Final Project Reflection:

Overall, I think I’ve ended up with a good game. I don’t think it’d be flying off the shelves if it were put up for sale, but I definitely feel as though people would gain some enjoyment out of playing it. I don’t really play many card or board games, so this project has certainly opened up doors for me in that sense. Here are some goals I achieved throughout the project:

• I made a full game, from start to finish, from scratch.
• I successfully incorporated a lot of myself into the project, and, for what feels like the first time in a while, I actually have some pride over my own work. I don’t think it’s groundbreaking, but I feel like I’m developing just enough to feel like my work is worth something in this industry. I’m also really happy I made sure that enter_universim revolves around the things I am interested in. It’s far more than a project that I simply contributed to, it is effectively a wide variety of things I love, in the form of a board game.
• I stuck to my guns and prioritised my artwork throughout the project, which has helped me to end up with a massive contributor to my updated portfolio. As someone who didn’t really consider a creative career until I was 18, having a conclusive project to add to my portfolio is huge for me. Even though the written work has definitely suffered due to this, I think it was the best way forward. I’ve emphasised what I’m best at, and gone as far as I physically could with it.
• I got out of my comfort zone, and presented my game to members of the public. I definitely struggled to do it well, but I had some good experiences playing my game with absolute strangers.

In terms of things I wish I did differently, or wish that went better:

• I wish I was able to really polish the game off. The 5 decks of cards I got printed set me back £100 on the spot, so getting the rest of the game printed professionally was off the table immediately. The physical components are a bit rough and jagged. They’re still usable and look solid, but I just wish I was able to add that final layer of cleanliness to the project.
• I wish I was able to find confidence in play testing a bit earlier. I was quite apprehensive on getting playtests with people going, since there was definitely a bit of a confidence issue in terms of explaining the game, or missing glaring issues. I know the whole point in play testing is to improve the game, but I think I was a bit afraid for people to find ‘big’ errors in the game. I’m definitely more confident in it now, as the game has come a long way in terms of balance, but if I got over that hurdle sooner, I think I could’ve saved some time and further developed the game.
• I wish I established a narrative direction sooner. The foundation of the games worldbuilding and narrative direction are perfect for my interests, and I’m extremely motivated to take it forward into a potential expansion. But, since I came up with it so late in the project, I haven’t been able to develop any expansion related material to submit. If I had spent a bit of time developing it sooner, I could’ve ended up with a better overall roster of Conjures. I am proud of the roster, but in hindsight, I wish the roster was a bit more cohesive to the narrative and worldbuilding I now have.
  • I also wish I had enough time to develop proper concept art for all of the Conjures. I know that this would not have been possible, and I’m proud of myself for coming to that realisation early and adapting to it, but there’s definitely a niggling feeling inside that makes the game feel a bit unfinished to me. I don’t feel like I’ve got everything I wanted out of it; I came very close to that, but it’s hard to ignore that feeling.
• I wish balancing the game was easier. I felt like I ended up spending so much time reworking the attacks and abilities that I sacrificed time spent fleshing out the game in other ways (documentation, marketing, social media etc). I think I should’ve made greater use of the people around me and used more surveys to really come to terms with issues, so that they could be more easily focussed on via playtesting.

Course Feedback for Adam:

• 12/13 weeks is simply not enough time to create a fully fleshed out game. A lot of the realisations I had in terms of scope came after time had already passed in the project. I know for a lot of my course mates that this was an issue for them too. We are not in the games industry yet, and these projects are what we are going to be using as advertisements for ourselves to get INTO the games industry - I think we would’ve really benefitted from additional time.
  • Perhaps semester 1 could be condensed, or turned into a summer project. Given that the summer between year 2 and 3 was pretty much empty (obviously we want to relax and chill out), I think I would’ve been really good to use some of that time working on the year 3 projects somehow, just to trim off some of the bulk.
• Throughout the course, I’ve felt a bit aimless in terms of what I should be doing, or what actually constitutes good or bad marks. I did a hell of a lot of research in semester 1 that provided a very strong basis for building my ideas from, yet I got middling marks for it. I wouldn’t be irritated about that it was clear why it wasn’t good enough to get good marks, but we pretty much got no feedback at all, nor was it apparent what actually made the work we did good or bad.
  • We also would have benefitted massively from checklists or general targets of completion. A lot of the time, it felt like I simply had to ‘do work’, rather than do the work I actually needed to be doing. Blackboard has been pretty much empty in terms of resources this year so, being honest, it’s very easy to get lost and experience decision paralysis because its not particularly clear what we should be doing as a necessity vs what we should be doing to bulk out the project.
• Communication sometimes felt a bit empty and slow. There were instances in which myself and course mates would enquire about something, only to be met with a slow response, or having to continually remind lecturers about the things we need/questions we have. Of course, we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes and what might cause these issues, but a bit more transparency/efficiency in communication would REALLY help.
• Perhaps some financial support for those of us making components that require money to be spent to create. I know this is obviously biased since I made a board game, but it was impossible to create anything with polish physically (no merch, couldn’t get the board/packaging printed professionally) since it was just unaffordable. Obviously giving out money is a more complicated issue, but even a little bit of support could really help those of us making physical projects.