Full Sail University - Project and Portfolio II: Game Design

My contribution to the Team Nephrite project level.

Post-Mortem​

In the last month I was tasked with a group project to combine levels that we had previously made in another class into one larger level. My original vision for the level was a walk through a river leading up to a small castle-like building that had a secret underground tunnel system. The goal was to connect my level at the end and beginning to two other levels in a seamless transition.
What Went Right:
Vision - When constructing my block-mesh I had a solid vision which led to an easy construction.
Block-mesh Process - I found a very intuitive process for my block-out. I started off with my 3 level areas, then made large cubes representing geography to create outlines and silhouettes. Then I started making a more refined version of the structures.
Asset Integration - When making the gold version of our level we were tasked with switching to finalized assets. For mine, the process was mostly simple and intuitive.
Landscape - Switching the block-mesh I made to a landscape was quick and easy. I was very happy with how it turned out.
What Went Wrong:
Design Flaw - In the original assignment I had misunderstood part of the design requirements. We were tasked to leave our levels open to a connecting level but I did not realize we would be literally connecting a level to them, which led to some design flaws in my original block-out.
Perforce Issues - Our team used Perforce as our revision control. As we are still learning the application we had struggled a bit with the software in the beginning of the project.
Cave - The largest issue I had was with the cave section of my level. Both in connecting to my teammate's level and with updating my own level. With the start of my level connecting to my teammates level was very easy, taking only a minute. I had to create a long extension to connect the cave to the other level. I also had a lot of issues figuring out how to update the cave's assets. I decided to do a landscape with rocks for the walls, which ended up looking somewhat okay.
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Despite the setbacks with the cave section and Perforce, our team strived. The team taught me the importance of clear design vision and communication, particularly when linking multiple levels of different vision into a cohesive one. Our flexibility and adaptability was challenged, which will be crucial as we continue to advance in game development. The transitions between levels and asset integration reflect the skills we've practiced in the project. This month has been valuable in preparing me for future projects in the field of game development.