Learning From Our Mistakes

Wow I actually finished a game... for a little over two years a friend and I have been working on our first ever game and it still has not been released. We've gone on breaks every now and then and when we missed a deadline in the Summer we went on another hiatus. During that time I felt stagnant and really wanted to do something with all the knowledge/experience I gained during development during those two years and in order to change my life a little bit I decided to make a game in 1 month.

Design Document

Initially we didn't have a design document for the game, but after watching Game Dev Underground's video on a simple straight forward design doc, I knew I needed it to keep my thoughts and goals organized and in check. After making some slight modifications and listing off what I wanted PF to be, I set weekly sprints/goals I needed to accomplish while constantly updating the document to keep up with my progress (for a game this small I thought that Trello would have been overkill).

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

I figured a top-down game that didn't heavily rely on physics (except for one feature/obstacle) was the best route to go. By only limiting the player to being able to move I decided that the Pac-Man/snake movement set was best since it was very responsive and easy to start with. After that it was just deciding what the player's objective was and then sketch out interesting ideas for how to make getting to that objective challenging.

Level Design

One of our first mistakes was having a bunch of different ideas without giving them enough depth. So this time around I gave each level 1 new feature and before coding any scripts for them I would sketch out different ideas I had in mind that would make for interesting obstacle ideas. Luckily my phone has a pen and it made the process very easy and clean.

One thing I noticed during the process is that when I had "writer's block" the best solution was to still sketch something. If it was bad I could usually think of ways to improve it. Sometimes the entire idea was bad, other times I would have that eureka moment! Below are some early sketches for Level 1.

It's okay to use video tutorials to implement something complex

The key for this project was to develop a game as quickly as possible with the knowledge I had already gained, but compared to my first project, PF had different features overall, with the most notable being the old-school Zelda room transition. I was very fortunate to have stumbled upon James Owen's video on how to best replicate it. His code was incredibly well documented to the point that I felt comfortable making very minor changes to it without breaking anything.

Other than that I used a few other resources to learn how to properly add a particle system to certain game objects and how to properly add fonts to Text Mesh Pro.

Playtest Early & Frequently

Not wanting to live in my own bubble I passed on early demos to my coworkers, younger cousins and game dev pal for constant critiques on how to best improve the game. Without them I don't think I'd know if the level designs were conveying the right message.

Consistency

Despite the 1 month time frame, working full time, training Brazilian JiuJitsu 4 times a week and trying to spend time with friends and family, I found that no matter what I had to work on the game in some way, shape or form for at least 1 hour a day. Whether it was during my commute, lunch time research, or the 30 minutes between getting home from work and leaving for training, I always wanted to make some kind of progress.

If I missed that 1 hour mark I knew that I'd be letting myself down and that was the last thing I wanted to do. On top of that, I actually enjoyed the entire process, especially when I wasn't feeling all that motivated to keep going. Keeping the ball moving at my own pace made the progress feel more and more rewarding.

I'm a Path Finder (cheesy I know)

Path Finder was a way to prove to myself that the last two year's of development weren't for nothing. I often thought of my favorite games and in a way tried combining how every single one made me feel into this. This game was a way for me to express how I've been feeling (sometimes you know what to do, but execution takes time and other times you just forget which way to go). I'm happy with how it all came together and I'm looking forward to making more games.