Goon Game Log: 3/25/24 (Sprint 5)

Probably should have started writing these eight weeks ago, but better late than never. So, sprint five started after my return from GCD and is mainly focused on wrapping up the few things that I didn’t get done because of GDC and fleshing out the narrative bible some more. But it feels weird starting from what, at the time of writing, is less than an hour old, so I’d like to play catch-up somewhat and more or less use this as a reflection of the project up to this point. After that, we’ll do the usual one log entry per week and have those more focused on what happened in that given week. Preamble out of the way: man, does it suck not knowing how to code!

The first of many hurdles I would have to contend with is that typing code makes my brain want to turn off forever. A rather detrimental problem to a project with no programmers that wants to be a PC title. So, solutions were researched, eventually ending at Unreal Engine 5 as after the Unity rug pull, I was not confident putting my project in their hands, and Unreal sold itself as an Artist friendly engine; and I’m at least as tech capable as an artist, or so I thought. An install, six hours of tutorials, and $60 later, I’m still banging my head against blueprints. On paper, they’re exactly what I need: a straightforward method to get ideas into a digital prototype that, while ugly, worked and could work as proof of concept. The problem, however, is that while I can wrap my head around all the little boxes and what connects to what, how to arrange them to the structure I wanted still illudes me. Okay, even with Blueprint, getting a digital prototype will probably be sometime in the future, if not something I contract an actual programmer or engineer to do for me. But, in the meantime, there is still work to be done. The project doesn’t just stall out because I can’t get a computer to do math homework the way I want it; no, now the focus shifts, now I center my energy around concept, documentation, and paper prototyping.

To go down that list in order, first and foremost: concept. Pretty straightforward; I toy with the idea long enough to hash out all the questions. I then answer those questions in order of relevance and import, before recording said answers in the related documents. Said process has birthed 4 completed documents: Art Direction, System Flowcharts, Core Rules, and Progression, with the remaining 2, Tech and Story, still in the works. Tech is the newest of the bunch, having started it this sprint (5) with the goal of conveying to programmers what I want them to get Unreal to do. The Story doc started some time ago and continues to grow, becoming more of a master thesis document as it comes along. It contains information about the story's themes, goals, characters, world, and how it can impact design and/or direction. However, the highlight of the previous iterations has been the paper prototype. Being unable to make a digital prototype, I figured out all the rules of play with pen and paper. Building a cardboard test board and pieces that sense construction has seen iterations of the core rules, commanders, allied units, gear loads, objectives / sub-objectives, and enemy variants. In truth, that paper prototype might have been the best thing I’ve made so far, as it allowed me to get the bulk of ideas out of my head and into a structured format that could then be tested and iterated upon. The only change I would make is that I have not been able to test as much as I wanted to. Ideally, I’d be testing every other day with more than one person, but since everyone who can test the game has a life, I get what I can take.

That being said, something that should be changed going forward is the lack of testing. Even if it is just me pushing tokens around the board, there needs to be some level of internal test just to gather more data at a steadier pace. Another thing that should change is the lack of retrospectives. With only myself, it's been an easy trap to either not do a retro at the end of every sprint or do smaller ones as the week progresses. Something that I’m hoping these dev logs will help remedy as, at the very least, it will give me time to reflect on the state of the game outside of my own head and to keep a record of changes and decisions as the game progresses from here on out. So, let this be the first step to making a markable change in this project. To see documented retrospectives, more frequent testing, and finished documentation by the spirit's end.