What Went Right:

Environment Design - The environmental design of each room was, in my mind, a standout feature in my project. While it is by no means perfect, I put a lot of time and effort into its creation. Every object in each room serves a purpose to help tell the story of the level visually. Creating these environments was the highlight for me creatively during this project.

Asset Use - Creating the assets for the level played a crucial role in enhancing the visual quality and theme for my level. If I had more time I would’ve loved to create textures for the walls, animated sprites for the NPCs, pressure washer, and the temperature regulator. However for the time allotted I feel that the integration of the assets went smoothly and helped facilitate a fun and interesting aesthetic.

Programming Mechanics - programming for the mechanics went pretty smoothly, I was able to finish the majority of the mechanics the first day, which left me with a lot of time to work on the main mechanic. For the main mechanic I took a risk by implementing something I knew nothing about. So I am quite proud that in the short period of time I was able to get it working (to some degree). Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get it to work the way I intended but we’ll get to that later.

Perforce - Using Perforce proved to be quite simple this time around, I have had some issues with the program in the past. But fortunately everything worked smoothly this time around. Everything uploaded in a timely manner and there weren't any major errors.

Informative Playtesting Feedback - While conducting playtests, play testers provided a lot of valuable insights into the level's strengths and weaknesses. This feedback has led me to understand better about what a level needs in order to bolster its replayability and what to implement to maintain player engagement.

What Went Wrong:

Researching the Main Mechanic - Despite initial enthusiasm for the pressure washer mechanic, my research into the mechanic proved to be inadequate. Rushing into implementation without a thorough understanding of the code and concepts led to confusion and inconsistencies in gameplay. I tried tirelessly to tweak, modify, and research into how to get my materials to become translucent, but I failed to find the answer. Unfortunately, I had to settle with it not holding up to my expectations. Furthermore, I felt that due to the time constraint I couldn’t cut the mechanic and/or swap it out for something else.  *After the deadline I was able to properly make the canvas translucent*

Data Collection - My approach to data collection during the level didn’t provide any meaningful data, and this really showed during playtests. However, some information that my data collection did tell me was that since I had NPCs that provided players with story, it made my note mechanic fairly redundant. Player’s were more interested in interacting with the NPCs than they were with collecting notes.

Lack of Cohesive Mechanics - Despite individual mechanics being well-designed, I struggled to integrate them into a cohesive gameplay experience. The lack of synergy between mechanics led to disjointed gameplay. Unfortunately this led to an overall unengaging gameplay experience. In retrospect I should’ve included more mechanics centered around the pressure washer or included more mechanics centered around cleaning.

Lack of Engaging Objectives - My failure to define clear and engaging objectives for players resulted in aimless gameplay and diminishing player motivation. Especially when trying to complement an already intentionally repetitive and tedious mechanic (pressure washing). While I had some objectives that were amusing, they were short lived. The objectives felt flat and lacked any build up. So without meaningful goals to strive towards, I feel that the players lacked a sense of meaning in the gameplay, leading to the aforementioned disengagement. I feel that if I were to try again I would’ve pushed more for objectives that offered the player a break from the tedium of the pressure washing. That way it offered them a sense of refuge.

Time Management - Poor time management plagued my project from the start, leading to missed deadlines, rushed implementations, and long work nights. Underestimating the time required for this project resulted in a rushed and incomplete final product. This lack of time management not only compromised the quality of the game but also caused a lot of undue stress.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, several aspects of the project were successful. The meticulous attention to the environmental design and the integration of assets enhanced the overall aesthetic appeal. Additionally, the smooth execution of programming for the majority of the mechanics, coupled with effective utilization of Perforce, facilitated a more streamlined development process. However, there were some critical areas that also revealed opportunities for improvement. Insufficient research into the main mechanic, challenges in meaningful data collection, a lack of cohesive gameplay mechanics, and the use of poor time management skills, really underscored the importance of thorough planning and foresight. Moving forward, these insights will serve as a valuable lesson. By addressing the shortcomings and leveraging the strengths of this project, I am confident in my ability to deliver  a better and more engaging experience in the future.