On this 7th sprint, I had just gotten back from the connect 4 conference ready to continue working on the game, specifically in helping out Charlie (programmer) re-organize the player and enemy code architecture as well as fix bugs from importing art and other assets.
The majority of my time this sprint was actually in the creation of the new architecture system that is made up of different entities that holds the brunt of the code for all the enemies, players and projectiles. The main problem with re-organizing all the code was the fact that we were basically redoing all the quick prototyping nodes that I had made even though they ended up having the pretty much exact same functionality as well as node structure. Some problems that arose from this (and aren’t limited to) Re-creating the entire player pawn because we wanted the two different pawns to have different animation bps etc, The UI and game state being scrapped due to a bug that was occurring because of the map the game was being tested in, Collisions becoming very unstable and unreliable that ended in a 3.5 hour bug fix session that could’ve been entirely avoided.
However there are many benefits to having the code restructured and reorganized and one of those is the ability for us to really go in and add art assets, new levels and new mechanics to scale our game up and make the game experience that we sought after while pitching it in initial game concepts. Once we have the progression system prototyped and a set structure for the mechanic, an overworld (and main menu screen) and an upgrade system for the player, we will be set with upgrading our art through feedback iterations and honing the gameplay mechanics from feedback at QA and meeting with professors.
In terms of being the acting producer, I have been away for the last two sprint meetings (because of the deadline) and so starting this sprint I’ll be able to really hand out tasks to the team as well as hold a big design meeting where we map out every little thing that will go into our vertical slice (and some extra things for scaling if needed!). I am super excited to get all the functionality into the game so far because then we can have our artists prove how amazing they are with the models, animation and VFX, and Charlie and I can continue making the mechanics feel solid, the systems stay balanced and most of all convince that our game is re-playable, fun and marketable among the other games in the space.
Ethan Loewald 