Made it Through
I was unable to put out a weekly progress report last week as that was the same week that I was cramming to finish my Senior Thesis project.
There were a ton of features for the museum that I still wanted, but there was so little time. Fortunately my project was essentially finished, allowing me to use most of April for polish and bonus content.
Among the content that I wanted to add were a model of the Eiffel Tower to place in the background that could be seen from within the museum, electrical particle effects to put on top of a few weapons, some 3D models of characters to be used as statues, and a secondary battlefield where the players could use ranged weapons.
As for the showcase itself, I would say that it actually went very well. It started off pretty rough where the game froze twice before I could show it off, but I was able to fix the issue. Some of the players found a bug within the game where they could pick up multiple weapons and swing them all at once which was a bit embarrassing. Apart from that a lot of the feedback that I received was very helpful and appreciated and I could see that pretty much everyone who played genuinely enjoyed what they saw.
If I could do it again
I would have changed the way I set up my project. There were still a few bugs in the game and a few of the players did not understand that they were supposed to go to the battlefield after they picked up a weapon.
I wish I could allow players to playtest the game a few times before the showcase. This way I could have figured out the players behavior and adjusted what I wanted them to do.
Half way throughout the showcase I changed from one to two setups where the players now had a choice whether to go straight to the battlefield or explore the museum. It definitely helped a bit more as players had a lot more fun with blowing up the sandbags than from walking around the gallery from what I saw.
ADVICE FOR FUTURE IMM STUDENTS
Do an interactive project that the guests can get their hands on. I picked a game for my thesis because I wanted the guests to be able to do something instead of just sitting there looking at an animation. This is not a knock to all the incredible animation based thesis projects, but I felt that a game would be something that would appeal to all different ages that would show up to the showcase. I would also say that they should try to do an project that is a bit above their skill cap. Being safe is not a bad idea, but you won’t really know how much you have improved unless you try to take a bit of a risk. My museum is not like anything I have done before and I was dreading the amount of codework that would have needed to be put into it. In the end I was very happy with what I made and all the help that I got towards building it.
I learned a lot of different coding techniques that will be useful for future projects. Some of which include: having objects be destroyed upon collision within another object, having sound play when you approach a certain radius, playing videos on planes, having AI wander about in a general area, and having objects animate on a button press. At the showcase I got a tip on using a new program called “Substance Designer” which is supposedly an improved texturing software which would have been helpful for the models I made.
What I learned during the showcase is that the players need a lot of direction for when they are playing the game. This is my fault as I did not do as much as I thought I did. Apart from that a lot of the players seems like they had a lot of fun seeing a bunch of old school characters and weapons within the setting. Practically everyone responded positively to the idea and liked how it was a throwback to older video games.
Finally, for the future I will definitely continue to improve upon the museum. However, I think I will cut down on the video game weapons and expand upon more original weapons. I had a lot of fun designing and modeling my own unique weapons and I would want that to be the emphasis for the future. The game should also emphasize a bit more on the battlefield and make that aspect a lot more fun for the players. I still want to add particle effects and smoother animations to make them all stand out a bit more. Basically I want to make the museum better than it is now and I plan on spending my summer break doing that.
Well that is that. Thank you so very much for following me throughout this journey. Working on the museum was very stressful and exhausting with all the factors that went around it, but overall I am happy with what came out of it and am eager to improve upon it. This thesis inspired me to improve my craft so expect to see some more games and projects in the near future.
