#i just spent like 7 potions and 5 revives

[goldensunset]

finally oh my goodness mela of team star actually had me on the ropes that took forever

[dalekofchaos]

Why Voldemort is a terrible villain and how I’d improve Voldemort as a villain

As much as I like Voldemort, when you look back on the books. Voldemort is a terrible villain. Yes he has the Horcruxes and has loyal followers...but that’s it. In this post I will be examining why Voldemort is a terrible villain in Harry Potter and how I would improve Voldemort as a villain.

Let’s look at Voldemort’s track record

No clear motivations. The movies do absolutely nothing to flesh out Voldemort, but that's understandable, they're the movies. But even in the books, there is no clear reason for Voldemort doing any of the things that he does. During the flashbacks in the Pensive, Tom is a disturbed child who has a tendency to torture animals, lure other children to creepy caves and steal stuff - all of this is bad, yes, but why? Why is Tom Riddle "evil"? I know the explanation that the canon somewhat provides: that Voldemort doesn't know love/friendship/connection because he was conceived under the trickery of a love potion, and his mother was abused But, even if you accept that explanation, that does not justify Tom Riddle being innately evil and monstrous. Why is he racist/supremacist? If he really is a natural genius with a detachment from human emotion, shouldn't he also be detached from things like blood supremacy, ancestry and mortality? Just because he's a sociopath doesn't mean he will automatically turn into Hitler.

Wages a Wizarding war, but couldn’t even conquer his own Wizarding Nation

He couldn’t become Minister Of Magic. Instead he dicked around in Borgins And Burkes and instead wanted to become Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor.....for reasons. He could’ve used his power as Minister Of Magic to gain followers, especially the fanatic pure blood families and the impressionable Slytherins and cover for his Horcrux murders. But nooo.

When Voldemort DOES take power by force during the second Wizarding War, he does barely anything with it. Voldemort owns the government and has an army of evil. Where does he plan to launch his attack on the world? At a god damn highschool. Yes I know he attacked Hogwarts because of the last Horcrux. Didn't need to get that far if he didn't act like the world's worst Bond villain and monologued for enough time to let Harry either escape or for the Deus ex machina to arrive on que. The first two times it happens, yeah I get it. You're a villain who is up himself, shit happens. But by book 5 when he is still doing dumb shit it's unforgivable. How hard is it to issue a kill on sight order to your hordes of evil? I mean FFS you have legit werewolves on your side, who can sniff out a drop of blood miles away and yet you do nothing with them? Not only do you fail to kill a defenseless baby but you can't evil kill the kid when he's locked up in your second in commands basement.

He isn't particularly charismatic or a decent leader. He does have tons of followers, for reasons. Seriously, except for fear and opportunism I can't understand why anybody would want to fight for him. I mean, I get that he is basically magic!Hitler, but actual Hitler could at least hold speeches. Actual Hitler had arguments why his rule would be good for the German people. Voldemort doesn't. Voldemort treats his followers like shit and tortures or kills them if they aren't useful any more.

He didn't do his homework and doesn't knows the magic lore good enough. He manages to kill himself two times because of lore he really should have known about. The first time he fails to see the magic love-charm, the second time he doesn't recognizes the arcane rules of wand ownership. Those are stupid, avoidable mistakes for somebody that is supposed to be the greatest dark mage of his time.

He isn't even a particularly good mage. He manages to get statemaled by Harry and defeated by Dumbledore. He never does anything truly remarkable with magic that we haven't seen other characters do the same or better (the cave in book six is pretty good, but that's already has best showing). All we see is “AVADA KEDAVA.” Cool, I’ve seen every damn villain use that stupid fucking spell and yes it is a terrible spell.

His plans are... well, they are shit. If your plans get permanently foiled by a bunch of meddeling kids, you should think about retirement, not world domination. The plan in "Goblet of fire" only works out because of dumb luck. "Orden of phoenix" works out because of Harrys incompetence. The plan to kill Dumbledore only worked cause Voldemort used logic and had one of his followers do the work for him. The rest of his plans fail gloriously.

