We're down to the last full sprint of development on Planetary Planter. Systems are complete, the last bits of art, animation and sound are getting implemented over the next day or so for our trailer to begin production, and we'll have a full game to share with the world come May 13th. However, just a few sprints ago the whole team was feeling pretty pessimistic about the state of the game, and we weren't sure how we were going to fix the issues that plagued the game. These issues include the level design being far too empty, as well as the extreme amount of padding our game unintentionally had. The thought of playing our game to completion at that time was dreadful.
Pictured below is the build I had everyone play during that meeting. It's more than a little bit empty and had an overly aggressive version of our planet curving shader making things difficult to see ahead of you, although in this build there wasn't much to miss out on yet.
Here's a peek at some tester feedback from around this time (3/23 to be exact). It's important to note that these testing play sessions were no longer than 15 minutes, so having a non-insignificant number of people who didn't enjoy the game even in those short bursts was concerning, and who knows if those higher scores would be the same if the testers had to play more of the game.
During our full team meeting that Thursday, as we were finishing our alpha milestone, myself and a few others who shared these concerns decided to make the whole team play the game for an extended period of time, then come back together to discuss our thoughts, and the rest of the team quickly realized what was wrong. That brainstorming session allowed us to have a serious discussion about the quality of the game which resulted in every team member voicing concerns and deciding on how to best address them with the time we have left before the Senior Show (game showcase where our class shows their completed games to faculty, recruiters and our peers).
Our team’s values allowed us to pivot into creating the best game we can make with the time we have left, and that’s the kind of decisions I want to be able to make with a team in industry. Since that meeting about a month ago, we've completely redone our level design as well as polishing some mechanics and adding quality of life features to streamline our game. That, plus having significantly more art complete has resulted in our team and our testers genuinely enjoying their time with the game much more than before.
Pictured below is the most recent build of the game, and we've got a lot more going on now, including things not pictured such as a hot and cold biome, as well as the main threat in the game, "Squimbus" who takes your items, although he's a bit unstable at the current time.
Here's the same question from a more recent testing session (4/18). 90% of our testers had an enjoyable experience, a big jump from the previous 60%.
I'm really proud of my team at Champlain College for making this big pivot so late into the game's life while also avoiding crunch on the game itself. This is the kind of team chemistry I want to have when I finally enter the industry. Final game and trailer coming May 13th!
Comments