Monkey See Monkey Doom Weekly Reflection 12: The End of an Era
Previous Week’s Work
The IMM Senior Showcase was one of the most gratifying experiences I have taken part in during my time at TCNJ and I am incredibly thankful for being awarded one of the three jury prizes for Monkey See Monkey Doom. Throughout the night a lot of amazing things happened and so I’m going to put them in a list here so I don’t forget anything.
- During the award ceremony I was chosen unanimously among the judges as the most successful game on display. I can’t overstate how great it feels to have my hard and thoughtful work recognized by well respected professionals. As a last college hurrah I can’t think of much more validating. Thanks again to all of the judges and faculty for making this possible.
- A prospective student who saw my game demoed at a Lion’s Day approached me with his family explaining that my presentation convinced him to attend TCNJ and had inspired him to follow his own game design dreams. His mother and father congratulated me on my work and informed me that they were visiting the show in part to see my finished game. Hearing this was incredibly humbling and rewarding seeing the direct positive impact my project had on this young man.
- Mike Kawas, founder and CEO of Game U and an associate playtested my game offering a lot of reassuring positive feedback about my design. Receiving compliments from a man who helped build my childhood sort of left me speechless. If I wasn’t off to graduate school in the fall I would have loved to explore further opportunities with such talented creators and innovators.
- A slew of parents, peers, prospective students, and professionals got to try out my game and seeing them laugh once they understand the central time warping conceit was a really awesome thing. Creating something that people want to play with and explore is what convinces me that my project was a success. I was given so many kind and motivating words from those who tried out my project and I wish I could thank everyone who liked what they saw and understood that I put a lot of myself into this seemingly silly game.
Below are a few more thoughts about this whole senior thesis process that hopefully can help people out on the next go round!
Advice For Students Following in my Footsteps
- Schedule
The biggest element that allowed me to make my project successful was simply time. Properly scheduling work on your project, ESPECIALLY a game project that contains about 1000 moving parts and 2000 ways those parts can break is essential to having something you are proud of at the end of the thesis process.
By the end of the first semester of thesis I had a working prototype of my central mechanic and was able to conduct playtests at the fall showcase. Setting the goal of having something playable by the end of the first semester if you are aiming to create a game is essential, if not mandatory. The sooner you bring your ideas to live, develop them to where you can see them and play with them the sooner you can either modify, polish, or expand. I understand the urge to put all of the heavy lifting in the second semester but put plainly this strategy has no real benefits other than ensuring a lot of unneeded stress at the end of the second semester.
A good tip is to intentionally overestimate how long things will take to complete. Being honest about how long things will take and then giving yourself even more time will ensure that you are caught much less in that dreaded senior thesis crunch hating past you for only giving present you 2 hours before the show to create an essential part of your experience. If it seems hard jump into it quickly to keep it from looming over you. If it seems easy? Do the same thing. Anyone who has developed their own game understands how quickly little problems can snowball into bigger ones.
This advice is sort of all over the place but if you take away one thing it would be to start working early and consistently no matter how unnecessary it may seem. Starting your project early will never ever hurt you the way starting late will.
2. Understand Scope
The second most important idea to keep in mind when designing a video game for your senior thesis project is limiting your scope. You do not have the time to create a sweeping Zelda like epic. This is just a fact. Two semesters is barely enough time to make a game fun. If you are focused on creating something that is both narratively driven and mechanically engaging you very well end up with neither by the time showcase rolls around.
Instead of creating an elaborate epic in which you spend half of your time writing out the backstory that might never make it into the final start small. Start with building blocks and allow your project to grow instead of imagining something that is more likely than not to decay in any number of ways. If you manage to create something detached from narrative that engages a player then you are on the right track and the same can be said for an experience that engages with narrative while eschewing gameplay.
Here’s what you need to consider when analyzing your idea for proper scale:
- Do I know what this sort of project entails?
- What skills will be required to complete this? Do I have these skills? How long will it take to develop those skills you do not already have?
- How much time am I reasonably going to put into this project every week?
- What is the minimum viable product for playtesting? How quickly can I reach this stage?
- Do I value narrative or mechanics? Does my idea fall within what I value?
Answering these questions when you reach your idea can help you gauge how likely you are to finish on time without having to water down your vision. If in answering these questions you realize you are uncertain of what your project requires, lacking most of the skills needed to complete the project, and unavailable to commit considerable time to ameliorating these problems then it might be time to consider a new project.
If you want to create a game as an individual but have little coding experience I’d suggest designing your idea around this or expanding your project to be for a group. If you are inspired by code instead of art, why not get feedback from the more aesthetically minded every so often? Remaining an island and being unwilling to admit your weaknesses very well might make that island sink.
Final State of the Game
For now Monkey See Monkey Doom is complete! Of course, its not COMPLETE complete, there are still a number of things I would want to fix before releasing it in a more commercial sense but I won’t get into the nitty gritty right now. All in All on reflection I’d say my project came out a lot stronger than I could have ever hoped. I think I learned a ton about polishing a project to completion thanks to all of my progress in illustration, programming, and UI design over the course of these past 2 semesters. I plan on updating this page with either a free download link or a store link once I get around to setting all of that up.
Looking Ahead
As I look ahead at my future I can’t help but look back at the past four years and feel some sort of nostalgia. My undergraduate career took me to so many surprising places and I think I’ve learned a lot about what I want from my future. Coming this fall I will be attending SMU Guildhall’s prestigious Game Design Masters Program to bring me one step closer to the role of innovator I now see for myself. This program specifically has taught me the overwhelming power in following your passions and finding success and I will always value that lesson.