Voldemort's goals. He... wants to be immortal, but why? Because he's afraid of death? Why is he afraid of death? He literally spent his childhood cutting open rabbits. He excelled in all fields of academia and is arguably very intelligent; intelligence tends to negate superstition. Okay, fine; let's assume he's afraid of death. But even if we look for another explanation: maybe he wants to live forever in order to stay in power.

Voldemort wants power...Why does he want power? Why does he want to, quite literally, take over the world? It makes no sense. He has no reason to care about any of that. Even if he's prejudiced against Muggles, what exactly gives him the willpower to actually gather followers, build a legion of darkdoom evil squad and kill everyone? His motivations are never explained, and he is introduced to the story as a 2-dimensional "bad guy". Even from the 4th book onward, Voldemort is never actually fleshed out. He simply goes from bad guy to "extremely bad guy/"super fucking evil". It's shallow. It's a bad character. He isn't even a character. He has no depth, nuance, relatability or layers to him. He's just a textbook douchebag who exists simply to give the protagonists something to do, because otherwise the stories would just be about magic school.

Let's look at the closest and most obvious reflection: Adolf Hitler. It's painfully obvious that Voldemort's movement is based on Nazism. But if you read Mein Kampf, Hitler actually believed what he was doing was justified, and provided reasons for it which he thought made sense. Even if it was objectively flawed, he believed it. That's what makes a good character in fiction; even if they're actually batshit fucking insane and critically evil, you can make them relatable if you go inside their head and show the audience why they're doing what they're doing. Even if the audience doesn't agree with the character, the audience understands why the character thinks this way. Unlike Hitler's diary, Voldemort has no level of self-introspection, no actual justifications. He's a walking plot device, and that's ridiculously bad for a 7-book-long story where he's the main antagonist. I don't remember a single interaction, scene or exchange where Voldemort is shown to have any degree of self-awareness. The youngest we ever see him is when Dumbledore visits him in the orphanage, and by that point he's already evil as balls, for seemingly no reason. Even when Harry is talking to him in their final fight, Voldemort only hisses and spits out superficial threats and a shallow understanding of the events around him, and actually has no idea who he is, or why he's doing what he does. . If he were a realistic character, this lack of self-awareness would build up over time, would create self-doubt in him, and he would go through a character arc where he "found himself" and learned what he really wanted. And then, maybe he comes back and does some crazy shit, but this time he does them with glorious conviction, and has no shame in admitting it. The audience knows him now, and he's a great villain. But that's not what we got. Remember the 13-odd years Voldemort spent floating around like a puff of gas, possessing rats and squatting in Quirrel's turban? Why did his character not develop? HE HAD THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS TO REFLECT ON HIMSELF. He literally had nothing else to do. He could've become such a complex character. Think about it: a bland, textbook villain gets cucked into infinity and now can't actually do anything but bide his time. It would clearly affect his personality, especially if it lasts 13 goddamn years. But when Voldemort is revived in book 4, he's still just "look how evil I am.exe". He had literally no character arc of any kind. That's actually impossible. No sentient human being can have the same personality, goals and motivations after over a decade of exile. He's a badly-written villain, plain and simple.

It seems like a very poor decision to make the antagonist of 7 thick books this unrelatable and bland. It also makes no sense because Rowling has written consistently excellent characters throughout the series. Why not make Voldemort a real character?

So here is how I would improve Voldemort as a villain

Motivation. So since it's universally accepted that Salazar was against Muggleorns because he grew up in a time where Wizards and Witches were being burned at the stake. What if Voldemort had similar intentions cause he grew up in a time during WWII and the Cold War and saw how powerful and dangerous the Muggles were becoming with their nuclear weapons and wanted to protect magic kind from the Muggles and viewed the Muggles invading a possibility. So he became Lord Voldemort and formed the Death Eaters to finish Salazar Slytherin’s work to protect magic kind against Muggles and Muggleborns. It could’ve started out as noble, but turned racist and evil in the end.  

