Post Mortem

The Game Is Finished!

















And now we can all breathe out as we gain our experiences from our work and our groups, to proceed with this knowledge into future developments. And the closest is the Arcade Production. Which I think most people are very excited about

I am very happy with our finished game, and many people at the playtesting thought so too.

We asked the testers a few questions, for example we asked What do you think was Aetherials biggest success?


And here are some comments that we recieved that I found interesting:
  • "Some resemblance of story, super impressive that you managed to do that"


  • "The gradual gameplay learning curve, indroducing one enemy per level"


  • "Simple and cute art style. Almost felt bad for killing the monsters. Maybe that's part of the storyline? Am I an evil captain on the ship?"

Now the story was actually something we discussed very early but never developed until the very last week, because the story didn't require too much effort, only that the comic style painting needed to be done, I really think that it impacts the game a lot, since it gives a purpose to the players so that they know why they are actually fighting, rather than being thrown into a boxing ring with nothing but boxing gloves and no knowledge of why you are there.

The gradual gameplay is in fact...designed by me! I took what I had learned from Ernest Adams book Fundamentals Of Game Design and applied what he calls an ideal game progression. And therefore the game does not feel too punishing or too easy ( for most people ) Ernest Adamns words was proven to be effective in our game so that it would not feel too easy or too hard.

The art style was awesomely made by our groups graphics and I have spent some time discussing with the artists how we would proceed with the renditions of these enemies and I have spoken earlier in my blogs how I did so, if you are interested you can take a look at those there. But the enemies that look cute can be dangerous in any case, and it was not intended for the "captain" to be someone evil, but some people might interpret it as such.

What I was able to learn during this time was to actively communicate with my team-members and make a schedule that would work for all of us. What I also learned was that we needed to work in a location and not just on our own or in our own spaces. The thing that was the most valuable lesson during this time was to be able to work with indifferences and to try and stay together as a group, which is not always hard when you might feel frustrating for some. And we did so by talking with eachother and trying to improve ourselves from that, The process of doing agile was very beneficial for us since it gave us a good grasp of what we needed to do every week.

We created a game in which you play as a ship and take down aliens that have come out an anomaly, and you are there to save the planet. it is pretty simple and often a thing that shoot em up games are doing ( as a story ). 

But I am glad we have made a really nice game, and I was quite amazed that we have actually made something this great in the end.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to make awesome games!







Comments

  1. Congratulations to your finished game. I did play it several times during the different play testing sessions and you could clearly see a progression from alpha to the finished product. I like how you took some answers from the latest playtesting and posted it in here, it gives you a feel from what people thought of the released version of the game.
    I would have liked to know even more about your group's dynamic. How you worked together, what were the ups and downs of the project? What did you think the most important thing you learned as a game designer?

    Great job on the level design. It was a great flow from the very start to the finish. I also did question the story, or who the protagonist really was? Am I evil or not? I think it added some mystery to the overall aesthetic of the game. It was a nice touch.

    Good job!

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  2. Hello!

    Interesting blog post. It seems like you are happy with your results, so Im pleased you seem satisfied. I remember playing your game on the different playtests we had and I think your game made good progress from every milestone to the next. I think you speak very briefly though about the parts of your game, and the subject itself, and not so much about your group such as how you worked as a group throughout the project and that part how it has been working out. I think you did a good job with the level design and the overall design of your game. It looked great and I think the game play and your level was good. I got a "mystery" feel of your game, which I liked.

    I hope you are satisfied with the project and the program so far and I wish you best of luck in arcade games!

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