Off the Map (Alice project) - Postmortem

   This post is just going to summaries how the project went, including team work, positive/negative aspects and what I would have personally done differently if I was to redo the whole thing.

   First off I want to say I didn't really like this project that much. Not really for any reason other than it wasn't my cup of tea. The whole situation of being forced into a group decided by the tutors was fine for me. Like I mentioned in a previous post, were not going to be able to choose who we work with in the future. So why not get some practice in now. It could have just been handled slightly better in my opinion. But as it turned out we had a good group of people anyway, so that wasn't an issue. Looking back now I think its just because its the end of the year, I've become a bit tired of constant working. Always worrying about if I'm doing enough, not being able to take a break without the thought of "I could be working now instead of..." in the back of my mind. and with this project being such a long one its quite draining. Personally I think I would have benefited a lot more from a few shorter projects rather than the one long one. But hey, that's the curriculum and I've got to stick to it. I just don't think I really benefited from doing this project that much, that's all.

   Team work. Overall I feel we had a good group. We all got along, shared our ideas frequently and all had an equal say in what we did. Exactly how a team should be. Unfortunately I feel we didn't have enough team meetings. We had 1 a week, to see how we were all getting along. But due to the lack of in depth communication within these, I think we lost out on coherency between assets within the final level. More in depth discussions on what we were doing, tri counts, textures and other small things like that, could have really pushed our level to be better as a whole.

Team meetings.

   On the workflow side of things, I think we were maybe a little slow. Slower than I usually am I think. I'm not sure where this came from, or why it happened. Or even if it did happen at all, but looking back that's the impression I'm getting. Apart from the speed of workflow, the flow was good, no problems that come to mind. I did see a lot of people working on a lot of complex stuff though. Such as z-brushing assets and making some interesting high poly bakes. Thinks that I don't feel I could use quickly and confidently in my work. These 2 examples are definitely things I NEED to work on before the next project. This could really up my game and make my work stand out more. I currently feel my work is kind of sat on the sidelines a bit.

   What I originally wanted form this project was to do some engine stuff, get to know the software a little better, which started off great, me and Jonah agreed we'd share the engine responsibilities. I made some level block outs and played trough them and Jonah did his thing. Then after a week or so we figured we needed a designated engine guy, which quickly was unofficially appointed to Jonah out of nowhere, I felt a little annoyed, as that's what I've been wanting to do for a while now. But I didn't really want to make waves. Especially since I didn't put it as my first priority on the tutors list, and the other thing I wanted to work on was environment art (What I ended up doing). So I guess its all ok. I cant help but feel I would have learnt more by doing it, but I couldn't have known that at the time.

On of the level block outs.

   As I was now doing environment art and asset creation. I saw this an opportunity to work on my modularity, as I really enjoyed this in the last project. So that's what I did. Looking at the style of the buildings at the time, in and around oxford I came up with a modular set of one house. This house could make up a whole street. The plan was to make a few versions of the houses to add variety, which could be used throughout the level.

Modular buildings first pass.

   A few of the team members soon thought this was too complex, and would take a lot of engine time. So I simplified based on suggestions of the group. I ended up with a basic block that has "Plug-in" style modularity. More basic stuff, and I don't think it looked as good. But I guess with being in a team you have to work with suggestions of the group. And the final result didn't turn out too bad.

Modular buildings second pass.

   What let me down the most was my textures. I tried to conserve space a bit too much with he unique points of the building, but as the wall itself was tiled I felt more prone to allowing it to be higher resolution. Leaving me with a high res wall with low res focal points. It seems really stupid now. But at the time I thought its what had to be done. Ill not be making that mistake in the future, that's for sure.
   I also made some smaller assets to populate the level with such as the well, a few tools and a bike. As well as 3 large building used for their silhouettes. these weren't textured and therefore not unwrapped. It just gave a better sense of depth rather than having a flat alpha. The fog was pretty dense and the silhouette worked nicely peaking through.

Semi final shot of our level.

   The final product was visually still pretty sparse with objects. we spent the last few weeks populating but we could really have done with more. Despite this when we played through it, the frame rate suffered severely in some areas. The apothecary was populated well but each book was it's own actor. Leaving us with a low frame rate of around 11 fps on average. Terrible. the streets however has around 30 fps on average, which is ok. But still not great, considering the size.

Apothecary.

Final level.

   If I was to do this project differently. I would probably make a side scroller, instead of a 3d environment. It'd give me a wider knowledge of games as a whole, and would be an interesting change. I would also have pushed more to make some of the blueprints and engine work overall. Something I'm now going to have to do over summer. Of course I would also ensure each texture is in proportion to its surroundings, giving a better, more consistent feel to the level. And finally I would manage my time that bit better.

   This project has really made me question if this is what I want from a job. One of the things I mentioned in my interview to get onto this course, was "I don't want a boring 9-5 job" and that I wanted something a bit more random and entertaining. One of the main reasons I really wanted to go into the R.A.F. But being on this course for 2 years now and doing a long project like this has made me question if this is any different form a boring 9-5 job working in Tesco. Yeah I'll be making games, but working for a large company could mean being part of a large production line, just pumping out asset after asset. The project hasn't taught me a lot technically, but it has definitely made me think, and progress in the future.