CAGD 377 - AWayHome Blog [Carl Moreno]

CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post Postmortem [5/9/24]

• Taking the producer role for this mobile project has been a huge success for me learning a new role and also a success for the team. I have learned so much along the way from the first sprint all the way until the final sprint. The biggest thing to learn was being organized and having good time management because these larger group projects can be messy really quickly if not organized well from the start. Luckily, at the start of the project we formed a really good team of three, we had worked in a previous class together and we all agreed we have good working chemistry together to always keep the ball rolling. During the first weeks, we wanted to think about the scope of the project, so I created a ton of cards of what a rough draft would look like once completed so that the team could get a base look at how more cards could be broken down and evolve into new fresh cards. As we gathered references we decided to get to work right away since time does move fast and we want to get good progress in for each sprint so that we can get a view for our breakdown chart of completion. The team really enjoyed the idea of a storytelling game tied in with a merging bubble game that a team member had suggested and it went from there. The team decided to officially name our mobile game, A Way Home.

Early Visual Representation of A Way Home

• During the development of A Way Home, what went right was definitely the organization for the project. The very first thing the team set up, was a Google Drive so that we could place important information, reference images, and a place to store builds in. Another great organizational technique that we followed was on Unity itself where we had folders for our specific areas of work. It's so that GitHub does not have any issues with merging and losing any work. Thankfully, we were able to learn from the issues we had from our previous class projects, and in this mobile project, I am glad to say we did not have any lost work due to merging issues.

Team Labs Google Drive with folder organization for the development of A Way Home

• Another thing that went right with the development of A Way Home, was the biweekly meetings we had to discuss work pushing forward and verify the work that was completed for the week. The Trello board that we had was also a huge help toward development since it had all the cards that I assigned for the team as well. We were able to compile the cards together as points that would be placed into the completed section to be counted up and placed in a breakdown chart so that we know if more cards need to be made toward completion of the game. Luckily, the team always had work to do and always completed it in a timely manner so that we were able to have a pretty much-completed game by the Beta version. The plan was to have the game completed by the Beta and then polish it up in the last sprint, which is exactly what the team did.

A view of the Trello board with images to represent each card for the Sprint.

In-Game scene of Chapter 9!

• Something that that went wrong with the development of A Way Home, was the UI sizing for Android Devices. We were unaware of the standard sizing for most Android devices for testing since we tested on a selected few Android devices that roughly had the same screen size. As we reached the later sprints, specifically the Beta, we realized that there were other Android devices that were not able to support the canvas sizing that we had placed on all the scenes. We found the perfect size to fit more Android devices and pushed out a hotfix for those to try out the game that had canvas sizing issues prior. Next time, we should definitely be aware that there are tons of Android devices that support the API 33+ and we need to take into consideration the best canvas sizing to fit the most devices we can get to playtest our game without any issues. Thankfully, once we reached the official release we were pleased to see many players happy to play our game in the proper full-screen sizing. 

Something that went wrong: blocks of text and/or UI being stretched off the Android screen. (Realized was not the same as Unity compared to an actual Andriod device's screen)

• What I would do differently in the future if I had the chance to do it all over again would be to make sure to note down the canvas sizing because that seemed to be a huge issue with development. In the earlier sprints, when we pushed out builds within the Internal testing, we did notice that the text size did not exactly match what we saw on the Unity version, and pushing out many Internal builds was a little icky, but we ended up finding the perfect sizing for text and where exactly to place it on the screen. This is why we took testing very seriously so that we could find any bugs, if any, or fix any sizing errors we encountered. 

In-game view of a scene from Chapter Two (Human Choice) with the perfect canvas sizing to fit Android devices.

• Other than that, I am very proud of the team that we were able to push out our very first approved game onto the Google Play Store, which feels pretty good to say. I am hoping the team finds each other in a future group assignment because the development of A Way Home went extremely well and we are very proud of our work!

