Posted December 15, 2023 by Valze
This semester has been a blast! We got a lot of great work done, and I hope my team is proud of all the progress we have made within the scope of a semester. Here is the retrospect in which I discuss the outcome of the development process throughout the semester.
Statistics
Our average velocity ended at around 132 points per sprint. To reference the points left over at the end of sprint 7, there were a portion of them that were expected to be finished that were left incomplete. However, the largest section is due to scrapped ideas left sitting in the backlog earlier in the production process. Cards cannot be deleted from the Jira board, so there were a good few left over at the end that were not expected to be in the final product.
What Went Right: 3D Models
There were no notable complications involving 3D modeling, everyone on the team did a great job! The game’s future funk art style and overall color scheme was maintained throughout the process, and many pieces had a good visual balance between futuristic and scrapyard junk. Here are a few of our favorites from each team member:
Rein Tice:
Tyla Chadwick:
Marcus Gill:
Alexander Britt:
What Went Right: 2D Art
There were a lot of great concepts that helped visualize the models and the world. All of the art stayed true to the desired aesthetic, and the poster, logos, and banner art represent the game perfectly!
Alexander Britt:
Janice Xiong:
What Went Wrong: Out of Scope
Expectations were unrealistic at the start. Many aspects of the game were out of scope, and it was not realized until later in the semester. This resulted in wasted time and unused models. There would be plans for tasks mapped out for each sprint, but if points were leftover it caused things to get backed up in the schedule. Over time things would get reprioritized and this resulted in half-finished projects that had to be scrapped due to time constraints and higher priority tasks. Here are a few examples of this issue:
What Went Right: Level Design
Despite the large cuts made to the initial level idea, the design made was still a great end result. There was a clear vision of the map from the start, so when the cuts were made the designers were still able to work with the ideas for the remaining sections. The scrapyard design is very well done and feels like an actual future funk junkyard, and the workshop feels like someone actually lives there.
What Went Right: Animation
The animations done were small and simple, but very effective and helpful in adding a lot of character to the game. Without our animator’s hard work on the rogue bot enemy animations and player arm movements, the game would feel a lot more rigid and unfinished.
What Went Wrong Unused Models:
There were 12 different buildable robots modeled throughout the semester, but by the final build, only 5 made it into the game. This was again due to time constraints and improper planning.
We did not realize how long it would take for robots to get implemented into the workbench for building. Ultimately, we had to prioritize bug fixes and a working game over more robots.
Unused robots:
What Went Wrong: Overworked Programmers
There was slow progress on most mechanics because programmers were often stretched too thin on multiple different mechanics at the same time. We should have taken this as a sign and cut things earlier rather than trying to have it all. The idea for the game started off way too large, we should have focused a lot more on the minimum viable product and built out from there once finished. Due to the scope being too overblown at the start, a lot of pressure was put on the programmers to finish mechanics in time for deadlines. A lot of the time things could not be completed within the deadline given.
What Went Right: Programming
There was a lot of pressure put on the programmers, but the work they did create was very nice. They did a great job working together, communicating, and combining all of their work into one cohesive game.
What Went Right: GDD
To give our game designer some credit, the game design document he created was very well thought out. It was an ever-expanding document that was edited throughout the semester, and it allowed the team to easily look to it for guidance whenever they needed it. It made my job as producer a lot easier as well, I could read the GDD when creating the backlog in order to accurately compile tasks for each sprint. By the end of production, the GDD was over 80 pages long.
What Did We Learn?
What Would We Do Again?
Thank you!
Though the game is not as expensive as we previously hoped it would be, the end result of all of my team’s work is very impressive. To show how much work and progress went into the game, here is a side-by-side of the first build ever made vs. the final build we turned in a couple months later. Thanks for following us on our development journey!
The start:
The End: