Materials, and Textures.
• I got more familiar with Unreal Blueprints. I was able to follow tutorials and use that information to expand the script to fit what I needed.
• Using this devlog was really helpful for keeping on track.

What Went Wrong

• Clearly, I did not get any where near completing my goal. I really could have benefited from cutting things from my project.
• It was really difficult to build back my momentum after taking a break. I want to be kind to myself, but I think it would have been better to have kept working every day even if it was only going to be for five minutes.
• For understanding Blueprints, I felt I dove into the deep end of a pool. I would have benefited from some beginner tutorials to truly understand what it was I was learning.
• Next time, I will simplify my goals even more. I thought I had made small goals for myself but in reality I was asking a lot to complete all this in a month lol.

Conclusion

I will definitely do this again next year! I learned so much. I think the most valuable thing I learned was all it takes is that first step forward to start building momentum. I'm really proud of myself picking up Unreal 5 and learning some new skills.