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CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post 6 [4/28/24]

• The kick-off for sprint 6 started off very strong and was one of the most fun sprints for me. This sprint made me proud to have the role of the producer since the team is very happy with how the game is turning out based on the cards that have been assigned in a prior sprint. Sprint 6 was mostly focused on getting the game to be in the beta stage to have playtesters try out the full game. Luckily there weren't too many bugs to start off sprint 6, but the main bug was in the bubble game which was later resolved by another team member. As far as my work went for sprint 6, I assigned myself to implement the whole story that was saved from a draft into Unity. We decided to add each scene for each text bubble since that was the only way that was decided on since adding chapter 1. So I continued to add scenes for each of the levels/chapters. It did take a while, but extremely worth it at the end. We ended up having over 160+ scenes, but that only makes me proud of the work that I put in for this sprint. Also to mention all the scene button transitioning that I implemented for each level.

Chapter 5 - "At the school."

• Some other work that I completed this sprint was making sure that each level had the proper background that are tied with the story details. As well as making sure there were merge bubble scenes added after each level was completed so that the players could continue to enjoy playing the merging bubble game once again. When the merge bubble game ends, it will always prompt you to the start scene of each level that would be next. I had to make sure which scene would properly work for that function so I made sure all the scenes were added in the build settings. As I began playtesting, everything went really well and the team was proud of our accomplishments toward the Beta build.

Chapter 7 - "Getting captured and trying to escape."

• There were a few text bubbles that were out of place as well as a few buttons that were unassigned, but I am glad we ran through the playtests to make sure everything was looking great and functional. A lot of the feedback that was given primarily focused on adding more story and this sprint was definitely a hitter since I was able to add the full complete story into the game from start to finish. Although it did not seem that rewarded once you got to the end, it was good enough to distinguish the full story delivered to the player. When it got to the Beta playtest, many players really enjoyed playing through the full story, when they got to the merge bubble games, I did not expect everyone to go into professional gamer mode. Everyone seemed to be getting power-ups with a rate of 100% of the players receiving a power-up of a four-match to gain 10 extra seconds of playing time. It was awesome to see, although the team mentioned that there should be more difficulty added since players were just really good at the bubble game. Another thing that we noticed was that the wishbone choice prices seemed a little too easy, so we'll just have to bump the price so that players don't always choose the wishbone option.

Chapter 9 - "Finale Scene with car accident"

• Now that Sprint 7 is underway, I hope to just spice things up for the game and make sure everything is looking good for the Google Play Store listing of this game. The team is bound to finish the game just in time in Sprint 7 and we are all very proud of our amazing achievements. Many players look forward to the completed product and we cannot wait to release a fully completed version for everyone to enjoy!

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CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post 5 [4/12/24]

• The kick-off for spring 5 started off very nicely for the team and we were all able to accept two weeks of work with added cards. Being the fifth sprint as the producer of the team the process has been a smooth process and the team definitely has found its momentum. It's always an honor to be a part of a group during the mobile game developmental process because I'm still learning a lot on the way. It's a win-win for the team and I am very proud of the team with the work we have completed in the past sprints. The game is coming along together quickly and we are very excited to get the project completed for all to try out. As for sprint 5, the main focus was updating the merge bubble game with an addition of a power-up and upping difficulty. As well as implementing more of the story from our draft made by one of our team members and placing it onto Unity with the correct scenes. As far as my work went, I solely worked on the story implementation and made sure everything connected and transitioned properly. As well as making sure all the build settings are organized with organized scene folders.

Chapter 2, showing off some of the models created by the team

• This sprint 5, we wanted to make sure the game would be ready for a playtest for players to give us feedback. We were able to push out a new Alpha version 2 of the game and have gotten some feedback on it that we will look into before the Beta version of the game gets published. This sprint had the full additions of chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 being added into the game with a little start of chapter 6. We are doing it a classic way where when you click a button it takes you to a new scene, or back if you decide to, so it is taking a bit of time which I need to be careful of and keep an eye on time management to make sure the whole story is implemented before the Beta. So far there are over 100 scenes that have been pushed out and my duty is just to make sure everything is kept track of and kept organized. It has so far, been going well so that's what I'm hoping it stays that way. I have not received any problems on my side with my work which is also a good thing. We just have to make sure tasks are always assigned to keep the game rolling so that we can focus on any bug fixes toward the last sprint which is coming up quickly.

