Unity3D game prototype
Arcane Onslaught was developed under Oulu Game Lab (OGL) of Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OAMK) as part of a game development course package.
The development team consisted of eight university students (including myself) and the timeframe for the project was one full semester (August - December).
My role in the project was programmer alongside two others. You could say my main area of responsibility was gameplay, game rules and character behavior but due to the small amount of programmers I contributed to a high variety of implementations.
The key result of the project is a mobile game prototype published in the Google Play Store.
You can view a cool little trailer video for our game here!
Managerial tasks:
System implementations:
Testing & QA:
Other tasks:
All game systems were implemented in Unity3D supported scripting language C#. Skripting was done in Visual Studio and version control was managed through git. Additionally, Android SDK tools were used for runtime debugging of Android builds.
I joined the course and the development project with the premise of gaining experience in game development. Additionally, I wanted to put myself to a test and develop my first playable game from start to finish. OGL seemed like the ideal place to actualize these plans, because I would get to enjoy the presence of like-minded developers, and a few individuals from the games industry in Oulu.
Working in the team was good fun and frustrating at the same time.
What was most rewarding was the ability to rely on a multi-disciplinary team. My own personal projects are very much hindered by my ability to create assets such as graphics and sound at this time. Many of my teammates were also well-spirited and I much enjoyed our lunch-time banter together. My personal productivity was high and I had a lot of freedom in my own area of expertise.
However, the atmosphere was slightly chaotic due to the instructors at OGL relying information through our team leader who was still learning the ropes like anyone else in the establishment. Much of the external demands were insufficiently communicated to each team member resulting in unexpected crunch time.
Communication as a whole was the largest failure point in our team from my perspective. The design of the game would undergo sudden changes, and the team leader seemed to possess invisible reguirements which others like me were expected to meet. This became especially apparent when one of our eight members demanded to be drafted to another team.
Many of the above mentioned issues would have been avoided if there had been more transparency and willingness to exchange constructive criticism. I tried to shed light on issues on multiple occasions, just to be greeted with vane statements about how everything is under control. It was eye opening to see how much a respected and skilled leader and a manager means to the whole operation.
Regardless of the hurdles we pulled through and succeeded in publishing a functional game prototype. The scope of the game suffered greatly from the initial ambitious plan of four dungeons of five levels. One dungeon was completed including a tutorial level. I believe that in order to make the best products in a creative field such as game development, it is important that each member of the team believes in and works towards the same vision.