Don’t Walk By
Don’t Walk By is the 3rd year student cohort game I helped to make at UWE in my Commercial Games Development module. It is a 2D Lemmings style game set in a university, made to help inform new undergraduates about the health and safety measures in place at UWE.
Gameplay
In DWB, players must guide a number of students (NPCs) through a level. Each level has hazards, such as fire and water leaks, and the player must use abilities to move or distract the students away from the hazards.
Each level has have a tiered grading system in which players earn more points depending on how many students make it safely to the end of the level. The game features a level editor in-game. This was useful during development as it enables level designers to experiment and make new levels with ease, in addition to being a fun feature for players.
Here you can see parts of the game in action -
My Role
The team I was assigned to were responsible for two of the core game systems: tool programming for the tile-based level editor which allowed level designers and players to make custom levels, and the AI pathfinding for the NPCs. Additionally, we were assigned quality assurance and testing.
I worked in the QA and testing role but by the end of the project cycle, had taken on some production responsibilities.
For the last few months, the game was worked on remotely. Each week, as a cohort we would meet and have a briefing. Following the briefing, I would speak to each team, check progress, assign bugs and feedback about any changes to them as well as updating them on the progress of the other teams.
My team were responsible for two core systems which much of the game was built around, so it was important that the other teams understood any changes and were able to give feedback.
Due to the large number of teams and the difficulties of working remotely during lockdown, it was very helpful to check in with each team individually on a weekly basis.
I also conducted testing twice a week on new features following a strict testing procedure - the results of these tests were brought up in the weekly meeting.
Evaluation
I enjoyed taking a step-back from programming for this module and focusing on more people-based skills, like communication. I think it was helpful to have an intermediary between all the teams as well as someone who could support other team members and help them understand new changes.
I also think on a personal level, it was nice to have a set structured meeting time for our entire year group each week during lockdown. As well as this, I gained valuable experience in live gameplay testing and analytics.