Game Studio II: Dev Blog #1

Particularly in the last year, I think I’ve made a lot of progress as a game developer. Currently, I think I have lots of strengths when working in a group. I make sure that I consider the input of others and always listen to what they have to say, regardless of their role, I’m willing to adapt and change the plan if scope becomes an issue, I’m comfortable with writing a lot and like to think I’m good at writing documents, I’m comfortable with receiving criticism and taking it into consideration, and I’m good at communicating and being honest about progress.

I think my level and narrative design skills have particularly come a long way recently. I’m pretty proud of the level I made for Level Design I, as I hadn’t ever worked on a game level for that long (over the course of 2 months), and it was my first experience working with other designers to form a coherent narrative and theme throughout a set of levels. I also got to analyze games that I’ve played and figure out what makes their levels good, which really helped me figure out what makes a truly exceptional level in a video game. I did an exploration of a level in Titanfall 2 that I believe was pretty good and I’d never really done that for a video game level before.

A playthrough of the final version of my Level Design project.

Titanfall 2 Effect and Cause Level Exploration

The first game I did all of the writing for, Doki Doki Demon Princess, was probably the most fun game I’ve ever worked on. Parts of it were kind of rough, but I think I learned a lot about narrative design and it really sparked my interest in it. I think the thing that I’m most proud of with that game is that in addition to the narrative elements, I did the systems and level design as well, and it was almost completely done remotely. I was motivated throughout the 6 sprints and I believe that me being motivated helped my team motivate themselves as well, especially considering the events that were going on at the time.

A playthrough of Doki Doki Demon Princess

When I think about what I want to improve and what my weaknesses are, getting comfortable with failure immediately comes to mind. As I said before I’m comfortable with receiving criticism, but I still have a hard time being comfortable making something bad. I feel like I have to hold everything I create to the same standard as previous things I’ve made and if it doesn’t meet that, then I’m regressing. I also want to get better at giving feedback. I feel like I’m hesitant to give feedback to people I know because it feels a little difficult to say anything that isn’t positive, even though I know it would help them. Finally, I want to improve my VDDs and get better at drawing if possible. I’ve never had neat handwriting or very steady hands, so drawing has always been hard for me, but I really want to try to get better at it so I can make more attractive VDDs without having to rely on my artist’s art.

Overall, I have improved and made many things that I’m proud of over the past year. While I may not be where I want to be just yet, I am confident that I can improve, particularly this semester.