As Tom Riddle, he becomes the Minister Of Magic or given a position of power secondary to the Minister Of Magic. The Lord Of Magic. It’s important that prior to becoming Lord Voldemort, he should hold a position of political power within the Ministry Of Magic. In Hogwarts, it is said as a student Tom was charismatic, charming and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So why not use all that for politics? He could use his charm and political power to turn the Ministry Of Magic against the Muggleborns and against the Muggles. He would write a book explaining in detail why he believes in what he believes and that gives him the following he needs. The Book in question would be called “Magic Is Might!” The old Pure Blood magical families and impressionable young Slytherins would follow him like moths to a flame.  He could use his newfound political power to research all forms of magic and even the dark arts. He could make Horcruxes in secret. As Voldemort he would gather allies who were rejected by society like Werewolves and Giants. But despite what the Horcruxes do to his face, he could use magic to keep up appearances. He wouldn’t just be seeking to wage war with the muggles and muggleborns. First Voldemort has to take over the Wizarding world. 

Treats his followers like allies. Voldemort does not use fear and the threat of death and torture on his most trusted allies. Tom Riddle’s the Knights of Walpurgis hold key positions in Tom Riddle’s administration and then the Death Eaters are born and Voldemort treats them with respect and admiration. In a sense, he treats the Death Eaters like family.

The First WIzarding War should have been about Voldemort waging war on the other Wizarding nations. This would truly show how terrifying and powerful Voldemort really is. Would also explain why the other nations did not interfere in the second war, cause they were that terrified of Voldemort. The Order Of Phoenix was barely able to win and drive Voldemort from power. 

Voldemort’s fall was because he was desperate. He was ousted from power and Dumbledore, the OOTP and Aurors are on his trail. His body is failing him, so he desperately needs to create a new Horcrux. So he kills The Potters. He fully knew that Lily used the love charm to shield Harry from him. So He saw a way out. Voldemort purposefully destroyed himself so he could gain a new Horcrux. 

Plus, we can have Voldemort hide the Horcruxes in the nations he conquered. So Voldemort can hide them in -Russia -Germany -America -Hogwarts -France Obviously Nagini would be by his side at all times and well Harry is the last one. For context of how Voldemort conquered these nations. Imperio, subterfuge, and mass hysteria. He took out the Wizarding governments and implanted them with his thrawls.

Make Voldemort as hated as Umbridge. Here’s how.

In my hypothetical scenario where Voldemort hides the Horcruxes in different Wizarding Nations, make 8 books. Book 7 ends with everyone graduating from Hogwarts and the fall of the Ministry. 

This way, after graduation, the Ministry has fallen and it ends with the Big Seven on the run. In Book 8 they are all on the hunt for the Horcruxes. Not just for Horcruxes, but international allies to unite the Wizarding world against Voldemort. It ends with the final confrontation being at the Ministry. Voldemort's endgame plan is not just to wipe out the Muggleborns, but wiping out the Muggles. He has the Magic equivalent to a Nuclear bomb. Voldemort wants to destroy the Muggles and recreate the world in his image. Magic Is Might! He plans on using it and Harry has to stop him before it's too late

Voldemort fails because the Horcruxes are failing him. It isn’t immortality, it is only temporarily longevity and every time one of his Horcruxes gets destroyed, his body breaks down and his soul is in an even worse shape.  When Nagini is destroyed, it is over. Voldemort thinks if he can kill Harry, he will live forever as the prophecy states “only one can live forever.” so he believes if he could just kill Harry, he can win. But Harry deflects his curses and sends it right back at him. Voldemort dies as he did in the book. Powerless, alone and human.

[missnight0wl]

Do you place any of the time limited side quests at a different year from the game? For example, i think it makes sense for the Howling Halloween sq to be set after the sq with the forgetfulness potion in year 3 rather than year 1. The first Christmas sq also takes place in year 1, even though MC wouldn’t know Bill at that point. The patronus sq makes a reference to Mc being a legimellion even though they wouldn’t find that out till later.

I kind of stopped trying to fit all the TLSQs into my story at some point, but I still can’t help wondering where they belong into the canon story. And yeah, probably most of them don’t make sense where they’re placed by the devs (or at least would make more sense somewhere else). Now, I’ll try to keep it short, but I’m gonna comment on pretty much every TLSQ, so… beware.

