This semester (Spring 2018) is already off to an amazing start…

First, we got the bombshell that we weren’t starting a three-semester project, but instead set to develop a mobile game in time for the Game Developers Convention over a single semester. This also means that next year we’ll be undertaking a year-long development on some other type of game. I’m really happy with this change, and really looking forward to this semester’s project.

We also got to choose our groups, which went quite literally perfectly. Every member of my eight-person team is both highly skilled and enjoyable to be around. We discussed everyone’s goals for this semester, and have settled on a really strong concept. From our time in the prototyping class we’ve really learned the value of developing a core mechanic through iteration and testing. Within the first week we had a white-box playable and over the next week I’ll start using what I’m learning in Game’s User Research to keep driving our development with data.

I was also very fortunate to be offered a position as the Genetic Science Learning Center as a Unity developer. I’ve only been there for a week but I really like it so far and it’s a great opportunity to continue developing my skills in both Unity and C# more generally.

This last weekend was completely occupied with the Global Game Jam, my first jam ever. I cannot express enough how much I loved it. The 12-person team, the breakneck pace, the pure chaos; it was heaven. I was completely blown away by how much my team accomplished, and was floored by the quality and inventiveness of all of the teams. I’ll definitely be doing more jams, and am already looking forward to next year’s GGJ.

Looking forward, I’m really excited about applying all the things I’m learning in Ashley’s Game’s User Research class, and the development of our mobile game. We’ve got a bunch of new mechanics to test over the next few weeks and I’ll be sure to post updates as it progresses.