The Pivot – joining “Through Ash”

Why I abandoned my solo development:

Following phase 3 presentation, the overall feedback reinforced what I learnt from my prototypes that both game ideas were out of the scope for a solo project. Although my peers and professors thought my concepts were interesting, game idea 1 required a skilled programmer and a very skilled VFX artist and we wouldn’t know the educational value or replayability until the concept had been fully developed. Game idea 2, on the other hand, would have required educator partnerships to ensure educational quality standards would be met in addition to needing a larger group to develop the game.

More significantly than this though, my presentation exposed the insufficient depth in user testing feedback. Whilst the prototypes demonstrated technical feasibility, the limited user testing hasn’t provided enough feedback to make meaningful iterations to either game idea. After speaking to my peers in more depth about the prototypes, we came to the understanding that if I continued with either idea solo, I would likely produce a surface level game rather than a deeply executed concept.

Why Through Ash:

The day of the presentation, I approached Hugo about collaborating on Through Ash – it would be a 20-30 minute 3D narrative driven sci-fi tragedy thriller where the player remotely operates a rover across a nuclear wasteland to a failing bunker. This concept immediately resonated with me for several reasons:

• The game revolves around this reveal twist mechanic where the game’s narrative device (the package) gets revealed at the end of the game to be the handler’s child, rather than cargo/ equipment. The rover’s health bar is actually secretly tracking the child’s condition. This mechanic aligned with my phase 3 idea of a delayed consequence and emotional reveal where the players actions of spreading the fire destroyed the environment. 
• The rover control systems (2D sonar, 3D scanner, text commands, physical map navigation) combined with the bunker maintenance created a game that required making decisions under pressure.
• Hugo specifically needed a programmer for the gameplay system implementation, and I also wanted to further expand on my Unity coding skills.

Collaboration advantages:

• It has allowed me to focus on the skills I wanted to develop such as programming and system design and implementation.
• Forces us to collaborate and brainstorm together which will give me an insight into how the industry will be once I’ve graduated. 

Reflection:

• Recognising the scope limitations of my solo concepts and making the strategic decision to collaborate to design Through Ash has shown my honest self-assessment of my project management. Rather than being stubborn and sticking to my unachievable concepts I identified my strengths and found a game project that I could be passionate about.