Project Completed

So after a long haul the project is complete. Where to start with a discussion on my own work.

Well things that went well are always a nice start.

Things that went well

1.
 Considering my skills when I started unity work I feel I have massively improved. Basic skills like putting planes together and setting up rigid bodies were my initial skill set. I have learnt effective light useage, sound effects (and how to code them in when I want them to play), more advanced animation techniques and some small amounts of code that will be useful for future projects, especially the relationships between the code itself and the objects in game.
So overall I feel I harnessed my skills in Unity effectively, especially now I am part of a team who are creating a project from a brief set by an external source.

2.
Another area I feel went well is the Ai. Although I didnt quite get a monster into the game as such. I got a working enemy that chases the player (without falling over!)
The code I was taught early on but I think it worked quite effectively in the final product. I looked into the use of way points to send the enemy to patrol an area and when the player entered the area they got caught so everything went better than expected. The moment I said my game would have an AI I wasn't too sure myself but it worked really well to actually make the game interesting!

3.
One last thing I feel that went well is right near the end game. I have just discussed the AI, now I will discuss how well killing it off went. The most fun part of the game being where you pull the switch to lower the chandelier if you miss the monster sees you and you die, if you hit he dies and you win the game. I really enjoyed making this stage of the game and I really like the way the game finishes. The Death screen is even one of my favourite parts of the game!

Things that went badly then. Where do i begin on this checklist!

Things that went badly

1.
First off I feel that the code was abysmal. My timings on how long the code would take were thrown way out of proportion the moment I began.  I have never been good at coding and I dont really know what I expected to change. I worked my hardest on some of the problems and found quite a few things a bit easier than previously expected. However there were certain features, the doors and keys for example I just couldn't work out. Eventually I got a bit of tutoring and I got the code all working alright.

2.
Something that went badly was the organisation of the project files. I often find my organisation of the files to get on top of me however I kept the files relatively neat. It was only when I started to texture that the files started to become quite confusing. The naming was fine but unity seemed to create multiple materials for one texture. Then after a while they would just turn pink for no apparent reason. I believe its due to me changing over some files to another computer, the swap wasn't completely smooth however so this may be why.

3.
One last thing that didn't go so well... unfortunately I feel as if the player wasn't inclined to slow down all that much during play. I set the game to a few testers and they weren't always slowed down massively however they did get caught out by the monster a few times! It made for interesting watching as they explored. To see how the varying effects made them think about what was going on. In the future I would like to work more on the psychology of games, it is a very interesting study. Its a shame I didn't have the freedom to look more into it throughout  this project. I felt rather restricted by my own brief to be fair, with each room previously.


Overall I am happy with the outcome of the game! I surprised myself with the skills I had prior and the skills I have learnt from the project! Being able to manage my time and learn new skills is an invaluable experience I will take forward with me throughout life!