In this evaluation I will be talking about my experience while doing this final project. I will have a good deal to talk about as I had quite a few roadblocks along the way, as well as the fact I had to learn an entirely new software for my project and that was no easy task. I will also discuss things about how I managed my time throughout this project and how I could have possibly managed it better to get more done, or if I had it managed well enough anyway. 

 

To start off I will give a little context behind the project and why I chose what I did. Before the project, we did another unit and made a group game to give us a kind of work environment experience with everyone on the team doing different roles/jobs. Within that unit I was the programmer for our game, and I was working in unreal engine, making a small 2 level 3D platforming game. To begin with I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy the coding side of things as I was completely new to it and had never done anything like it before, however when I got started with the help of a few tutorials I was able to confidently do most of it myself. When it came to planning the final project, I basically only had one idea in mind which was making some kind of a platforming game in a different software. So, after a bit of planning, I thought re-making the group project we did just in my own kind of style, so after checking with my group if it was okay for me to do so, I got to work. Some of the original ideas I had for the game either didn’t make it in or did make it in but in a different kind of form. One example of something that made it into the game but not in the initial planned way was the powerups, the ideas I had for the powerups was going to be including a similar coin system to Mario and then the player would have access to a shop where they can buy the ability to double jump or have a speed boost, however when put into the game I just made pickup powerups which grant a boost for 5 seconds. Now after a few months of working in game maker I feel I could have got more done if I had prior knowledge of the software for example getting a few more levels done and possibly an upgraded menu screen. 

 

When it comes to me researching about this game, I thought it would have been good to look into things that had relations to the game I planned on making, which at the time of the start of the project was going to be a top town or 2D style platformer. Some of the things I looked into included: Mario, Zelda and Sonic anything that related to the kind of thing I wanted to do for my game. The way I researched these varied, some of them I played emulators and others I just looked at game play images to see the artwork style. Besides the artwork I also did some research into the basics of the game play mechanics that I wanted in the game excluding just the movement and jumping etc. Some of the things I looked into adding was the moving platforms, as well as speed and double jump powerups the player could obtain to make levels easier or even just possible. The research into the powerups and platforms included some YouTube tutorials all of which are linked and talked about on this website. 

 

Moving on to how I had things planned for this project, it was pretty basic planning to be honest as it was all somewhat planned in my head before I started the project anyways. The main bulk of my planning was similar to the planning of the original game we did as a group project just a slight bit different. The main thing that was different was of course was the schedule that I had made this was different because instead of working in a group it was just me, meaning I had to time things a lot different in order to manage my time better and get things done on time and to not fall too far behind of where I want to be. I feel like with a little more planning I definitely could have done an extra level or 2 although as I also had to learn an entirely new engine and coding language to make this game there wasn’t really much else I could plan ahead because I didn’t know what may have been possible for me to learn within the given period. Nearing the end of the project I did have a base plan of what I wanted level 3 to include but due to the lack of time left I wasn’t able to do. If I'm being honest, I will say I really didn’t plan anywhere near enough and that’s something I do need to work on for projects in the future, planning has always been something I struggle with. For future project I would love to plan a lot more ahead like even before the project has started, the way I would do this would be by making a list to get a clear image of what I need to make for the project along with level designs and then set some miscellaneous goals that I will aim to complete if I finish everything else I want to do. 

 

During the production phase of this project, I did encounter quite a few things that held me back. To start with, at the very beginning of the production there was an issue with me having covid and having to stay home and work at home for about a week and a half, now it's hard to tell if this was a bad thing or not because maybe I was able to do more at home than I would have been able to do in college although when working from home I was happy with the amount of work I got done. That being said, there definitely was a major issue we encountered nearing the middle of the project which was an issue within college, certain things were wiped off the pc and people lost a lot of work, me included I lost about 5 weeks of work total but as I had been keeping my blog up to date with examples of the code I was able to get it all back in about a week or 2, however this was quite a major setback and I think without it I may have been able to do level 3 of at least just had to rush a lot less and get a bit more done such as custom sprites instead of royalty free ones. One good thing about working under pressure is possibly the fact that I know I am able to work well under pressure of a deadline. The best way to work with time lost or loss of work in my opinion is to just not panic and don’t rush things, in my situation where I was documenting all my work it may have been easier for me to do this than for some others. 

 

Practical skills, this was a big part of this project of course as without it we would have nothing to write about. This part of the project is where I really shined, this is where I got the most done and what I really enjoyed the most. Throughout this project I think I really gained a lot of skills from what I created. Some of the skills I think I gained is working under pressure, time management, I also learnt a new coding language that I had no prior knowledge of before called GML as well as tried my hand at some smaller pixel art designs. I believe these will continue to help me a lot as if I wish to go further into this course or wanted to continue working and making games in GameMaker I will have the knowledge from this project and be able to work a lot faster and a lot more independently, things like this could possibly lead to something more in the future involving a job or freelancing. Out of everything I did in the project I think the thing I'm most proud of is being able to learn GML and be mostly confident to be able to remake something better than what I made for this project. I am however really proud of how this project turned out just due to the fact I sometimes struggle to learn new things but this went well. 

 

Finally, just a bit more about the final product. I think it was very good, it had its strengths and weaknesses of course though, one of its major strengths would be that it had no bugs that were very clear. After game testing the game multiple times, I couldn’t find any game breaking bugs and anything buggy that I did find I fixed it up straight away. One of the weaknesses the game has is the lack of levels, but I feel with maybe a week or 2 I could have released another 1 or 2 levels, 1 for each week. After a few people tested the game, some said they thought it may be too hard, but I then adjusted it to make it easier and not take multiple attempts, I felt that their opinion was valid and so I edited the level to make it better suit their opinions. One of the main questions I had to ask people was when it comes to platformers do they prefer a lot of shorter levels with only a bit of parkouring or if they would prefer fewer longer levels. I thought longer levels would be more ideal as did the people I asked therefore that’s what I planned on going with and is also the reason for level 2 being much longer than the original tutorial level.