Kristina Brown - Environment Art and Environment Animation Post-Mortem

Team Summary -

This team project was, and is, a great experience to have. We have learned the process of making a game from beginning to end along with witnessing both success and failures. Everyone pitched in on taking in a job, sometimes the job is not even in are field but we pulled through it and made a working prototype with two working levels along with working interfaces, pick-up items, and enemies. We work hard on this project and it shows not only in our game but also in our 300+ page design documentation.

What I believe went right –

For the project I work with Todd and Daniel on the environment art and environment animations. Many of the animations and art that I have work on the in the game came out better than I thought it would. I am mostly proud of my bug and bug animation that I did for the game, even though Kim thinks it’s the most hideous thing there is. The bug did went through a few design changes, he was going to be more of a Rolly-Polly Bug (aka Pill Bug) but that would have been a lot of animation to do for him. I did keep his big exoskeleton shell but I take away a lot of his little legs away. Then he became a cross between a Rolly-Polly and a beetle. But I still love him. Many of my animations and art went though changes. With all things in a team, one person might like something else or see something that is off, it can be for the best and most of the time it was. I was working in a program that I haven’t used in a while and there was a lot of changes since CS2 came out. But I was able to work with the learning curve and many of my art and animations that I did, I am proud of.

What I believe went wrong –

There were times that I wanted to kill Flash and other times that I did not want to get out of bed. There were a few times that I couldn’t get the animation to move the way I wanted it too, but with the help of the team I was able to get them animated the way that I wanted them too. That one animation was the vine animation and spark. As for the vine, it work fine but the team want to a bit smoother so after some a few painstaking hours and with the help of Justin, we were able to get the animation to work and look right. Then came the spark, for the longest time I could not see how I was going to animate this, and it took the longest time to figure it out.

For me, the biggest thing that went wrong was my time management. Even though I was getting work done, many of which could have been better, but I was juggling work from two more other classes along with this project and sometimes one thing will get pushed back and fall through the crack.

What I would change –

I would change how I manage my time for a project. Even though we had the sprint and milestone system, for me it helped a little bit but not enough. I would need to figure out a system for me to keep me motivated through the project to keep me going and being more aware of my abilities as an artist. It’s just something that I need to work on for any future projects that I am going to do and are coming up.

All in all, I would like to say that I am proud of everyone and the work that we did for this project. And that I am glad and proud to be part of this team, good job everyone. I do hope we can still continue with the game the after the class is over. Keep up the good work!

Go Team Superfluous!