We're nearing the end of our board game production. We have one more week to bring everything together into a (somewhat at least) cohesive game. Making a game is hard. It takes a lot of work to make every single piece of a game. If teamwork isn't your thing then I would not recommend game making because it relies heavily on that. That being said, teamwork isn't really my strongest suit either seeing as I often get frustrated at other group members even for little things, so making this game has been a real challenge. As I mentioned above, teamwork has been a big problem for me. I've been realizing that I've done a poor job of communicating my thoughts as well as making sure I understand everyone else's thoughts, especially since I am the team lead. I need to learn to ask more questions, get specifics, and monitor things a bit more closely. Work wise, I struggle a lot with design layouts for things such as ads and instructions. So far, I am happy with how these documents are turning out, but it takes me a lot of time and experimentation to get them right, the kind of time and energy I'm not sure I'll be able to afford over the next week if we're out for snow many days. White space and balance are two things I really need to work on in my design. I unfortunately forgot to download the ads (which are much prettier than the work I do have) I made for the game, but I have pictures of some of the graphics that will be included in the instructions, which is currently a work in progress. The communication issue isn't only my fault though. As a team, we are all not the greatest at all staying on the same page. For instance, our player pieces ended up much bigger than the board spaces, meaning extra work to try to balance this out. I would also say that we are all dreamers and not very practical with our ideas, so I am a little concerned about our group finishing by the deadline. Our cards were originally going to have the elemental symbol in the middle of the card be cut out, but due to lack of time, I think that idea will have to be scrapped. I am very nervous about how the game will come together, and scared that due to miscommunication, my instructions won't match up with the game pieces at all, making the game unplayable. I actually also have very little idea of what my group members actually have accomplished. One of them has been good about checking off things they have done, but I have not seen many of the finished products from either of them, which- call me paranoid, but- makes me worry a little bit. I feel like it's almost too late to fix the communication/ unity issues within our group at this point, so I'm just hoping that we have most of this week to pull it all together and hopefully create a decent game. Wish us luck.
0 Comments
Once again this post will be based on Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design. In this section, Schell talks about "problem statements" or statements that determine both your goal and any constraints. It's clear why these statements are useful since they give you something to work towards and also so that you know your limits before you start. This post will be about I time I started a long term project without a problem statement, and why I wish I had had one to begin with.
So, way back in sixth grade, little me decided that I wanted to write a book. I sat down at my computer and began typing. I didn't know where the story would go, or what characters I wanted to have; the plot was entirely based on whatever came to my head as I was writing. Now, the average person probably would have given up on this book at some point, but miraculously, I stuck with it. Sure, there were long periods where I didn't write anything, but around the end of ninth grade, I finally "finished" the book. I say that because I knew there was a lot of editing to do if I wanted it to not be a piece of crap. Obviously, my writing style had come a long way since I started writing the book, and it was good to go back and fix all of the grammar mistakes my younger self didn't know needed to be fixed. But it wasn't just that. Somewhere along the way, I had come up with a problem statement: "How can I write a book (series) that challenges the idea of good and evil?" Originally, all I had wanted to do is write for the sake of writing, and for the first seven chapters, the story had just been floating around aimlessly. I wouldn't say these chapters were boring necessarily, but they had no greater purpose, they were just about my main character's life. In chapter eight I finally introduced my main antagonist (that took a while!) and from there things started to pick up and that's why I really solidified my problem statement. Reading back through it, I realized I was going to have to entirely rewrite the beginning of the book, because it wasn't working towards a purpose at all. Had I started out with a clear idea and problem statement, this editing wouldn't take so long, and I could probably be done by the end of this year. Now, I'll be lucky if I can finish the book before the end of high school. Having such a clear problem statement now will help me during the editing process though since I'll be able to make sure that what goes in the final cut is all important, and helping me reach my goal rather than meandering. Overall, if I can stick to the problem statement, the end result should be much more interesting. |
AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
February 2020
Categories
All
|