YEAR 1:

Hagrid’s Birthday. It should’ve been at least Y2. Merula comments at one point that Dumbledore probably wants to give MC 100 House points (which really makes sense only after we got points at the end of Y1), and MC’s bond with Hagrid was much closer in Y2, so they’d indeed be the right person to throw his birthday. Especially that Hagrid canonically was born on December 6th, so in Y1, MC knew him only for three months.

Howling Hallowe’en. All right, so I personally HATE this TLSQ because MC duelling Greyback is stupid no matter their age. But if it has to exist, then as you said, it should’ve happened after “Penny For Your Thoughts”, so not before Y3. I believe Scarlett was supposed to die between Y2 and Y3, so before that, it doesn’t make sense that Penny’s fear of werewolves is so great. It also takes away from the relationship between Penny and Chiara (if Penny didn’t experience the death of her friend, it’s not that meaningful that she overcomes her prejudice for Chiara).

Christmas at Hogwarts. It CAN’T happen before Y2. When Rowan mentions Bill for the first time, MC doesn’t even know who he is. How would it make sense if they spent Christmas together a year earlier? Personally, I think it should be Y3 when MC’s friendship with both Bill and Tonks was closer already.

YEAR 2:

The Weird Sisters. This one should probably be Y4, even if only because of the Sisters’ age. Myron is supposed to be one year older than Bill, meaning that in MC’s Y4, Myron was in his last year. Orsino is supposed to be the same age as Percy, so at the same time he was in his second year – a bit young to be on the band, but possible (more likely than in his first year if you ask me).

Hosting the Beauxbatons. I guess it could stay in Y2, but MC talks quite a lot about the Cursed Vaults and how great they are at solving mysteries, so I believe that Y3 or even Y4 would make more sense.

Chiara’s TLSQ. It happens a year after the Halloween events, so it should be Y4.

Christmas at the Burrow. Again, since it happens a year after the previous Christmas TLSQ, it should be Y4. It goes well with Charlie coming to Hogwarts to rescue us because he and MC got pretty close in Y4 (working on the Forest Vault and all).

Meet the Malfoys. Lucius came to Hogwarts because the school governors were alarmed by the things going on at school, so it has to be after the Vault of Ice. Although, I’d argue that two vaults are more likely to be a reason for concern, putting the quest in Y4. Also, in MC’s second year, Draco was only five! He looked and acted more like a 7/8-years-old.

YEAR 3:

Become an Animagus. A friendly conversation with both Barnaby and Tulip at the very beginning of the quest suggests Y4.

The Frog Choir. It could stay in Y3 since Tulip acts rather uncertain about her friendship with MC. The problem is that it triggers too early. When I played with my second MC a while ago, I’m pretty sure it triggered even before I learnt from Tulip that she worked with Merula.

Flying Solo. It should be Y5 (I imagine that becoming an Animagus would take at least all Y4). There’s the whole conversation where Talbott talks about Rakepick’s white owl. In Y3, Merula thinks she’s about to meet Snape, but then, the mention of school owls doesn’t really make sense – it was definitely written with Rakepick in mind, so I just don’t understand why they placed it in Y3.

YEAR 4:

Become a Prefect. No complaints here.

Magical Creatures Everywhere. As far as I remember, there was nothing that wouldn’t really fit here, so I guess we’re also clear.

Celestial Ball. It’s a bit odd to have a ball when there’s the Sleepwalking Curse at school, but… sure, we can go with this.

Grand Pranksters. Yeah, I believe it all works here again. Tonks and Tulip are pretty close friends already, Rita returned like a couple of months after her second SQ (when we blackmailed her about being an unregistered Animagus). Even Ismelda’s part is okay since she was also one of the optional people to borrow a broom from.

The Patronus TLSQ. It probably should be Y5. The Legilimency scene you mention doesn’t happen if you do the quest in Y4, but the fact that it exists (and it’s quite developed) suggests that the quest was written with Y5 in mind. Again, I don’t understand why it was placed earlier.

First Date. I mean… sure.

