Game Development Log - Post-Production

Log Period : Week 10 - Week 13 (22nd July - 9th August)

Within the post production period, there was a lot that still had not been done. With the numerous errors that arose from aspects that had not been touched since their creation. Also, there was still a lot that had to be imported from the game arts students’ work. Within these two weeks there were several tasks that needed to be completed but were of such high importance and required so much time that they were not able to be completed within the given time period. 

In general, the main game loop had not yet been completed. This is mainly due to the numerous errors that arose from the C++ work done by ASh, where the game would crash when interacting with the doors themselves. This error was cryptic and the cause of the error is still unknown. 

Other things that were being focused on and finished are the menu system and further imports. With the menu system, there were some refinements that needed to be made and further settings to be included. Where the audio settings were beginning to come to shape but there were some issues with the saving of the sound when the game was opened and reopened. Also, some final level designs needed to be imported, whilst others still had some changes to be made to them. This meant that there was an incomplete game, without a working game loop and not all aspects of the game were artistically stylised in the expected manner. 

In general the rest of the aspects that were being worked on were just touching some stuff up and making sure what there was to present was to some degree presentable. 

Were there any issues and what were they?

By using C++ at a point where not everyone else was, meant that there would be little help and more self-discovery. Where, when something was not working, it would be difficult to find someone to help and difficult to find help anywhere. It was, however , a risk worth taking. Without the use of C++, elements of the project would have remained limited and the overall playthrough may have been a little simpler. 

When it comes to allowing the artists to work as they wish, there should have been some restrictions placed beforehand. Now at the point where the game needs to be stored back on the gitlab infrastructure, it becomes difficult when one or more assets become 1 GB plus. In general this means that we should look to make sure to let the artists know to llook at how much space in storage their assets take up in relation to the importance of that asset, or whether there are different methods to implement the same thing that would reduce the storage space used.