Postmortem

Overall, QuestLine was a very successful project in our eyes because we were able to complete our 4 area design, execute high-quality art, as well as go above and beyond our initial programming abilities. 

In regards to design, we iterated on the level layout countless times as feedback was implemented. Although, with our time contrast, we weren’t always able to redesign the paper prototype, rather we edited in engine. Still, the designers took playtest feedback seriously and came up with ideas alongside the rest of the team to address those issues. Getting the level blocks in quickly also gave us something to test which helped us emphasize playtesting. 

The 3D art components were pretty straightforward, the designers sketched or sent our references for environment and our 3D artist came back with a potential timeline for the asset. We had a very reliable 3D artist and art pipeline that we tested during the goldspike. Our technical art also set the project to another level. The procedural modeling, dessert simualtiona nd numerous visual effects was something we were interested in and executed well.

Due to our limited skill and interested in combat programming, we tried to do as little as possible for the level design. We are very proud of the enemy AI we created given those limitations. The team overall, really stepped up when it came to the programming tasks. Free hands were used to help wherever they can, and most challenges were met with a “I will try” rather than a “I don’t know how”. 

We had a master list of task that came from feedback and our design document. Everyone in addition, kept their own list of individual task and participated in daily stand-ups. Our workflow was a well oiled machine when it came iteration. 

Finally, our meetings with the SME Ketul Majmudar, were extremely productive. We are beyond grateful to have his guidance. Ketul both honest and kind. He sterly kept uson track of the project purpose and reassured us of our progress. In addition, his professional perspective gave us a real task of industry and more than faith that we are prepared to enter the gaming world. 

What could have been better:

Being given a pre-exisitng IP, although was meant to help us because the last level design project got a “blue sky” design challenge and it hurt them. However, we still spent around a month on understanding the IP. Rifts being so expansive makes it still feel like a blue sky. The IP is so chaotic that we had to decide really early on to sacrifice some authenticity in regard to the IP simply because we don’t have the modelling power to make a bunch of aliens or mech suits. Also, since there is no video game reference to go off of, we were starting from scratch in regard to visuals. 

It took us a while to really understand how to use the IP. We weren’t making a TRPG video game, that was too hard, rather we were making the video game in the Rifts universe. Then we had to do game design as well as level design even though that isn’t within the project scope.

If we could go back in time, we probably would have chosen a game design that showcases level design more and utltizes less gameplay mechanics. We jumped ten toes down into our biggest weakness, programming, because we thought we would need to get ahead of it. In retrospective, we could have spent more time figuring our how to step around the programmin challenge rather than deal with it head on. We did great with what we had, but it was very difficult. The enemy AI landed on one person that was the only one who understood the code and was the only person who could iterate and fixed bugs regarding it. There are more efficient ways to do this. 

Another thing that could have improved is our testing per game area. We spent a lot of time testing floor 1 of our level progression because it had all the mechaanics we wanted to utlize. This helped us understand the overall gameplay that we were cultivating and fix bugs, but it also meant that we were building and testing the final section during the last weeks of development. In retrospective, we could have built the floors our together and tested both instead of fixating on floor 1. 

Conclusion:

QuestLine was a very successful project because we completed our level design and got an amazing addition to our portfolio. We not only developed our level design knowledge and got a task for level production, but also got to work on really fun features such as voiceover work, UI design, visual effect, and narrative design. We hope the level design production project lives on and our work serves as a prime example of what the future teams can accomplish.