A scene from chapter 3.

• As I mentioned, I have completed and added chapters 2-5 into the game which are fully functional to our liking. The whole game/story transitions well from chapters 1-5 very nicely. One thing that has popped up of concern this sprint was that our full story has 10 chapters, and we feel that we must add in a checkpoint system as soon as possible since we don't want players to feel frustrated if they are near to completing the story, die, and would have to restart. So the team is focusing on that now so that we can have it before the Beta build for testing. This sprint we have also added the merging bubble game into the game more than once since players gave us feedback that they enjoyed it a lot and want to play more of it. I decided to add the merge bubble game after the end of every chapter and once they complete their timed game, it will transfer them over to the next following chapter.

Chapter 4, 'The Sewers' scene level

• What I am working on currently, is that I want to transfer over the rest of the story from our team's draft board so that we can have the full 10 chapters into the game so that the team can conduct internal testing of the whole story. It is looking great so far for the team and I am proud of the accomplishments we have completed. We are very excited to push out our completed game soon for players to enjoy!

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CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post 4 [3/28/24]

• The kick-off for sprint 4 started off well for the team since we were all able to accept two weeks' worth of work even with Spring Break in the way. Our plan was to get as much work done as we could before the Spring Break since the team did want to take a break and rest for that week. The team did get a good amount of progress before the break which I was really proud of. My part as a producer for the team has felt like a piece of cake and generating cards for the team has been fun to do so far. I will continue the trend and make sure the team always has work to do so the game can never lose interest in working on the game. The team is always eager for work and it has shown each sprint and the playtests. As far as sprint 4, our goal was to make sure the game was ready to go for the alpha testing stage. We were able to get a nice functioning game with our completed feature to gain feedback which was nice to have available to players.

Alpha Testing - A Way Home being shown through the Google Play Store

• As far as my work went, I focused primarily on tying the full chapter scenes together to form a full level in which the player can have the option to choose any option and the next scene will pop up based on their choices. There had to be a lot of scene-switching, but I am glad that I have a nice functioning scene-switching script that I can just type in which scene I want to transfer to in the inspector window. This also introduced the back button which allows players to go back to their previous scenes that they were on to re-read over storylines to make sure they feel more confident in choosing their story choices. I also worked on making sure all the scenes and fonts were stylized and clear to read for the players. A tough task was trying to fit the text in a text bubble nicely since it kept overlapping and/or not fitting on the screen well so we had to push out a build to test on a mobile device to see how to fit the text better.

Story scene with choices that have functioning scenes switching to their correct scenes based on what the player clicks on.

• Some more work that I completed on this sprint was making sure the Google Play Console was all up to date to post our .aab files through the Alpha testing section. The game is now visible with descriptions, images, video, and app logo through the Google Play store which makes the team really proud to see our game moving quickly through the development process. The game is coming together nicely and it will only get better from this point on. Once the game is fully pushed out, it will be a nice relief to see, but that will be for future sprints. 

The main menu screen with all 3 buttons finally functioning, as well as added main menu music.

• The work that did not get to be completed this sprint was not adding more stories in time for the playtest. There are a lot of scenes being added and making sure they are in the correct folders so my job is to make sure everything is organized and the buttons connect to the right scenes. My teammate was working on forming the chapters for the rest of the story in the meantime, which assisted me in implementing it into Unity. The team has more stories available and it is just up to us to translate it over into Unity so that the player has more story levels available to their hands. The next sprint is focusing on adding the rest of the story onto Unity so that we can have it fully available for the next playtest coming up.

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CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post 3 [3/8/24]

• The kick-off for sprint 3 was a success for the team. We all had a focus in mind and that was to make sure the game gets uploaded onto a mobile device for internal testing to be ready for the first official electronic build playtest for others to try our game. It was a smooth and great experience during sprint three as the producer for the team. We were all able to give ourselves a sufficient amount of work for two weeks. The first thing we all did was make sure we had all the mechanics working for the game just in time for the first playtest. We wanted to give players a taste/feel of the game so they know what will be built on and can give us criticism for what to change and fix. Being the producer at the point of Sprint 3 has been a wonderful experience for me and I am still in fact learning and becoming better at my work. I am learning all the tips and tricks for being the producer of a team based on what I am seeing from other teams and learning from them as well. It is all positive from here, and that is what makes a good game come to life. At the start of sprint 3, the team is for sure on the same page and we are on track to finish this game on time with room to fix any bug fixes and get feedback toward the end. As usual, we will conduct many tests before the game is fully complete so that the game can improve. 

