Week 6 – Comment

Group I, Merve Metinkol
It’s nice to hear that you were excited to show of the work you have done, that means you have worked hard and are proud to show it off.
And the most important part that you have learned things is clearly described in the text, both as an artist and as a team member. I would have liked an example that was digging a bit deeper on what you have learned. For example, what did you specifically learn […]

Postmortem of our first game

Titlescreen of our verion of Umibozu
This blog post will summarize how I felt that our development process went and what I as a game designer have learned. And what our final product looked and felt like.
The game itself featured a boat as the player-controlled avatar. With the objective to locate four different landmarks that the player had to navigate to advance the game. And to find these landmarks you must sail through portals that steadied your compass to point in […]

Week 5 – Comment

Group H, Daniel Reinsson
In the case of telling us what you have done, I think that you have written what it takes to complete this part. You have given us a real example in the game of what needs to be play tested, so you know if it’s on par with what you want to the player to feel. And sometimes you don’t get any answers that you are seeking, but this is something you can draw experience from as […]

Playtesting

Playtesting is key in an Agile development cycle, it’s a good way to make iterations of your game fast. So that you always know if something works and is fun to play as soon you have it in a testable state. As the game designer of the group I have tested the game a lot over these weeks, and I also built the level. So after I while I know the map and the game so good that it isn’t […]

Week 4 – Comment

Group G, Felix Rham
I think you have managed to convey what you have worked the last weeks really well. You are clear with bad things as well as good things, which is nice since we all can learn from each other’s mistakes.
I like that you showcased the assets and animations with a clear background and not in game that would have made it harder to see what you were writing about.
You have also described well how you did thing. For […]

Level Design

This week I have focused a lot on QA (Quality Assurance) to figure out balancing issues and overall small adjustments to the game that we can fine tune after the Beta deadline hits. So, everything from the feel and flow of the game to the monster’s attack speed. As you can imagine there is a lot you can finetune even in a small game.
This also goes hand in hand with the other task I have this week. Update our level/map […]

Week 3 – Comment

Group F, Tomas Savela
What you have done throughout the weeks is clear regarding planning, but I think you could have explained in more detail what you did that was affected by Scum and Agile framework. With meetings and so on.
I like the way you describe and show with two separate gif’s how the game have developed during these weeks, where you clearly see a difference between them.
I also like that you bring up negatives that you learned from, as this […]

Week 2 – Comment

Group E, Hampus Serrestam
I think you have conveyed the way the test was done in a good way especially with the pictures of the survey, and how they are telling us what you looked for in the test.
One thing I would like to see is a description of the game version that was tested. For example, how long it was, or what the player did in the test, just a summary in other words. So that I can relate the […]

Week 1 – Comment

Group D, Maya Sidén
I think that you have a good explanation on why and what you choose to have different kind of enemies. That they are there to learn the player about what your weapons do, and that you must switch between them to be effective against them.
I think it is a bit unclear of what attack 2 and 3 works, and what they do. As you cannot aim them but still take out enemy number 1 in a more […]

Scrum Reflections

So, for this blogpost I will talk a bit about Scrum and Agile and how that effects game development, and especially how it affects our group’s development.
I will start right of the bat that we don’t really work in a Scrum or Agile environment, at least not in the way our course literature and we in Design/Design class have been taught earlier. This is more of an adaptation and version of Scrum that isn’t really the most optimal way. But […]

Playtesting

So earlier this week (Monday 13/2) we had an Alpha playtesting workshop. Were all groups showed off to the other teams and teachers what has been made so far in the development.
During that workshop I sat as an observer to take notes and feedback about our game from the other students. What they liked about it and what they dislike and any other comments they would have.
We didn’t have a lot of sprites and mostly placeholders for the different assets. […]

Design Meeting

As this is the first blogpost I will start with an introduction of me and the game we are developing. I’m Tim W Johansson and studying Game Design at Uppsala Univerity at Campus Gotland.
The game we are currently working on is a “Shoot em’ up”-game or SHMUP for short. And we are creating the game with the concept of our peers that’s called Umibozu where you control a ship in misty condition and your only way to see in the […]