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It has been over a month since my last entry. I do have quite a lot to talk about, not just about what I am doing for the game, but also the current mindset I have been adopting as a developer. So strap in folks, this one's going to be deeper than usual.
I am going to be completely honest, I have been experiencing a dip in my creative and motivational drive. This was inevitably going to happen, so I am not completely bummed out by it (although it still sucks). Days after the last post, I have been constructing the level designs from the drafts I have drawn on paper. So far, I have worked on demo levels 1-4. I duplicated the walls and positioned them as similar as possible to the first drafts. I did have to readjust the size of the rooms in each level so that it was not too big for the player to traverse. I have yet to playtest the levels as the enemies are not fully functional yet. This is something I must do once I resume work on the project. Level 5 (the final level) still requires work, as it is planned to be the level that encapsulates every mechanic the player has experienced so far. At the moment, my goal is to get the first 4 levels up and running before working on the last stage.
Below is one of the demo levels being designed:
Although this seems quite a bit of progress, I did become stagnant in the latter part of October and the majority of November this year. I do not want to sound like I am making excuses, but I could not resist enjoying the freedoms of coming out of lockdown after many months. New South Wales began relaxing its restrictions in mid-October, and thus, I have been taking advantage of that. I have been going out and socialising with friends more since then, and to be honest, it felt quite relieving. It was something I missed doing for the majority of 2021. Not only were social activities on the rise, but also work began picking up again too. In the midst of lockdown, I was doing 4 days a week, and some of those days involved working from home. At that stage, a lot of time can be reserved towards working on the project. However, coming out of lockdown got me back to working 5 days a week all on-site. These changes definitely took a toll on my weekly schedule. But do not fret, I am always trying my best to find time to make some progress with the project, even if only a little. Every step counts.
I also want to share about my prospects on getting into the game dev industry, and I can already tell it is no easy task. Ever since graduating from uni late last year, I have been applying to several roles for a number of companies, and a majority of them were in relation to graduate-level game developer/designer. I have had several applications go through, but I have yet to pass a single programming test. I have found myself falling short in that regard, and personally it was pretty frustrating. I do have some level of programming skill, but I was not frequently using them as much as a computer scientist would. One of these tests implemented Unity projects instead of an online IDE, but even with the advantage of familiarity with the engine, my lack of algorithmic knowledge still let me down. Even after doing a fair number of these tests, I still cannot get used to the pressure influenced by their time limits. From all the tests I had done, all of them were completed with at least one question left unanswered.
I do not blame the uni course I participated in for 3 years for these failures. This was all on me. However, the games development course only provided its students a taste in every field that makes up the games industry. They do not only teach you programming, but also design, art and even audio-related content. Once learned, these are excellent tools to have, no doubt, but it is not enough for students who want to participate in one specific field. The students need to search for other subjects that are not in the course in order to acquire deeper knowledge on what they want to do. If the students do not know how to take action on this before they finish their course, they will be less equipped for what they want to pursue (unless they are willing to shell more money to extend their prospects). I feel I am one of these students stuck in limbo. I have broad knowledge on games development, but not enough in-depth knowledge to pursue the role I want. The only way I can get out of this is to work on what I lack with the tools I have available to me. At the moment, I am trying to relearn what I have missed out on with data structures and algorithms. I feel this will get me further into the playing field and increase my chances of landing that job I want, but most importantly, I think it will help me develop my skills even further in games development.
This has been a reflection on what I have been mentally dwelling on in the past few weeks. I hope this provides some insight on what goes on in the mind of a budding games developer. I will definitely be working on Echolite a bit more in the coming future. I have also been contemplating on beginning other game projects as well, just so I can give my creative drive a bit of a boost, but I'll have to see if the circumstances are right. Thanks for reading through this very wordy entry, I will have more to show in the later posts. Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!
Andy