As my final semester draws to a close this week, we are now finalizing our game for release on Steam and to be shown at the senior show this Friday, May 6th. This is quite a strange feeling, it seems surreal to be done so quickly when it feels like I was just writing a blog about the start of this process. This blog probably will not have much to say since I just wrote one about a week ago, but I want to reflect some on the whole process and how things have finalized and any potential lessons that have come from this experience.
What I Have Learned
There have been a few different lessons for me from this longer term experience with a months long project. I think it has helped quite a bit with learning about scale and amount that can be accomplished, although I did also have a decent idea of that beforehand I believe. It also provided me with a better grasp of what exactly a production process is like, between the alpha, beta and then post production/polishing stage. This will, I believe, help me in any jobs at big companies or when I work on projects post college with friends or even potentially continuing the development of this game. This whole experience was also beneficial for learning about how sub teams in these kinds of projects work and what it is like to fill a more specialized role like I have had to for this project.
Some Thoughts On My Work
This is probably going to be somewhat overlapping with the previous section about what I learned, but I wanted to cover in some detail the information about what exactly I did. Since I have talked about all of this in more detail in other blogs, I will mostly summarize here what I worked on over the past few months. The main contribution for me has been the AI thief that I have programmed for Planetary Planter. The AI thief, also called Squimbus, moves around the area and steals items from the player if they get too close. This did not end up being anything too complicated, but it was fun to make and a nice experience in the progress.
Future Plans
What could come for this game in the future is something I have been thinking about now that we have essentially finished our development period. Aside from our Steam release in a bit under 2 weeks, we could be done with this development if we so desire. If we will do so is still an open question, but the possibility of continued game development is a somewhat exciting potential choice for a few reasons. There is of course the ability to continue to develop our most extensive game concept from college, but also to continue to refine the game for potential job prospects. We may move on to other games, or potentially stop the development for a time entirely, but to have these opportunities regardless is nice.
Final Thoughts
This was a very enjoyable experience, between this semester and the previous one working on Launch Time Diner, and I think overall it turned out rather well. To be able to spend so much time making games and gaining connections to people is a really beneficial experience, and I hope it leads to really useful things in the future.
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