Covid-19 Cometh

05 April 2020 - 5 mins read time
Tags: Games Design Personal Final Project SHMUP

There was a lot that I had to worry about during my final year of University. My final deadlines mattering more than anything previous, the fact I’m not going to get my degree due to a deficit. There’s a lot to cause concern. But I didn’t think for a second a global pandemic would sweep the country and now isolate me from my lecturers, my friends and with it, my hopes of a solid final semester.

Covid-19 is an issue for a lot of reasons. But for me it’s an issue in specifically one aspect, it now makes this final project so much harder. My lecturer will be having regular weekly meetings on SOL and on Discord which I’m thankful for and the university is doing the best it can, but I can’t help but feel that my work is going to suffer for it anyway. It annoys me not just because of concern over my grades but because I wanted to put out something I was truly proud of, even if it wasn’t great, at least I could say I tried. But in-between trying to get what little groceries are left and also having to check up on family and friends there’s a surprising amount going on even though I technically have nothing but time.

At any rate. Now that the Covid Crisis has struck through I sought to re-calculate my plans. My gantt chart I planned just 2 months ago doesn’t seem so likely to work so I’ve tentatively revised it in case I’m unable to stick to the milestone schedule I previously set. As well as this I’ve also replanned my project. Again, this is a precautionary measure. I still hope to attain everything I sought to do but if needs must, I’ve revised the scope to something more manageable so that if I stumble, I can get back up and return to a brisker, albeit weaker pace. Taylor C, 2015 stated it best when they said, reducing scope midway through a project is often seen as or feels like giving up. But ultimately, it’s not and in reality is actually better for your game than trying to crunch to fix it. With this in mind, I’ve prepared to reduce my game. During this time I’m ever reminded by that famous of all quotes by Benjamin Franklin:

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Alas, it’s all but too true in these times. So, with that in mind here is my now revised scope:

  1. Instead of completing a 3 level vertical slice I will now be aiming first and foremost for at least a semi-polished 2 level demo. This demo will exemplify the core game mechanics and will remove the upgrade/grind mechanic entirely. Resources may still be collected but they serve no actual purpose for this final demo as it stands beyond existing.

  2. The gameplay will now be revised to remove several enemy types due to lack of an extra level with which to encompass them. As time is becoming ever more precious and work may slow there’s no need to have them.

  3. Planned extended functionality will now be removed for the purpose of the demo. This includes extended functionality such as:

    • Level achievement goals such as not taking any hits, killing all enemies etc.
    • Rhythm element aspects such as timed firing and movement patterns to audio. Whilst it would be interesting for some enemies the technical and design balance of it are simply too much and risk endangering the project overall.
    • Only 1 boss will be intended to be within the game. Crafting custom boss encounters takes twice the amount of effort, implementation and balance as that of 3 enemies and so having 2 of them is an extra amount of work that could cause me to fail so whilst 2 will be hopeful. 1 is all that’s realistically planned.

It saddens me to reduce the project like this but I’m only doing it in tentative preparation in case some issues from this pandemic and home studies affect it. This reduction is not without forethought. An insightful system that prompted me with this decision initially was that of the Iron Triangle[1]. The iron triangle defines three constraints of any given project, those being Scope, Budget and Time. In any given project these three will be in constant contention with each other. To reduce one aspect of the triangle you must reduce the others, otherwise the resulting product will be of inferior quality. (Atkinson R, 1999)

When looking at this concept, to reduce one aspect of this triangle for my project would result in all of them needing to be reduced. If we take time in my case, which will be the amount of time I can spend in a day on this. To reduce my time without reducing the others would lead to the others having increased pressure with both budget (in this case the deadline) and the scope of the game now receiving less time on them. (Van Wyngaard C, 2012) put it best when they said “‘Good, fast, cheap. Choose two.’ are often statements used to encapsulate the triangle”.

When looking at this project now with these preparations in place. I can at least guarantee myself that I’ll have a finished project, albeit reduced in scope.

Stay safe out there, until next time!

[1] The Iron Triangle or Triple Constraint is the commonly referred to name of the Project Management Triangle. A commonly used figurative construct utilised within project management.
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