Your final deliverable is a page dedicated to reflecting on the whole process and contextualising the content you have covered. You should evaluate the work you have done throughout this module, identifying areas that you could focus on going forward and further skills you would like to learn. You should write a SWOT analysis covering everything you’ve gone over during this module. You should aim for between 500-750 words for this deliverable
One of the main strengths of my work thus far has to be how I was able to get the basic mechanics and assets which I could use to go on and create a proper experience that meets my Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Criteria. Another strength, I’d say, is how visually, the art style is very consistent which I initially thought was going to be an issue as this diverges from my usual art style. Ultimately, this decision paid off as it meant that assets could be created faster due to the relatively simpler house style I ended up going for. In regards to the target demographic, I feel like I have appealed to them quite successfully. Considering how most gamers are mobile gamers, this could quite easily be adapted to a mobile setting. The slower play style lends to a more casual experience which is easier to pick up whenever.
For weaknesses, I would say that being a solo developer, the game isn’t at its best potential. If given a longer time frame and resources then I feel like this would greatly increase but right now it’s capped at deadlines and my ability to understand code concepts in such time. I think picking up coding, particularly cpp, was hard for me to learn as there are so few resources for it clearly contextualized to a 2D game as UE5 isn’t the first choice when it comes to 2D Game development. Another weakness was a fault of my own, but not leaving enough time to research more thoroughly beforehand. This way I would’ve known which tutorials I could use together as a lot of time was wasted following tutorials that didn’t apply with certain already existing classes or code in my game. This was mildly counterbalanced by my breadth of tutorials but time management could definitely have been better.
I feel like the game has a lot of potential if developed further. Even with the simple mechanics I’ve added now, alongside the simple game goal, it leaves a lot of opportunity regarding level design and narrative. Playing on the chicken’s mischievous though innocent looking demeanor could lend to comedic moments, much like The Untitled Goose Game. Working from this simple base, I feel like (if given the chance) adding different game modes like varying difficulties, multiplayer, or AI for sprite movement would definitely make this game more enjoyable and increase appeal. Making the player actively pursue some of the chickens would raise the challenge and allow for items such as nets, or bait. Even adding a Timed mode would raise the stakes if given.
Unfortunately, with very mainstream competitors it would be hard to get an initial game take-off. There are a lot of Farm genre games but I feel like they are all pretty repetitive. I think that without a solid unique selling point (USP) in the game, then it would be hard to advertise other than being a fun passion project. Another threat is my wavering confidence in my coding abilities, I’ve tested and troubleshooted countless times, but it would be hard to say if the game is truly stable so this may raise issues in the future without knowing what to do. Additionally, I think using UE5 means that the production of the game wasn’t as efficient as it could be. If a competitor were to use a different game engine adapted to 2D games, they have more contextualized UI and assets to support the production timeline.
In conclusion, I’m relatively happy with how the project went though I think I struggled to perceive just how much work has to be done prior to starting in the engine. In this sense, I think time management could definitely have been a lot better- perhaps creating another more realistic gantt chart contextualized to this project for myself would’ve helped. Otherwise, it’s made me realize that game development isn’t as daunting as I thought it was. With how easy Blueprints are to pick up it’s definitely piqued an interest in exploring the engine a bit more. I would one day like to be able to understand C++ so perhaps that is a skill I can work on independently. On the art front, I think this has rekindled my interest in animation as it was quite rewarding and fun to watch the sprites come to life so I look forward to using it in future projects.