Platformer Prototype: POSTMORTEM

26/03/25 Postmortem 

Hello. Throughout these past few weeks, I had been working and recording my progression on my platformer game prototype. This prototype (along with any other future prototypes) will be available to play on the gd.games linked under the "People who I'd like to meet" section of my profile.

Most of chapters 1, 7 and 8 from the Game Design Workshop textbook (Fullerton, 2018) was a main inspiration of my designing process. This is because these three chapters gave a lot of information on how to formulate an efficient, cohesive and quick prototype.

Chapter 1 explained in detail on how to brainstorm and formalise an idea or system. In chapter 7 I was then told to make a physical, drawn-out prototype in order to pitch the idea and logically visualize the game's design. I then wanted to follow the "Four Paths to Power" section in chapter 8 in how to make a good digital prototype and its basic mechanics (tools). It had stated that I was to ask:

1. is the tool/prototype really needed?

2.what are the requirements? 

3. What is the quickest way to build the tool 

4. Will the tool be flexible enough 

Something I would change about my creative process when making this game was to continuously go back to brainstorming new ideas rather than letting myself improvise ideas on the spot. Due to my original development process, I had difficulties with coherent game design ideas which led to rushed assets and mechanics. This would then lead into more bugs i needed to fix in my game, of course a leading cause of this process is due to my time constraints however I definitely could have managed it better.

I would change a lot of elements in my original game design based on the results of my playtesting survey. If I were to choose one thing, I would've wanted to do is spend more time refining my fish spawning mechanic and their movement patterns. A key reason for why the game didn't flow as well is because of the platforms not being consistent enough to jump on which led to frustrating and unsatisfying gameplay.

Thats all, Kieran signing out.