Side Scroller: Post Mortem

The Side Scroller project was the first project we'd attempted that had the year working all together as a team. It would last until the fourth of December and our task was to create a four level side scroller that would take inspiration from Trine 2’s fantastical scale and colours. The Four levels would be themed; Hot, Happy, Cold and Scary in that order.

I was working on the Cold level as the level's concept artist. I also worked with the other concept artists to produce a style guide and narrative as well as overall assets like collectibles and checkpoints however due to the collaborative nature of the project at no point did I feel isolated or restricted to my area.

As this was our first project working as a single team there were a few hiccups with communication initially but as a team I thought we worked very well. We quickly got into the habit of not only sharing the work but also having regular meetings and such in order to coordinate what we were working on. I also thought that once our style guide was created we worked efficiently to it, there was no real point when things had to be changed because they didn't fit.



We faced problems with scale, an obvious issue with a project of this kind some of our initial ideas proved to be a little ambitious and for the first week of concepting we worked hard to strike a balance between our time frame and our ambitions for the project which we solved through a combination of smart down scaling and using more repeating assets. Later in the project the area brought up to benchmark level would be reduced.

One of the reasons for this reduction was another problem; the game play elements. This was the first time anyone had had to design game play alongside the visual aspects of the game. I personally have never done anything like this and it meant that getting that initial whitebox off the ground was a slower process than we would have liked. This delayed us in the beginning and ultimately meant that to solve the time issues we had with finishing we had to reduce the amount of the level that would be bench marked.


A problem I faced at times was not knowing where to go. Working on concepts first and foremost there wasn't the next stage to move onto but I quickly solved it by looking to others. Also making a lot of lists.


Problems and issues were largely overcome as a team. When we reached blocks or unexpected problems it was the time to hold meetings and pass around work. Daily scrum meetings meant that we started the day knowing what we wanted to achieve by the end but also with an opportunity to say what our problems had been and ask for suggestions and solutions.

If I were to approach a similar project then I'd place the style guide on a higher priority. Now that we've gone through the process once it's easier to see how one can be produced and say we should have been faster but it was a difficult task that in the future we could complete more quickly. I'd also  prefer to diversify the team; having people on the team who could fill in for skills that we as artists might not have (Programming, designing game play and story and the like) would really speed up the process and make us feel a lot more sure about what we're producing. Also, the scrum meetings which were a huge help needed to be implemented from the very beginning. We started to regularly use the process after a couple of weeks, but working in that way from the start could only improve efficiency.



As for what we produced, I'm personally very pleased with it. This is the first time that we've attempted something of this scale and this is the first time I've had this role in a project and despite not being able to finish the entire level what we have bench marked is something that I can honestly say I'm proud of having a hand in. Obviously it's not perfect, with extra time I'd like to be able to go back over and tighten up material values, rework the composition and finish the lower parts of the level especially, things like the stone of the statue need work and some areas feel too empty. If I were to approach this project all over again there would be slight changes to my workflow as certain things like style guide and level block outs would take higher priority (This project was a good exercise for getting over my tendency to focus in on one idea or a small element and instead focus on the bigger picture) so we could speed through with the later stages easier.

In conclusion I believe this was a successful project. We largely achieved what we set out to do and I definitely feel like I've learned and progressed, gaining skills that I could only gain by working on a project this size with a group this size. Our ideal finished piece was not met, but the reasons why were clear and in the future these problems can be addressed before they even arise. Any mistakes made in our project were not only corrected and adapted for, but we learned from them for the future.