Testing the game internally on an Android device (13 versions tested). The image shown was one of the very first tests conducted.

• The first thing I got to work with the team was making sure the privacy policy was up to par and ready to go. The other main work I completed in sprint 3 was making sure the buttons we had in the game were all functional and making sure the scene management was all good to go. As well as debugs to make sure all the correct buttons are giving me the correct feedback in return. I was also able to complete the correct sizing for the game on every scene since it was smaller than anticipated when we ported the game to mobile for the first time. For the mobile device, the team was proud of seeing the game on mobile for the first time and we felt good about a functional first testing internal build. While the sizing and a few mechanics based on the merging bubble game needed tweaks, we were able to pull off over 13 internal playtest builds before we got to the official first electronic .apk build. We were able to submit the first build with no issues and submit at a really good time with no stress. The team was really proud and was looking forward to the playtest results the day before the playtesting day.

The game scene provides a dog model, text bubble, working button choices, working pause, and stylized font.

• Some work that did not get completed during this sprint was having the rest of the story laid out for the player to rest on and choose their choices, but it is currently in progress for the next sprint. We are excited to bring the rest of the story to the players since the feedback we received from the first electronic build. Some other work that needed to be completed was adding interchangeable buttons and giving feedback to the player from selected choices in the levels. I want to make sure that is added before the alpha build so we can test it and see how players like it. As far as what we had, we had four choices available for the player and they would switch scenes nicely. One of the buttons that the player may choose in level 2 would transfer them over to a merging bubble game which transitioned smoothly. The game would finish at the end of the emerging bubble game timer but we felt proud of what we completed for this sprint. 

What players saw during the first electronic build, had incomplete things to do, but we were proud to get functioning buttons, a taste of the story, and functioning scene switching.

• What I am currently working on now is adding more to the story of the game, thanks to our designer of the team who is coming up with the story. I am transferring the story to the game and making sure the choices would lead you to different outcomes. I am super proud of the team during this sprint since we were assigned over 52 points and were able to complete 37 points. I would call that a huge success and we now just proceed forward with this steady and strong momentum to complete the game.

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CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post 2 [2/23/24]

• Kicking off the second sprint went pretty well for the team as we were able to find our steady and productive momentum. The team was able to accept two weeks of work with no problems and we went straight to work once sprint two began. At the beginning of the sprint, my experience as a producer has grown and I have learned from sprint 1 to make sure there is a sufficient amount of cards available for the team to choose from so that the sprint does not start off dry. At the start of sprint 2, I made sure that the backlog was stacked with cards, and there were about 40-50 cards to start off which is a really strong kickoff. The main work that I focused on at the very start of the sprint was making sure the team had the up-to-date settings in the Android build settings and setting up a key for the keystone. It is a really important step to have, so we can set up playtests for our game to make sure we get feedback from others about our developmental process. Once the build settings were set up, I made sure the key was stored in a Google Drive we are all in together so that way we have it stored in a safe place and always refer to it.

A Way Home main menu screen with functional buttons!

•  The first thing I got to work on after that was the UI settings and layouts. I wanted to make sure the buttons would be functional since it is a main mechanic of the game that is needed. I was able to get the buttons working in the scenes I placed them in which is a plus. They also switch scenes which is also a needed thing for the game, we would just need to integrate the character interaction with the buttons for sprint 3 which is coming up. The classic telltale-styled game is based on a story choice map with different outcomes of the story which will sound like a challenge for us, but we will try our very best to get it done and working before the first external playtest. Some problems that I did encounter with the buttons for sprint 2, were attempting a resume and pause button to work properly from the main menu. I did create a script for both buttons since they have different functions, but they will for sure be adjusted for the next sprint since I was having issues with scene management for those two buttons.

