Description; I am a designer currently working on the video game Colony 7. The purpose of the blog is to address the issues of the game's development and to address any solutions or alternative methods to better prepare for the arrival of inconveniences in the future or how to avoid them entirely. The blog also addresses my individual performance. The team is made up of two programmers and four level designers but all do not necessarily combine roles during development. The game is being developed in Unity (2017.1.1f1 onward) with a development time of 13 weeks for a college allocated task.
Previously the team discovered that Unity's sharing capability (Unity Collaborate) was disabling code and the intended implementation of the assets created and placed into the project causing 'colliders' on each object to conflict with each other when connected via our custom kit pieces. To solve the issue my team decided to create one distinct project that would serve as the complete copy of Colony 7. We also agreed upon, when necessary, finalising the complete copy of the game when together and distributing that project amongst each other before departing for the week. I did not have much influence in the resolution to this encountered issue but did make suggestions based on previous experience. I have encountered trouble with Unity Collaborate previously and am unsure how to approach using it correctly and understanding why projects may conflict with other versions despite not having any errors on the initial device. If code specifically were transferred in person from device to device then issues would be expected to be resolved with the exception of the project on Unity not being current with it's most developed copy.
My team is using the program MagicaVoxel to create almost all assets (and all aesthetic assets) for Colony 7. Placing the exported files as an 'obj' from MagicaVoxel from my own device would always display the correct colour scheme that I had designed and selected in the initial program. However retrieving objects created by other members of my team from places including Google Drive and USB transfer would display objects defaulted to one colour with their additional image being of no use to the asset. A fellow designer managed to figure out that the Albedo function of the 'material' of the object in Unity was the disrupted aspect. By placing the image featuring the intended colour scheme could be added to the object. I identified the complication of the asset issue first and the solution discovered was the only preferable way to solve the issue in a short amount of time. Due to my designated role of asset creation I have not had any impact toward understanding how Colony 7 will form together as final product. MagicaVoxel being the program I have most used thus far has limited my chances to learn about other functions in the coding and implementation of my assets. Spending time with each team member and having them each explain their role and actions during development time would be beneficial in involving me in positions I can undertake and perform tasks not suited to me but needed,
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These two problems encountered were the main disruptions my team encountered and we were able to solve with little cost to our development or time management. Individually I was able to point out the problems and make suggestions on how to best correct them both but I did perform greatly in solving the issues themselves. These were both things met during the early development of Colony 7 however.
More unexpected halts in progression will be addressed with future blogs throughout Colony 7's development time. Thank you for your time and feedback is appreciated.
Colony 7 Designer.
