Delusions of Grandeur

Coming into Full Sail I had experienced almost exclusively AAA level games. So when it came to the discussion of scope for our first major project, I was naturally having some issues coming up with something doable for a student only six months into their studies. This class was part of a group of three classes where you start by sketching out a level for an existing “game”, then build it the next month, and then combine it with other students’ levels the third. This was my original sketch:

The base game we were given was a post-apocalyptic puzzle/platformer revolving around collecting scrap items. My level took place in a swamp and featured a downed cargo ship that was transporting some valuable items that you were tasked with retrieving. Though not explained explicitly within the sketch above, I had originally intended for a branching ending to the level where you could choose to retrieve a valuable asset or scuttle the ship. The idea was that, in a full game (something akin to Borderlands), the two objectives would have come from two different NPCs and you would have to choose to appease one and anger the other according to your allegiances. I also initially wanted short intro and outro cutscenes made in engine that included voice over from said NPCs.

The next class started shortly after and I got straight to work building my masterpiece. The focus of the second class in the trilogy was to get a fully functioning block-out of the level. I was able to get this done fairly quickly and it looked like I was going to have plenty of time to do cutscenes at the end of the month. At some point, the instructors for the class informed me that the branched ending was probably not a good idea. This was quickly backed up by the issues I ran into concerning the systems of my level. I needed to create a multi-point check system that would ensure all the criteria were met to finish the level, while allowing the player to complete most of the tasks in any order they liked. I also had trouble getting the shipping container puzzle in the bay of the ship to be relatively easy but still satisfying to solve. If I recall correctly, I changed that puzzle every week throughout that four-week class.

(Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of this middle point in development as it was sacrificed to the Perforce gods.)

So now I was going into the third and final month with a scrapped multiple ending system and little hope for the cutscenes. Month three was mainly focused on combined our levels together as a team and getting in an art pass, so I was hoping that I would have time to make the cutscenes. We also had spring break during this month which gave a free extra week to work on stuff. Unfortunately, from the moment we combined all of our levels we had a massive influx of bugs. Things that used to work back in the solo build were now non-functioning. We also had to figure out how to merge five very different levels into a somewhat cohesive experience. Knowing all this, I pivoted to trying to tell as much of the story as possible through just environmental means.

Since I was one of the better coders on the team (humble brag, I know), I took up the task of helping fix bugs; even ones that weren’t mine. I was also the one responsible for the video editing which consumed the entirety of each weekly build day. All of those things kept piling up more and more as the weeks progressed, with the only break being spring break which I used to model some assets in Maya. Unfortunately, even that didn’t go as planned as I didn’t have time to model my featured cargo ship.

At the end of the month we turned in a project that, though I was proud of, I felt could have still been better. Our final assignment was actually to write a postmortem which partly inspired this longer version. So if the project turned out well, what was I upset about?

Well, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph I had originally come up with a vision way out of scope. Of course, I didn’t quite realize that at the time and I believed everything that I drafted was possible. I may have been right but so much of the development time was taken up by bug fixing that many things had to get cut. My long history of playing only AAA games had fooled me into thinking that was the minimum and, perhaps more painfully, that I was capable of that level of polish as an amateur designer.

So what’s to be learned form all this? Well, if you are a designer then that answer is probably obvious. The whole experience helped to shake me out of my dream land where I could single-handedly create something of AAA quality. Now, that being said, I’m not even going to try and pretend that I don’t still have scope issues (that will quite likely resurface as soon as I start my solo project). I will always aim for a high level of quality, whether I’m realistically capable of reaching it or not. Maybe I don’t play enough indie games or maybe I’m just too hard on myself. Either way, its an issue I’ve been working on since this project wrapped back in May of 2017 and though it has gotten me into trouble in the past, I like to think that it helps hold me to higher standards. As unsatisfying as it is to constantly reach out for something that is out of range and come up short, I believe it is in that reaching where the best possible outcome is found.