Hello there, the name is Carl and this will be my last blog post reporting the progress of my game, Depth. In this blog post, I will be talking about what I have learned and how the game turned out.
One of the greatest things with my group was our workflow and communication to the project. The group never had any disputes, we took our time to talk everything over and we were able to have our daily meetings, whether it being meeting up face to face or just talking over Discord. So some of the things I will definitly take away from this experience, group wise, is the communication and workflow.
On a more personal note, the biggest thing that I will take away from this course is my role as a Lead Designer and level designer. Because of this course I could explore different ways of creating levels. Example being when I tried to come up with the concept of the tutorial level, at this point in the education, we had not really had any lectures on what think and not think about. The only thing we had been taught was the thought process behind the earlier Super Mario games, and how they introduce the mechanics through the level. Even though that is a really good introduction to level design, I wanted to explore how other games introduces their controls and mechanics. I started looking into articles pointing out how certain games does it, and one game that was always mentioned was a game called VVVVVV, where the developer introduces the controls and mechanics through subtle hints in the background. By having those two in mind, it became much easier to design a tutorial, and thanks to this, I did not really have to worry about designing the main level because I knew everything had been introduced in the tutorial.
But how did the game turn out to be? I would say that the game turned out pretty well. We managed to make a full and simple playable game, which had mechanics, different enemies, animations and sound effects. During the last playtesting session we recieved a lot of praise on the level design and graphics, as well for our cheesy voice acting we had in the game. The only issues our game faced was a bug with our shrimp enemy, where if the player just ran into them, the shrimp would just bounce off their position and get stunned. This, however, was an easy fix, so my programmer could fix it in no time.
The other issue we had was the difficulty of our game, it became apparent that it was too easy at times, which is something for me as a level designer to take away from.
So, as a summary, what did I learn and how did the game turn out?
I learned the effects of good workflow and communication within a team.
I learned different ways to think about, when it comes to level design.
We managed to create a game, that others found good/impressive.
That was all I had to say this, thank you all for taking the time to read this!
– Group T, Carl HvB
Carl Hvarfvenius Blomgren 
Hi Carl!
I’m happy to hear that you didn’t have any major issues with the group. It is highly valuable to have good communication amongst team members, since that can really have a positive effect on the group when it comes to efficiency. It seems like you enjoyed working together with your group, and that is exceptionally important.
It sounds like you have learned a great deal throughout this course. It is interesting to read about how much effort you put into the level design and how you tried to make a good tutorial level. I can truly see that you are passionate about your work. As you wrote, we did not have many lectures about level design. Therefore, I think it was a good idea to make a lot of research, to get knowledge and learn how to make a level in the best way. However, to understand your course of action, I would have wanted to get an example of what you did to create a good tutorial level. What did you use from the different articles that you read? What subtle hints did you use in the background?
Overall, I think your blog post is interesting, since you talk about the bad and the good aspects of the past 10 weeks working together with your group. You all did a great job and I need to congratulate you on creating a good game! It was really fun to play! I hope you are as excited as I am to work on the next project, and it will be fun to see what more you can do on upcoming projects! Give yourself a pat on the back. Well done!
/Lina Femling
GillaGilla
Hello there Lina! Thank you for the criticism!
When it comes to how I designed the tutorial level, came down mostly to just me sketching down the level in my notebook and then dividing the level into three different sections. The beginning shows the player the controls, the second part introduces the shooting mechanic and enemies status effects, and the third one shows the effect of the flashlight.
Here’s one of the articles I used as help: https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/tutorials/4-ways-to-teach-your-players-how-to-play-your-game–cms-22719 , unfortunetly I couldn’t find the other’s.
What I used from the article though was the way the game VVVVVV shows the player its controls, through text, but I went for small art assets instead since I thought it would differentiate from the source inspiration and it looks a bit more pleasing to the eye.
I hope that clears it up a bit! I am very much looking forward for the next course, I only have to find a group though! Hope you have one and that you guys succeed! Have a good weekend!
– Carl HvB
GillaGilla
Hi Carl!
I really enjoyed reading your post and I think that it’s well written with structure and all. As a fellow designer I feel like I can relate to a lot of the things that you said.
It was interesting to hear about your reasoning and sources for inspiration for the level design. As you mentioned we didn’t get that many pointers to keep in mind prior to this project.
I would have liked to hear a bit more about what made the group dynamic so great, though. Was it just a fluke that you fit well together or was that something you worked on?
I think this could be quite useful to someone entering a similar project, especially the mention of games that helped you out.
I will be sure to check out VVVVVV, it sounds like it could be useful in the future. Good luck on your upcoming project!
/Max Kassander
GillaGilla
Hello there Max! Glad you enjoyed the text!
Yeah, I kind of striked gold with my team. I think the reason we meshed so well was because everyone was on the same page and had the same view of direction for it. So we really didn’t do anything, it just kind of happened! Unfortunately, we won’t be working together during the arcade, so I have to find a new group! Hope you have one and that you guys succeed! (I hope you can find any use of VVVVVV!)
– Carl HvB
GillaGilla