WHAT I LEARNED
WORKING ON A LARGE TEAM
The team has grown over the course of the project, but it has always been a large team. It is currently at 21 members, and it started at 14 members. It is the largest team I've ever worked on, and it has come with its challenges. Working with so many other people makes it difficult to stay caught up on what everyone has been working on, and can lead to diverging visions of the game. I made a point to try to stay caught up on everyone's work, and also encourage my team to play the game as much as possible. I've also learned a lot about time management, especially in the context of meeting time.
LEADING A DEPARTMENT
I lead the team of designers on the project, a team of 3. Everyone on the design team has their own role, in combat, level, and experience, but meeting and leading the workflow and direction of the other aspects of the game was a challenge. I've never struggled much with my own workflow when designing one part of a game, but directing others has made me learn a lot about team management and working in/with other design disciplines.
UNREAL ENGINE 5 WORKFLOW
At the beginning of this project, I had almost no experience with Unreal Engine. Working on HYPERFIST has taught me a lot about working in it. Most of my work on this project has been in blueprint scripting, which I have become relatively skilled at. Enemy behavior and the style bonus system are my main contributions to the game's codebase. I have also done some work in level design, mostly editing and decorating the levels created by our level designers.
BALANCE FOR ACTION GAMES
This game was my first project where I really had to think about balancing multiple enemies and character actions. Running playtests and feedback from others on the team helps, but balancing it all has been a challenge. I often had an issue where I would get feedback from a playtest, then overcorrect the issue, then have the same problem of overcorrecting in the opposite direction. It's been tricky to get the game just right, but I've definitely learned a lot from this experience.