Gameplay
Some footage from the first room
Main Menu
First room
The Patient
Cutscene between levels 1 and 2
Big Flashlight
Used to skip ahead before we had the dev console
Reflections
Setting up light and reflection probes
Dev Console
Made it easier to test different features
Planning Whiteboard
Where the team would share and document
Jira
Used to organize weekly sprints
First room planning
Items, props, layout
Second level planning
Layout of props, puzzle descriptions
Camera System
Editor scripting and gizmos makes setup easier
Description
Patient R-21 is a first-person point-and-click horror puzzle game.
Follow the story of a doctor experimenting on a captive patient, solving puzzles to escape once the patient breaks free.
My team, The Sillies, created an MVP of the game (2 levels) in 8 months (1 class across 2 semesters).
See the source on Github
Context
- Date: September 2024
- Duration: 8 months
- Team: 5 people
- Role: Tools Programmer, Integration
Tools
- Unity Engine
- Photoshop
- Audacity
- Confluence & Jira
- Github
Roles
Tools Programmer
- Create editor scripts to easily edit audio, movement systems
- Teach group members about tools
Gameplay Programmer
- Create movement, interaction, camera, audio systems
- Code and integrate various puzzles
Integration
- Handle import of audio and textures
- Place props and models in level
- Set up light probes and reflection probes, baking
Responsiblities
Programming
I created various systems that were core to the game, like movement and interaction. All members of the team had to interact with these systems, so code had to be well documented and easily extensible.
Management
I like keeping things organized. This means I prepared agendas for meetings and took notes during them, organized the team's tooling (e.g. Github, Confluence, Jira), and kept others updated on what I was doing.
Challenges
Scope
Most games suffer from their scope, especially towards the end of development. Stuck with 2 weeks left in development, we decided to cut 1 room and 2 puzzles from our final level. We finished on time.
Time Management
This project was created for one class - all team members had many more classes adding on to our workload. It was difficult to manage work on this project in parallel with other projects, but served as good experience in managing time effectively.
Skills Gained
New Tools
I got to use Confluence and Jira for the first time. The team decided to force ourselves to learn these tools despite being unfamiliar. It ended up being a great aid in our organization and documentation, and will serve just as useful in the future.
Team Management and Dynamics
The whole purpose of this course - Design Practice - is to gain insights into how dynamics in team projects
differ from solo projects. I got first hand experience having meetings stall and deadlock, and learned how to keep them moving.
I learned how to choose between competing ideas effectively. The importance of communication was once again highlighted. I got experience collaborating in Unity with Github while working in the same scene.
I learned lots that can only be learned by going through an entire project with a team.