Smithee Post Mortem

Overview:

- Game Title: Smithee

- Release Date: 31/10/2024

- Development Duration: 1 Month

For the month of October, I was fortunate enough to secure an internship at a South African game development and animation studio called Studio Bolland. My responsibilities were simple - join a game jam, make a game and receive feedback, and guidance from the studio. Smithee is what came out of this experience.

What went well:

The overall programming of the project was smooth sailing. I got to learn a lot and tackle a lot of new challenges that I have not dealt with before. To be honest, I was worried that I might not finish this project in time given that it is my first game that I have coded since finishing my game development courses. It is finished though, and that is something that I would say went very well for this project.

When I was faced with new challenges in my project, Google, ChatGPT and Youtube was the way to go. When they couldn't help, my programming mentor was always willing to help.

Challenges:

Shaders:

I have not worked with shaders previously, so when my mentors suggested adding an outline to some of the sprites I did not think it would be as challenging as it was. Trying to implement this took about 2 days out of my development time.

Sprite rendering and scaling issues:

My sprites were appearing super blurry, and when it came to making my UI look more polished, it was a battle. My mentors came in clutch for me though, and taught me about how different pixel art looks when setting the filter mode to point no filter. As for UI sprites - this video on 9 slicing sprites was a life-saver. Learning this concept allowed me to make my game look so much more polished. 

Lessons learned:

I have learned that when it comes to implementing features in your game - there will always be various approaches that can be used depending on what your project needs.

I have also learned that the best way to push your skills forward is by doing, no matter your experience level :)