Premise

Tech Dash is the final product of my First year with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Assigned to a team of 7, we had 9 weeks to document, pitch and create a vertical slice of a game. Tech Dash is a 2d brawling platformer where players are tasked with completing a mission together. They collect loot throughout this mission and are incentivised to betray each other at the end to get the most points.

Some Lessons Learned

Team Management

During the 9-week project, I had the opportunity to work with a much larger team than I had during my time with Hidden Productions. All of my previous experience helped but keeping a team of 6 other professionals focused and on task was still an interesting and challenging experience.

Overall, I was able to refine my experiences with managing others into a clear work flow that I found very effective at directing even the least productive of my assigned team. My routine involved a daily check with each individual member of the team, which allowed me to get ahead of problems and arrange the teams resources to better head off possible blockers.

For Example, Tech Dash’s final implementation used a simple four-way split screen for the local multiplayer. Originally, it was intended that the cameras dynamically adjust for different numbers of players as they got closer and further apart. However, it was quickly apparent this was not a viable implementation for 6 weeks of development. My daily check-ins with each member of my team meant we were able to quickly assess this problem and pivot before it cost too much of our development time.

Game Feel

With Techdash, I focused on a personal goal to improve my grasp of game-feel. I wanted the brawler to feel responsive and satisfying. Most feedback I got from the final build suggests I succeeded at that, but that other areas in the design let the slice down. For example, dashing was responsive and satisfying, but the visual effect would get in the way of readability while players were attacking each other. Other things such as the design of the level also got in the way of players enjoyment of the platforming. Unfortunately, a six-week project doesn’t leave a lot of room to address every one of these complaints.