YEAR 5:

Sir Cadogan. It definitely belongs to Y5 since it talks about Beatrice being trapped in the portrait. However, similar to the Frog Choir, it triggers too early. I believe it triggers in chapter 6 now. It’d make more sense after our fight in the Library (to remind MC how important it is to work with their friends) and after we found Scabbers in front of the Vault of Ice – so around chapter 14. In the TLSQ, Rakepick revived the Ice Knight, so MC shouldn’t have been that surprised seeing the cursed ice around the castle in the main story. Also, when they searched the Icy Corridor with Jae, it sure sounded like they weren’t there since Y2.

O.W.L.s. No complaints here.

Valentine’s Day. NOPE! Just nope. There’s no way Penny would care about stupid Valentine’s Day while Beatrice was trapped in the portrait. Similar goes to MC who was worried about both Haywood sisters AND they were anxious about finding Jacob in the next vault. Moreover, THERE’S NO WAY Rakepick would allow Lockhart to waste the time of her apprentices. I don’t know where else it fits better, but quite frankly, I don’t care.

The All-Wizards Tournament. I mean, I’m not mad about it being in Y5, but I actually like it better when I think that Hagrid and Kettleburn organised it to distract everyone after Rowan’s death. I’d say it’s more meaningful in Y6.

Festival Fun. Very similar arguments as for the First Date. Although, I suppose it could’ve happened on its own in Y5, just without the dating element.

YEAR 6:

The Dragon Sanctuary. Honestly, it’d probably make more sense as the summer holidays event or even post-graduation, but I guess Y6 is not bad.

The Headkid. Yep, makes sense.

[samuelrichardhubbard-blog]

Neverending Postmortem

Game Summary

Title Neverending

Genre Top-down, 2D, rogue-like, twin stick shooter

Platform(s) Initially the game will release for Android devices. As the game gains traction, it will be released for iOS devices. The Android version will be available for anyone who is running at least 4.1 and the iOS version will be available for devices running multiple versions previous to the most current.

Revenue model Interstitial advertisements. Upon death the player has the option to watch an interstitial advertisement for 30 seconds in order to revive back to full health instead of losing all progress inside of the game.

Development tools/Language Unity3D & C# - The game was developed using the Unity game engine and the C# programming language. Development started off utilizing the 2018.2.8f1 but due to a complete computer crash, it was completed using 2018.3.3f1.

Photoshop – This tool was primarily used to alter the art assets when needed to facilitate the general desired aesthetic of the game.

Tiled – This tool was utilized to piece together the initial room assets/prefabs. As development continued, any additional tilemaps that needed to be created was done inside of Unity exclusively.

Audacity – This was used only to make the necessary cuts to the audio tracks to attain a more seamless loop to the background music.

Game audience The game will be targeting both male and female gamers between the ages of 14 and 29 who are a healthy mix of Achievers and Explorers (Gamification 101, 2014).

Team Samuel Hubbard – Developer/Designer Thomas Graham – Primary Advisor Nick Penney – Alternate Advisor

Copyright/Reference Hubbard, S. (2019). Neverending [Mobile game]. Ozark, AL. Neverending © 2019 Samuel Hubbard. All rights reserved.

Backstory

Sound Bite Fight. Loot. Survive. Learn.

Executive Summary Neverending is a twin stick, rogue-like shooter where you will explore and fight your way through randomly generated dungeons in order to uncover the mystery as to why you are trapped in what seems like an endless loop. No dungeon playthrough will ever be the same as you get various buffs that will alter the way you approach different encounters and you have three different classes to choose from.

Inspiration I love rogue-like games. I have played Dead Cells (Motion Twin, 2018), Binding of Isaac (McMillen, 2011), Enter the Gungeon (Dodge Roll, 2016), Hades (Supergiant Games, 2018), and a multitude of others. I wanted to create a rogue-like experience that you could legitimately take with you in your pocket. The general inspiration came from the fact that a lot of these have a fairly large time commitment in one sitting if you want to make any real progress, which isn’t ideal for being able to play it while you are in a doctor’s office waiting to be called back for an appointment. So, the general design is based on this aspect: short spurt style dungeons with a boss at the end that will save all progress along the way so that if you have to put your device down, you can come back knowing that all of your progress is saved. That really was the inspiration to Neverending. In addition to the overarching, top level design I wanted the game to have an old school feel to it, so I opted for it to be two-dimensional and utilize pixel-based artwork. When it came to the sound effects, I wanted them to be pleasing to the ear and satisfying. The music needed to instill some adrenaline, so it felt like some intense orchestral music would be my best choice.

