Taylor Andrews, PPJ 8, Personal Postmortem

Three things that went RIGHT:

• Our Teamwork

I was fortunate enough to work with a team that I got along with very well. I have only worked with one member previously for a class assignment and was pleased to find no issue with the majority of my team. We defined each others' roles at the beginning which I found to have been helpful especially with a small team like ours. We understood each others strengths and weaknesses and was able to know who to go to for help and who to ask for assets. I know I will not always be able to work with a team I get along with so well but I think its important for me personally to understand what makes a good teammate. I know I have to communicate well, do my portion of the work on time (or let others know if I will not be able to do the work), and not be afraid to ask questions or disagree with my teammates. I will never know if I will work for a team I don't get along with but I can be responsible for being a good team member to others.

• Character Design

Although I have been taught and researched aspects of character design, this was the first real time I designed characters for a project. I had to keep in mind that the design can't be too complicated to model and had to be designed with low-poly in mind. I found that I was limited in the design I can make and with three different characters I had to think of a way to make them each unique. I found that by using the basic elements of design like color, shape, and size, I can design characters different enough from each other that looks like they belong in the same space. I also found ways to show relationships between characters by keeping certain features the same and making their color palettes similar.

• Loading Screen Animation

I haven't made assets for unity before and I didn't understand how to make animations for it at the start. However, after discussion with Jake and a little bit of research, we decided to go with a frame animation. I didn't want to have Jake import in several frames so I limited myself to under 10 frames. I had to design the animation so that it flows together convincingly enough and repeats. I also learned that less is more in the context of falling flowers since the first few test iterations had a lot of flowers falling at once. I also found that with less flowers, slowing down their fall shows their mass and also offers a more relaxing atmosphere which was the goal.

Three things that went WRONG:

• Communication

It wasn't very often but there was a few times where the team lacked communication. I found that some members were more talkative than others and it was difficult to get their opinions at times. This wasn't a big deal since we had a team meeting every Friday and the writers had an additional meeting every Monday. I found that I respected people more if they communicated with the team that they couldn't finish their work. I wasn't frustrated or upset - especially if they said something earlier in the week. However, there were times where the team was left wondering about whether or not work would be completed in time for the class and it was both frustrating and stressful overall. I learned that its okay to not be able to finish your portion of the work IF you communicate that to the team early enough and with plausible reason. Leaving the team without any idea of what's happening just causes unnecessary strain on the team. If communicated early enough, someone else can help you.

• U.I.

This was my first time creating U.I. from scratch instead of editing an existing U.I. I found the process easy yet also difficult to begin. Fortunately, Malcolm had designed the initial look of the U.I. and I was able to develop the U.I. from that. One of the most difficult parts of the design was to create U.I. that wasn't affected by the lighting. The U.I. had to stand out against the fully lit background as well as the night time scene. Finding a color that showed off well on both backgrounds and matched the game's color scheme was difficult. I especially found it hard when the imported U.I. looked slightly different from the actual colors used in Photoshop. However, I learned that its okay to have a certain design concept in mind in the beginning and have to adapt it later on. I fully scrapped ideas, went back to them, and discussed further with my team about the designs. It wasn't a one design and iteration process but I had to continuously work on it. It was frustrating at first but now I understand its just a part of the process. Nothing is set until the end of production. I also learned a lot about color, transparency, and exporting assets for unity.

• Work Balance

During some weeks, I felt like I had a lot more work than others and felt frustrated and overwhelmed at some times. However, other weeks I felt guilty for not having a lot of work compared to others. However, I understand that I took on enough work that I was needed for and offered to help others in other areas. I learned that communication means a lot especially when dividing up the tasks per week. We need to assign tasks instead of hope someone will do them. I found that it really ends up being communication that fixes this issue and acknowledging that some aspects of the game will need more work at the beginning compared to the end, vice versa, or will continually need a lot of work. I had a lot of work in the beginning while making concept art and other 2D assets but had less to do towards the end. I didn't want to slack off for my team and knew everyone else still had a lot of work to do so I instead started to create the sell presentations the last couple weeks. I believe overall, its best to understand your own limits, your work schedule, and take on the work you are able to do but also don't feel so guilty if there isn't work that you can do. I can't help it that I am not a great programmer and have not a lot of experience with unity. I will do what I am able to do for the team.