DROWNED

What Went Right:

One thing that went right was being able to use the command blocks. They improved significantly how you're able to program things from within the game and it enabled me to do a lot of cool things I wasn't sure was gonna be possible, like making villagers into zombies and making boss fight rooms. Another thing that went right was that Minecraft is a very open game, and allowed for me to sample a bunch of different types of game play. I included things like button puzzles to unlock doors, rooms where you have to beat all enemies to progress, and rooms where you have to search for Villagers and hunt them down. Lastly, the way in which I told my story worked out well. My idea was to use game play and environmental clues rather than written text or dialogue to tell a story, and I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

What Went Wrong:

One thing that went wrong was that there are some parts of the game that are difficult to change. One thing I wanted was for the Iron Golems to chase the player, but the only way to do that was if the player attacked first. There was no clean way of doing this, so I opted for just placing the Golems near Villagers so that the player had the chance of hitting them. Another thing was that awkward while making the level is that you still have to adhere by the games rules. This meant that if I was hallowing out the ground to make part of the level and I hit sand or gravel above me, it would fall down and I'd have to clear it off whatever I was working on. Another thing was when building the locked doors and programming for each room, I had to consider a location that the player had to step to trigger everything that has to happen in the room, as well as actually leave space somewhere near the room to set up the redstone and command blocks. Another thing was that certain objects couldn't be placed under water, so when I was making button puzzles I had to place the under water ones surrounded by signs or really far away in a hard to notice air pocket. Lastly, getting the documentation for the portfolio was another issue I had with this project. I had left school a weekend early for break, and once home I had little time to work on it and I didn't have Photoshop or a fast computer to work with. This made the end of this project drag on a lot longer than it should have.

Lessons Learned

One lesson I learned is that it's good to stick to what you know. I was originally going to work in Source SDK and tried to avoid Minecraft because a lot of other people were already doing it. However, I didn't actually know a lot about Source SDK and didn't own any of the games for it, so I just stuck with Minecraft. I feel like I had a much better result because of this, because I already knew for the most part how to go about working on things and what best ways to use the different mechanics of the game. Another thing I learned is to consider the equipment you have. Upon leaving the school for break, I ended up having to finish the project on a laptop without Photoshop. This meant I had to make a detailed pacing map for the level in Paint, which ended up taking way too long and was very tedious. Lastly I learned that you don't need explicit text or dialogue to tell a story. I enjoyed doing a much more subtler route, using set design and different types of game play to tell the story instead.