Reflections from the TurboKids and their game “Astra-Kill” 

 Introduction

The last 3 and half months have been an exhausting journey to say the least. We started out as strangers assigned with what seemed like an insurmountable task, and have gone through what feels like an adventure filled with highs and lows.  Looking at our experience now, through the rearview mirror, we are astounded at what we were able to accomplish.  But, if hindsight really is 20-20, then we can see our flaws and hinderances quite clearly.  With minimal prior experience, this was certainly a wake up call to give us a taste of what video game development is really like, aside from the coding itself. 

What Went Right 

Our vision 

We started off with what we thought of as a strong vision for our project.  Everyone was content with our direction, maybe because it was easier than having no plan, or because we genuinely thought our ideas had some real validity.  Initially, we designed something that we thought would be tangible.  We went with something familiar, simple and within our skillset.  As time went on, it felt like our project took on a life of its own.  We really had to shift gears and prioritize what features were essential and which features needed to be axed, even if it meant that our core game ideas were affected.   

We started off with the idea of having the entire game have a time limit in order to create a sense of urgency.  We quickly realized that this feature was better added near the end of development to allow for tweaking gameplay, level design and testing.  Because of our lack of experience, we ultimately decided to NOT have a timer.  We also had a quiz/ puzzle portion of the game that the player would get to at the end of each level.  Having a “life of its own”, the game directed itself to become an arcade style platformer/ shooter, rather than have more gameplay genres and mini-games implemented. 

What we got at the end was better than we could’ve thought, given that our sights were initially set quite realistically low.  We decided to implement a “Black Market” shop system, currency and “Super-Weapons” which weren’t in the original vision of the game but were added and became prominent features that really give the game its flavor.  We always had sound effects, music and a simplistic art style in our vision, but what we ended up with was fantastic and added so much dimension to an otherwise flat game.  There was debate over which art to ultimately use, but what we ended up with was something we felt really added a lot of value to our project. 

Team Member Flexibility

Although our team was assigned specific roles we planned on adhering to, scheduling and limits in members skillsets required our team shift roles regularly.  This isn’t entirely a good thing, but for us it really worked out that a few of our members were able to take responsibility and get out of our specified roles to get the job done. 

Excellence in delivery(sometimes)

Our team had its lows, but when it had its highs, we all flew with the eagles.  For our first playable, we felt like we crashed and had to get back up.  For the alpha, we truly put in the hard work to get ourselves back on track.  Not only did our game excel at this point, but our presentation, delivery and morale were at their peak.  Our beta presentation started to lose its luster, but our project still showed the excellent effort put into the existing parts.  Not everything was gold, but when it was, it was 24k baby. 

 What Went Wrong 

Communication 

Communication was tough, but with so many factors against us, it was hard not to fail in some areas.  At some points, some of our members wouldn’t even be on Discord, which was our MAIN communication platform.  We had team members absent for up to 2 weeks at a time sometimes, where we thought they had left our program without notice.  We had team meetings about trying to improve communication, and to be fair our team meetings did get more attendance over time, but no strategy really seemed to work. 

All this combined with a couple of team members who were planning on leaving after this semester created a stagnant progression.  Motivation is easy to come by in the beginning, but the realities of game development really take a toll of exhaustion after a while. 

Finishing on time 

We never were able to finish anything early. Most of our finalized milestones were finished at the very last minute. This was a result of procrastination. Most of our team would leave work until 2 to 3 days before the due date, which made it difficult to get any quality testing time and fine tuning. We did a great job for our Alpha Milestone, but that was because we worked on it up until the last minute.

Defining Roles 

We had initially had assigned roles with specific tasks.  More often than not, a few of the tasks would not be getting done, leaving the work to other members or incomplete altogether. 

Lessons Learned 

Game Development is hard

Game development is not in any way the same as playing video games. Game dev is exhausting venture, that takes hard work, commitment and dedication. Through this experience, some of us can look at our shortcomings and move forward and adjust more confidently. this was a very real experience compared to the rest of our education. Some of us will experience making a game with a team, and that alone will make us realize that game development is not for us. We have a great group of guys here in TurboKids with a lot of potential. Any one of the members who will be moving forward with the program have a bright future, but only as long as the dedication continues.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, this game has challenged us in every way, just to try to stick together and stay sane while making a game.  We are all very proud of our final project.  In many ways, our final product surpassed our expectations, even when the process fell short.  Game development is truly an art for the passionate.  Without the drive to excel, and the eagerness to fail, we believe that you will not make it in the industry.  If nothing else, we can now see the painstaking hard work that comes from all corners of game development.  We can see the kind of effort it takes to build a successful game, and to overcome issues you’d never think would be involved in the video game industry.