In total, the development of Maive has taken 19 weeks, and the result of our work is something I'm exceptionally proud of.
Roles
My official title for the project was Narrative Director, however I took on many roles:
Narrative Director: I was in charge of deciding the narrative direction of the game. I designed and produced dialogues, Maive's thoughts, and memory interactions within the game. I also designed and wrote all of the poems in the game that feature as the stories Maive tells.
3D artist: I produced low-poly 3D environment assets for the game, designed and created the terrain, and designed and created secondary characters and NPCs for the game. I also created colour palettes for all models I designed.
2D artist: I designed and produced all of the 2D assets in the game, with the exception of UI elements. I created the text that appears for Maive's stories, the one-line images that correspond with interactive words, and the hand-drawn assets for Maive's memories.
Sound designer: I researched and selected foley sounds for the game, as well as having an input in the musical style of the project.
Concept artist: I created concept art for characters.
Marketing: I had a minor role in the marketing of the game on online platforms.
Learning and producing
For a lot of my roles on this project, I learned skills in order to achieve things I'd never done before.
My knowledge of 3D modelling was limited, and I had never character modelled before. Now I have over 50 environment assets under my belt, as well as 10 character models. I'm really pleased with the quality of the models I created, making sure they were to a standard that both looked good and also meant they didn't cause problems for Kerris when she was animating, or Sid when he imported them into Unity. With more time to spare, I would have liked to learn to texture paint, as I think this could have added a level of detail and richness to the visuals, however the gradient shading technique we used was efficient and visually consistent. I also would have liked to explore how to re-topologise models, but because we were working in the low poly style, this wasn't strictly necessary. In future I'd like to learn these things both to expand my abilities and also to make sure all models I make are of the highest quality.
I had never written dialogue for the purposes of a game before, and learning how to be concise whilst still getting my point across in text was challenging, but I think I succeeded and the time I spent iterating the dialogue was well worth the payoff. I'm glad I had the experience of writing for characters that weren't intricately animated, as it meant my dialogue had to be bang-on in conveying emotion that players wouldn't be able to see. I may not have learned to write dialogue from scratch, but I value the experience of writing for a different medium than I am used to.
I had never explored foley sounds before working on this project, and still feel a little bereft on that front. Whilst I'm happy with the sounds I selected and found it interesting to explore the lateral thinking involved in finding sounds to suit my needs, I really wish I'd been able to record the sounds myself to exercise that creativity muscle even more.
Functioning as part of a team
A big part of the success of this game is down to how Sid, Kerris and I worked as a team. Our communication throughout the project was consistent and constant, meaning there were no major snags in the development pipeline that went unspoken or unnoticed. Despite the grief and opportunities lost because of COVID-19, it definitely put our professional practise under a microscope and made us change our system of working accordingly. Should I undertake a project like this again, I'd like to be stricter about doing the stand-ups from the start, as no harm can come from too much communication, where it can come from a lack of it.
As an individual I think my organisation was really good, and really benefited the team. I kept on top of Trello and made sure it was well organised and made sense to the rest of the team members, kept google documents like the weekly updates sheet constantly updated not just for myself but for the rest of the team, and made spreadsheets that improved the workflow of the project. In terms of professional practise I consider this to be one of my strengths, and I'm proud of myself for keeping these things organised and the benefit it had on us and our ability to work. I've learned a lot from working on this project, and think I have a good understanding of how to use agile methodology effectively.
On a personal note, I'm aware that my aversion to conflict is a hinderance in team work. I often capitulated on things I felt strongly about, and wonder what the game had been like had I stood my ground a little. I'm also aware, however, that I'm a strong personality and seem quite outgoing, and much of my capitulation was in an attempt to let everyone's voices in the team be heard. Even at the end of the project I'm still apologetic for naturally stepping into an unofficial leadership role, and will continue to work hard to make sure I don't overshadow those who are quieter than me. I would like to get to a place where I can have conviction in my instincts but not let that conviction make others feel as though they can't speak.
Marketing
Sid undertook the majority of the marketing for this game, and it was through Sid that I learned about Human Centred Design and how vital it is in building up an audience. My contribution to the marketing of the game wasn't nearly what Sid's was, however when I did contribute I paid close attention to making our posts seem friendly, and referring to the player, rather than keeping this distant, professional attitude that online comes across as condescending. By doing this on social media we built up a really friendly, invested audience in quite a short time, making new friends in the industry and seeing our project capture the imagination of many.
We did most of this connecting from our project-specific Twitter and Instagram pages, but especially on Twitter it was important to keep up to date with those people on our personal accounts, too. Sharing their projects and building others up rather than hogging all the attention to ourselves helped strengthen relationships, and I also feel it's an important thing to do generally to make the games industry a more inclusive, positive space, focused more on helping others than tearing them down to get ahead. The rising tide lifts all boats, after all.
To conclude
Over all, I'm incredibly proud of what our team has managed to achieve. Maive's following is small, but passionate, and seeing how the game impacts people when playing is really wonderful.
The work I produced was high quality and quantity, and I learned a lot about how to work efficiently and how to avoid burning out. I've come out of this project feeling like a reliable team member and a talented game designer, with a strengthened work ethic and more knowledge on how the game development process works. I've really enjoyed bringing Maive to life, despite the limitations we had to impose on the project due to time, and feel like it's a full, relaxing experience that many people can relate to. The story I've created is solid and told well, and people are moved by it in different ways, which was my main personal goal. The skills I've learned along the way are ones I will continue to develop, and I'm excited to think of what project I'll be working on next.