Thalia Wilson

Teamwork

Communication

Scripting (C#, Blueprints, GML)

Game Engines (Unity, Unreal, Game Maker)

Task Prioritising

Gameplay Design

Level Design

Ideation

Iteration

Resilience

Documentation

Week 1 – Build a Tower – Theme: Set it Up

Week 2 – Collapsing Hexagon -Theme: Advancing Wall of Death

Week 3 – Recoil Rush - Theme: Unconventional Weapon

Week 4 – Two Pieces Make a Whole – Theme: 2 to 1

Week 5 – A Fair Race – Theme: Genre without Mechanic

Week 6 – Hit for a Hit – Theme: Hit for a Hit

Week 7 – Incomplete Dungeon Crawl Game – Theme: Infinite

Week 8 - Space Station Defence – Theme: 10 Seconds

Week 9 – Lasers! Explosions! & Wind! – Theme: Periodic

Having even a little documentation helps

Finding a way to plan your week that works for you is priceless

Having a Library of code and assets saves so much time

Being able to modify old code for your purposes is great

The last 10% takes forever and is full of small boring tasks

Don’t focus on unimportant features; getting the core mechanic down is far more important

Small changes can have the largest of impacts

Taking a break can be far more productive than spending that time on the project

Make sure to get feedback whenever you can. Frequently I would get so focused on making a game that I would never get it played test. While this is not something I got particularity good at, its something I am aware of and improving at

Simple is good - a simiple solution time that can be spent elsewhere, as long as it works thats great.

Aesthetics & Polish cannot save a bad design but can make a good design great

Learning to enjoy the process is much better than loving the outcome. One I learnt this I found it much easier to focus on development and made better games because of it.

Game Design

Gameplay Design

Programming - C#

Game engine usage

Documentation

Debugging

Ideation

Prototyping

Written Communication

Scheduling

Problem-Solving

Creative Thinking

Time Management

Reflection

Evaluation

Learning

Alicja Mrozek (Concept Artist / UI Designer)

Amber Berwick (3D Artist / Animator)

Berenika Zemanek (3D Artist / Technical Artist)

Connor Pegg (Producer / Narrative Designer)

Duncan Rendall (Programmer / Audio Programmer)

Samuel Yip (Audio Designer / Game Designer)

Tadas Raudonis (Programmer / Game Designer)

Thalia Wilson (Level Designer / Game Designer)

Level Design

Game Design

Helped with UI

Helped with QA & Playtesting

The level improved massively thanks to the feedback from my teammates, our client and playtesters.

The level comprises small sections of towns, each of which is made up to take advantage of the gameplay mechanics. The field is wide and open, with a small mound to create differences in vertical height. The buildings create an enclosed area perfect for bouncing the ball off walls. The streets are long, narrow areas with obstacles to avoid walking into. The trees provide a surface that makes it harder to predict how the ball will bounce off it.

Several elements to create different levels of verticality. You can get on top of some builds and jump on top of most obstacles, such as cars.

The rough UI sketch’s and prototypes that I made helped Alicia when she created the final UI for the game.

I need to remember the inspiration for the level to some degree. The level was based on UK towns, but the level structure felt too organised for that.

A major lesson learnt was how decorating a level can impact experience and gameplay. The decorations I placed on the level were all functional: objects to bounce the ball off and cars for zombies to walk around. After the art pass, I saw playtesters use the new decorations to their advantage, while some needed altering a lot of the new decorations helped give the game a new breath of life.

Throughout the project, I got too focused on the level design and did not help that much with the game design. In future, I need to ensure I don’t solely focus on one area as it puts more pressure on my teammates to pick up the slack.

While I was not the producer, there were problems in the team that I should have helped solve or ensured were solved. One example was that Connor, our producer, was overwhelmed with additional client deliverables that were focused on game production. While I helped with these near the end of the project, I should have helped earlier before Connor started facing burnout. Additionally, due to personal reasons our main programmer Duncan had to spend a couple of weeks away from the project. As a result, Tadas was overwhelmed with programming & gameplay tasks, which I could have helped. I recognise that I had my own tasks to complete, but the impact both Connor & Tadas overworking had on the team hurt the game too much not to be reduced in hindsight.

The grappling hook feels amazing to use.

Gained much experience with Unreal’s Blueprinting system.

Explored interesting idea of a level

Majority of playtesters enjoyed the game, and all playtests provided helpful feedback.

Some problems are not worth solving because they have a small impact on the player experience and require much time to fix.

Often, when a player’s feedback complains about something, it’s a symptom of another issue.

There is a skill difference between the developer and first time player