Matthew Napolillo | Week 9: The Beginning of the End

Matthew Napolillo | Week 9: The Beginning of the End

WEEKLY NARRATIVE

The two major priorities this week were getting the final two designs in the game: the PreHero Challenge, and the Library Hero Room (the one that contains the Wall Memento). Most of my work this week was getting those done in time for Kane to do the models. 

The rest of the week was just the usual team meeting, and making a brief change to the hallways using Pro Builder where you could see through a crack in the mesh.

CONTENT WITH HOURS

• Level Layout Design (4 hours)
• Team Meeting (2 hours)
• Fixing Hallway Issue (.5 hour)

WORKFLOW EXAMPLES

Library Pre-Hero Room Challenge Design

Library Hero Room Design

POSITIVE OUTCOMES

• Created final designs
• Took care of an issue with a hallway mesh
• Got to mess around with ProBuilder

NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

• Didn't have time to help out with Art Dept decorating/texturing scenes

POSTMORTEM

Well we're finally here. It's the end of the quarter, and this has been one hell of a quarter. At the beginning of the quarter I was full of enthusiasm to be working on this project. I was so eager to learn and to build up this game into something to be proud of. Though my original intent was to focus on the programming side, I ended up being put on the design team because of my experience on SPARK. Though I thought I would be able to go back and forth, I ended up diving head first into design. The first three weeks were a whirlwind of meetings, new concepts, and trying to build out this game into a new and interesting experience. There were so many ideas being discussed and debated. I was a bit stubborn early on, and realized that was one of the things I needed to work on. I watched a ton of GDC talks, and learned about important design pillars. Every week things would change, and I'd learn more. However, while all these decisions were being formed and thrown around, we weren't doing the best job at communicating all the new changes to other departments on the team (specifically the programming team). 

About halfway through the term, that lack of communication came to a head. This was probably one of the most important things I learned over the course of this term; when working on a team this large, make sure the people implementing the new changes are kept as aware as possible (and in the room hopefully) about those discussions and changes. It was rough dealing with the realization that there had been this glaring problem the whole time. Another issue I realized a few weeks in is that we really needed a Design Lead who'd be the final say on whether a change happened or not. Someone to vet Design ideas and make the final call so that debates wouldn't go on for too long. Though I don't think I was ready for that position at the beginning of the term, I felt comfortable taking charge as the Design Lead at around the same time that the disconnect between departments became apparent.

I feel like I grew a lot working on this project. No matter how the project turns out, I'm content with how much I've learned as a game designer.

NEXT TASKS

Help out the Art Dept on decoration and texturing. 

TOTAL HOURS LOGGED THIS WEEK: 6.5 hours