Capstone Game Scope The original scope that was planned for my capstone was a bit too large for what I would have been able to accomplish in the compressed time frame with my level of experience with game development. So, the overall scope for the capstone ended up getting scaled back to what is essentially a fully functional, albeit limited, game that acts as a phenomenal prototype for what the game can expect to become provided I give it more “time in the oven.”

The capstone game scope is comprised of one biome with two enemy types and one boss inside of that biome. The player has the choice between three different classes (knight, rogue, mage) to choose from where the attacks and statistics are similar but there are subtle differences. All of them throw projectiles at the enemies. The knight has no special abilities and simply does a high alpha strike style of attack. The rogue’s attack does no upfront damage but apply a damage over time effect to the enemies that it hits. The mage’s attack is a fireball that does less initial damage to the enemies but has an area of effect explosion that will also damage nearby enemies. The two different enemy types are a melee skeleton and a ranged goblin wizard. The melee enemy utilizes an A* pathfinder to move toward the enemy and, once in range, attacks the player up close. The ranged enemy stays in one place and simply shoots at the player. However, there is a timer in place that will cause the ranged enemy to teleport to a random location inside of the room. The dungeon is procedurally generated outside of the menu and boss level, so the overall layout is different with every run. The boss is comprised of two different attacks (a whirlwind attack and an AOE projectile spread attack) and one overall phase. The boss will randomly perform an attack toward the player. The overall game is setup to be run repeatedly with the goal of unlocking all of the lore. If the player dies, their progress and stats will be reset back to zero to facilitate the rogue-like elements to the general design. The player will power up with buff potions and be able to carry two inventory items for use as he/she progresses through the dungeon rooms.

Ideal The capstone game scope is essentially a stripped-down version of what the ideal game scope would be. Ideally, the game would include multiple biomes with more enemy architypes than just two. I think that having 10 biomes with 5-7 total enemy architypes per biome. There would be approximately 3 times as many possible room layouts as what is included in the game in its current form. There would also be 2-3 bosses per biome. Bosses would have 3-5 unique attacks and 2-3 overall phases that the player would have to react to. Speaking of the player, there would be a much larger cast of classes for the player to choose from where the differences are inherently more unique. There would be melee and ranged classes with plenty of differences to enable them to stand apart from each other. The movement and shooting would be more refined as well. In its current state, the movement and shooting are locked to variances of 45 degrees. I would want to open this up and have an omnidirectional input approach. In addition to having lore unlocks, there would be other unlocks and rewards that would drive the player to continue playing. For example, there would be more traditional achievements and then what could be equated to a trophy case where the player could visually see different objects that the player has acquired from killing bosses. There would also be a statistic portion where the player could see how many dungeon runs they’ve made, what their longest streak has been, how many hours they have played, etc. I feel that this is the ideal visualization of what Neverending could be.

Demo Screencast

  The Critique: What went right

Design & Aesthetics The aesthetic design really could not have gone any better in my opinion. Granted, I am no artist, so it was nice to be able to get onto the Asset Store to find some pixel-based art assets. Some of the inventory items are mine and I edited some of the other art assets. When you just apply a light source, instead of having it full bright, it really conveys the sense that you’re in a dungeon! So, as a general whole I would say that the aesthetic design was an overall win.

Project Management It took me a little while to get used to Underdog, but once I had a good handle on it, I feel like it did a great job of keeping track of the time spent and keeping track of the overall milestones that I was working on. There at the end when I was crunching, I used Trello as well to really have a fast view of what was immediately important for me to work on. I do believe that I will be utilizing Trello again in the future. In terms of my completion, while I had some missteps, I am can confidently say that the progress that I made was consistent and adequate during development.

