Project BioBot Finished

We managed to finish the game in time and submit an entry to GoedWare Game Jam #5! Not gonna lie, we were definitely running out of time. Considering the scale of our game and how ambitious we were (originally) with the project, this was expected. There were countless features we wanted to add and enhancements we had to make, but most of them had to be ignored due to time constraints. For instance, we wanted to introduce a reflective laser mechanic to our puzzles or have more variety of maps (during the planning phase, we were expecting to add about 10 different levels).

Regarding the levels, we originally wanted to incorporate more parkour mechanics with the puzzle mechanics. We figured this would make the game feel more than just a boring puzzle game. We had parkour mechanics such as climbing, vaulting, and sliding ready (but not polished enough), but designing a map that creatively utilizes these mechanics was too difficult. So we ended up pushing those parkour mechanics to the ending instead (when the player has to "escape" from the facility). Designing a separate area for only one specific aspect is easier than making an environment to allow more than one aspect. However, we had to make another adjustment to this plan. By the time when we started designing the final parkour level, it was the same day as when we had to submit our entry. Even though we wanted to make the parkour a bit more creative and longer, the time didn't allow us to do so.

Apart from that, we also had to cut corners for the cutscenes. We knew making cutscenes with voice lines was too much in the beginning. Planning / directing convincing cutscenes take a lot of effort. We couldn't spend too much time doing this. Additionally, we also don't have a lot of experience creating these cutscenes, so it was hard for us to deliver the story to the players. Looking back at the cutscenes right now, I can understand that it might be a bit difficult for people to understand what's going on. Overall the pace is a bit too fast, and the details (mostly the bracelet) aren't highlighted enough. Maybe we could've done a better job with the camera angle to put the bracelet in focus. Now, to be fair, we had to position the camera in a way that our characters' heads don't show up because we didn't want to animate the facial expressions. The cutscene that happens towards the end of the game (right before when the player has to make the final decision) looks visually good and tells a lot about the story. I personally think this cutscene came out to be the nicest. Perhaps one minor improvement to this cutscene would be to make the dialogue between the "another robot" and the main character a little bit more concise or make more interactive animations/actions in-between (perhaps hand motions while they were talking or more varied camera motions than just going up and down. At the same time, this also means we need to spend more time on working on the animations) so that it can be a little bit more interesting to watch.

I would be lying if I say everything went flawlessly with the game jam. We faced game-breaking bugs very last minute of the game jam we had to fix. Our scene loader and unloader were messed up due to a small coding problem, but we quickly found the issue and resolved it.

Some parts of the map definitely needed an improvement. It's recommended to take at least a day (in a week-long game jam) to just playtest the game and discover various bugs. We didn't have that much time (instead, we had to keep working on the game. The ending was incomplete on the very last day, so we were all quite busy). However, even with all those problems, I think the game turned out to be pretty great. And of course, needless to say, we all had so much fun and we are all proud of ourselves.

Devlogs from other team members:

TheJayDuck