According to the original schedule and planning, we did last semester, our project has already been completed. All the tasks listed prior to the actual development have somewhat been completed by members of our team.

However, the game just doesn't feel right to play. I believe we are now entering the period where we try to build upon all the mechanics and systems we have done to create a strong connection between the game and the message we are trying to deliver.

Most of the tasks left on our Jira board are now either

1. tasks that cannot be completed yet because of the timeline and blocker. For example, our third playtest is obviously not done yet since we haven't gotten to that point yet. And something like "final level art" is not doable because the greybox hasn't gone through the final iteration just yet.

2. Tasks that need a "rework" - these are mechanics or elements of the game that have been received negatively by our team members or playtesters. We have a solid foundation for them and all that matter is to improve it using our playtest feedback.

3. New tasks - these are interesting. I am not sure how I feel about them. On the positive side, I am glad the team completed basically everything to get the vertical slice of the game. This means that the new tasks are a further improvement for that core game experience. On the other hand, I feel like we need to be careful about how much further we can expand our scope. Are these things QoL improvements or are they totally new mechanics that we might need or really need to accomplish what we set out to do in delivering the message alongside the game experience?

Overall, our development velocity had slowed down. This is expected because of the workload from other courses and basically what's been going on in our lives. Things get messy. So I am grateful that even if we cannot get the best version of our game out by the end of this semester. At the very least, we could have "something" to show - a game that works, is playable, and is iterable.