Week 4 - Game Jam Pt1

Better late than never I guess. Reflecting on the first week of the Game Jam was difficult because from the point the theme was given (Wednesday) through to Sunday I struggled to formulate an idea that didn't relate directly to ideas that had already been shared in the webinar or on the forums. There were so many great ideas coming through from the group that all I could do was think about those and work around their ideas. I decided to muse on them a little and stay off the forums for a couple of days. This is not ideal in a Jam because of time constraints but this was a little different in that we were discussing idea right off the bat, I guess I needed to think without to much influence. This is something that I haven't done in a while as I mostly deal with other people's ideas and help develop those.

When I finally started to formulate ideas, I started with the ideation processes that we had discussed in previous weeks. I decided to MIro as a platform for Ideation, documentation, and planning. Generating a Mindmap was easy and quick and using the templates and adapting them would allow me to organise the ideas into something with structure. Having this also on mobile devices has greatly improved noting down the ideas and possible solutions to problems that arose throughout the initial stages were beneficial and made my workflow more efficient.

https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_kiS9t_E=/

I have previously used Trello as a project management tool following scrum, I have used this with my students and alongside this I would have them create a physical KanBan board and visual progress board that would communicate the progress and ideas of the game on one huge board. My theory for this is to ensure the game is following the initial idea and continuing to be held up by the Game Pillars. Miro has enabled me to do this much easier and more effectively.

I Created a KanBan board as soon as I had formulated my idea. This was going to be my formal method of managing my game development. I decided on the four elements of my game as suggested by (Schell, 2010) as the Elemental Tetrad, I would break the idea down into Mechanics, Story, Aesthetics, and Technology. I covered all aspects of these categories in the initial stage and kept it simple as it was clear that scoping the project would always be an issue the further I worked into the jam. Concerned about feature creep I would create a list of all the mechanics that I wanted in the game and then look to simplify and reduce to something achievable in the time.

My programming skills are limited, I would be using Unreal and the blueprint visual coding, and this would mean time spent finding the mechanics and testing. There would also need to be time spent using the tutorials to modify to fit into my idea.

I categorised all the tasks, Mechanics, Visuals, Gameplay/story, and features that I would add if there was time into the KanBan board. I also had a section for ideas that would come up during the process (feature creep) so as not to dismiss them but to revisit them at a later date.

I was clear once I had the story for my game it brought an aspect of focus, but nothing could compare to having the mechanics tried and tested. This meant the game could function.

I had taken reference to the MDA framework as outlined by (Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek, 2000) and chosen to spend the initial ideation process focused around the mechanics of the game. To ensure that I could achieve in creating something playable I would first need to make it work and then through this process, it would develop the look and feel of the game as well as the final gameplay experience.

Timer and Countdown Code that subsequently didnt work and went back to orginal method after an evening of experimentation. ie butting a brick wall

Throughout this process it is clear that I have had to change aspects of my original idea based on the limitations of my ability to create the mechanics that I first laid out, I also had to constantly remind myself this was a Jam and the process and problem-solving was most likely to be a more likely outcome than the original image of the game I had in mind. I would however prioritise creating a prototype of the idea and make this playable to work on further should the game feel like it has purpose.

Schell, J., 2010. The Art Of Game Design. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M. and Zubek, R., 2000. MDA: A Formal Approach To Game Design And Game Research. [ebook] Available at: <https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf> [Accessed 24 October 2020].