Development Overall development of the game was handled well. While I was learning both Unity and C# while I was creating this game, it all was pretty intuitive for me to pick up on to implement the functionality that I needed to implement. The biggest achievement that was achieved was implementing the A* algorithm into the game. In fact, instead of utilizing a standard array or list to sort through all of the nodes to calculate the fastest route to the player, I implemented a heap. That took the calculation times down from an average of 19ms to an average of 4ms.

Testing The good aspects when it came to testing the app was the ease in which I was able to put it up on Google Play. Because of that I was able to easily share it to people to try out to give me feedback on. Once I figured out how to use Unity’s profiler, it was a great way for me to simply verify that my game wasn’t too resource intensive. Overall, there isn’t too much to add here about the testing.

Business Model/Plan The positive aspect about the business model is the fact that there is a monetization method in place. It wasn’t the planned implementation, but after looking at different ways that the game could be monetized throughout development, it only made sense to include a means of letting the player revive in a rogue-like game by watching an ad. The player may not want to give up their progress and watching an ad then benefits both parties.

The Critique: What went wrong

Design & Aesthetics This is the aspect of the critique that has given me the most issues. Overall, I am super happy with all of the design and aesthetics inside of the game. So, I think that the only aspect that went wrong was simply running out of time. I would have loved to add light sources to the portals and then make the torches and candles light up once a room is cleared. Those were (and still are) on my list of things to accomplish, but when it came time to turn in the final build, there were more important things to fix and implement.

Project Management What went wrong with project management also is what went wrong with development. So, I’ll outline the problem here, go into depth as to what failed with the project management element to the overall development, and then I’ll focus in on how it failed inside of the actual development in the next section.

Overall, when I received the green light for development, it was for a game that was completely outside of the scope of my abilities as a novice game developer. So, at some point in month two of development it became apparent to me that I wasn’t going to be able to implement everything that was slated. This drastically altered the project management plan I had in place to get everything implemented. That meant having to completely remove everything that was currently applied in my Gantt and starting from scratch in that regard.

Development The development issue came in that when it was apparent that I simply didn’t have the skill level to be able to churn out the amount of features that I had originally planned for, I needed to figure out what to develop that would provide enough value to the game so that I could remove the other elements. This made some of the systems that I had already put in place inside of the game utterly pointless for the sake of this turn-in. Overall, it was rather difficult for me to really pinpoint different elements of project management and development that I could call a failure. I suppose another aspect would be that when I first started to implement the game systems into the game, it was coming from a novice’s understanding. As I progressed through development I discovered that there were infinitely better ways of implementing some of the features that were already in the game. However, because that would have required me to go back and restructure almost everything that I had put in place, I chose to continue with the overall direction that I had taken in the beginning so that I could keep the progress moving forward. It isn’t the smartest or best implementation of different features and best practices were not utilized.

Testing While the testing model that I used for having other people test the game and get their feedback to me was so very helpful, the test code that I attempted to write a couple of times throughout development was an utter failure. This is something that I now truly realize that I don’t have a good grasp on. It’s something that I really need to focus in on post-graduation as writing tests for my code is something that will be extremely helpful to learn, not only for my projects, but also for any employer that I may have in the future.

Business Model/Plan The primary issue that I ran into was having to cut the in-app store from the game due to the fact that I wasn’t going to have the amount of time to be able to implement it. This WAS the primary means of monetization for the game. When I objectively looked at all of the remaining requirements after I restructured the overall approach to development, it didn’t make sense for me to keep the store in instead of some other, more important aspects to the game.

Summary

In the end, while the overall differences between the planned version of the game and the finalized version are quite different, both versions still hold the same core principles that the overall design was attempting to reach. The majority of everything that went wrong can be attributed to my inexperience and necessary design changes that cropped up during development.

References

Dodge Roll. (2016). Enter the Gungeon [Computer game]. Austin, TX: Devolver Digital.

Gamification 101: Richard Bartle player types. (2014, July 20). Retrieved from https://repignite.com/2014/07/richard-bartle-player-types/

McMillen, E. (2011). Binding of Isaac [Computer game]. Santa Cruz, CA.

Motion Twin. (2018). Dead Cells [Computer game]. Bordeaux, France: Motion Twin.