What Went Wrong

1. Slow Start

We first met as a group in the summer of 2007 and thought we had made clear goals for ourselves. With many people not having time that summer to work on it, we initially started the game the following September. The start of the whole project was very slow, we figured we had enough time to get everything done. With this being my first project as a Producer, I set realistic goals in the beginning of the semester. I didn’t know anyone’s level of talent or how far they can be pushed. I put a lot of the work to be finished within the first semester, knowing that if nobody did their part then we would be in crunch time in the Spring. However, some aspects of the game I knew would have to wait until we were almost done in May (such as Marketing) and that things kept getting pushed back in the schedule.

Initially, I decided nothing can get pushed back for more than two weeks since we had a lot to do in a little amount of time. In the beginning of the Fall semester, things were working out as planned but soon after that in the January ’08 break, projects took longer to complete. We had a solid game to present for the mid-term in February but we wanted as much of our initial vision to be complete. Even though we had taken some levels out of the game, I am proud to show what we have accomplished for our final display back in May.

2. Not Enough Beta Time

During the Alpha stages of the game, we found a lot of glitches and issues that needed to be worked out before we could call it complete. The Production Schedule had testing scheduled in it but it slowly got replaced by more features getting placed into the game. Third parties rarely played our game and every time they did, we found more problems to fix. There weren’t enough players to test the game as I would have liked but it was enough to find and fix the glitches. Also, since the players’ testing time was limited due to class schedules, they couldn’t give in-depth feedback and only focused on the surface of the game.

3. Different Schedules

One of the major issues that our group faced is the scheduling of meetings. If it weren’t for our weekly meeting, we would rarely see each other and solely rely on online communication. With everyone doing internships and their commitments to other classes, weekends used a big chunk of time to work on the project. This is why the Production Schedule was crucial to our objective in finishing the game. I made it clear so that each member kept a close eye on it and they knew what needed to get done in what amount of time. Of course, there were times when members didn’t show up to our weekly meeting. This threw everyone off course because we each rely on one another and it would seem that week was a complete waste.

Occasionally, working outside of the classroom has also helped. For instance, we did a presentation for a local chapter gathering of the International Game Developers Association, showing them (professionals in the industry) our game and pitch. The feedback we got was phenomenal and has helped us improve our presentation and speeches. If we all weren’t there, I don’t think we would have done such a great job. Back when we presented the game at the meeting, it was pretty much a solid game that was almost finished. Looking back, there were a lot of changes I would have made regarding scheduling and input into the game but all in all, I love what we did and how it turned out.

The whole project took about a school year to complete. It started in September 2007 and we finalized everything May 2008. With five people in my group and that amount of time, I figured we would be able to get a lot more stuff completed. But one thing that really slowed down the development process was that everyone had other priorities and kept putting this game on the back burner. If we had to start over with the same resources and time, I would have pushed for a casual game. There practically is a guarantee that it will be completed and polished way before the deadline. But since I can’t turn back time, I hope this post mortem will help others making games so they can learn from our mistakes. It isn’t easy to develop a game but you can have fun doing it.