Button Layout with functional 'testing' buttons and responsive debug log to signify that the button has been clicked.

• Some other work that I completed during this sprint was a how-to-play section with buttons that would take you back to a simple structured main menu with functioning buttons as well. Just the main button that would need fine-tuning, would be the back button because right now it is connected to take you back to the main menu and not to a scene where you left off from the pause button. I also created a debug log that when I click on buttons, I make sure that they give me back feedback so I know I clicked on them. That is very useful for the next sprint because I can specifically code a certain button to correspond with character responses and not have things mixed up. It is mostly for organizational use and makes sure no buttons are duplicated.

How To Play screen with details of the game for the player to read before they dive in! (They are also able to reference this section at any time via a button within the pause menu screen)

• What I am currently working on now and for future use will be fine-tuning the pause buttons and resume buttons. I want to make sure every single scene in each level works correctly and gives responsive feedback to the players nicely. I am very proud of my team during this sprint and we were able to complete 30 cards, which is pretty decent, being the second sprint. I hope to see a continuing momentum of work within the team and we are all definitely excited to get the game ready for its first external playtest in Sprint 3.

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 CAGD 377 - A Way Home Blog Post 1 [2/10/24]

• Kicking off the sprint went well for the team as we were all able to balance work that would add up to two weeks of work. We have set up a perfect meeting time on days when we are most free so we can figure out what we are working on as well as help each other out. This is the first time that I am taking on the role of a producer for a team and I am definitely starting to get the hang of it quickly after Sprint 1. So being a producer definitely feels different in my experience from my last semester's sprints, in which I role as the programmer which is a different viewpoint from what I am doing today. But it's a good way to learn more experience in sprints because, in the industry, you won't know what they'll place you in so it's always good to have experience in every position of sprints. I am enjoying the producer role so far because I am able to get the view as the player and write down all the details I want for the game we are aiming for. Making the cards for the team and equally balancing the work has been a task I have been keeping up with lately as well as verifying all cards placed in the verify tab.

  

  Reference key art the team is using to build the format. (Provided by teammate) We plan to have the story dialogue with choices for the player at the top and mix it in with a limited time merging on the bottom half to pair up points to be purchased for story decisions. 

• As the team began working, we encountered a few problems switching back and forth between the Unity Android template and the 3D Mobile URP.  We eventually solved everything and went with the URP since Unity is not really useful with the game template for some odd reason. The team began getting the basic mechanics down for the game's early stages and it is going well so far. We will keep up the pace so that we can have a successful working game by the second to last sprints so that the very last sprint will be all about bug fixing, balances, and last touch-ups. The team has found a steady pace so far, but we'll try to improve it so we can get more points done.

Paper Prototype of A Way Home

• The work that I completed this sprint was of course setting up and writing down cards for the team to be assigned. During the first sprint, the team was focused on the paper prototype so that we get a view of how the game would play out for players. I was in charge of conducting the first playtests of the team and giving my opinion to the designer/lead so that the paper prototype would go well in class. I had set up a Google Form so that players could input their feedback and during the playtests a lot of player feedback was positive, which is nice to see! People recommended that the story part of the game be lengthened, and it will definitely be working on future sprints. It is not our main priority right now to lengthen the story since we want to have all the basic mechanics of the game done so we can have a vision of the game. The next thing I began working on right after the playtests was making sure on Unity, it had all the correct Android build settings and made sure the game had a default portrait orientation since the game will need to be played vertically on Android devices. The next feature I worked on after that was focusing on the buttons that were going to be used for the story choices. I began getting the buttons in place and placing them in the scene with some functionality and being stylized. 

Creating the build settings for the game as well as converting to default portrait mode

• The work I did not complete during sprint one was finishing the script for the buttons, which I'll have a ButtonController script to control the button's feedback and to have scene switching after that. That is basically, what I am working on now, which is making the game's button fully functional. Then once that's completed I will go on to have proper scene switching so the story and levels of the game run smoothly. I'm excited to see how the game will progress more in the future and eager to hear what others will think about the game! 

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