Indie path. Part 7/15.How and why the prototype was changed

Who am I, what am I sharing and why you can be interesting, indicated in the first post (link).

Disclaimer: I do not tell how to make games correctly, but I tell how I experimented, studied and continue to develop in this direction.

Links to all articles from the series In the application.

In the 5th part of this series, I promised to talk about the role played by our first build in the development of the game. So we can say that thanks to him our team Rummy Games appeared. In 2018, the founder of the project (Vlad) took place in the management of gaming projects in VSHBI. As part of the training, each listener must make his own project and protect it as a thesis. So our game originated. The first version was collected on Unity and where it is now, only Vlad knows. Having defended the diploma, he decided to be stubbornly and after 4 years of work with Unity began to master blueprints in Unreal Engine.

As a result, he translated everything that he did to Unity in Unreal, simultaneously improving and finalizing. In February 2019, the prototype on the new engine was demonstrated by Vyacheslav Pogochkin, who decided to launch a training project on its basis. So our team originated.

Let’s get back to https://prive-casino-uk.org the prototype. He served for us with the very starting point with which it all started. Since it was already made in the Sci-Fi setting, we did not change anything, began to pull on it a narrative and so on. The first time we suspected that this prototype cannot be turned into a game, before the first showcase in May 2019. In the process of correcting the bugs, it became clear that they were immortal: as soon as we repaired in one place, something immediately fell off in another. Along with this, our programmers, who joined the project in the summer of 2019, looked at all these “pasta” in blueprints and immediately said that this could not work normally. Code refactoring / Assembly of finishing architecture started. It should be noted that the prototype of the game is not obliged to work normally, to be optimized and without bugs. We mistakenly wanted him more than he could give us.

Autumn and the time of the next exhibitions came up, so it was not possible to abandon the blueprint prototype. Reanimated: they repainted it, pulled the level more interesting, added experimental UI and went with it to the showcase. So we lasted until December 2019. And the final architecture was not there.

The fact is that we all work Part-Time. Therefore, it is not so easy to create a pure-implant, and even focusing not on the build that shows “how it should be”, but to the one that shows “how not it is necessary”.

Thanks to the producer, in January 2020, we managed to get to Stream to Albert Zhiltsov and Sergey Volkov in “after the credits”. And again we could not show a pure. I had to carry a half -dead old prototype. By this moment, he worsened a little: after experiments with the inventory, navigation began to fly in it, which is why some NPCs and inactive members of the detachment began to run away arbitrarily into zero coordination. As a result, we received a bunch of recommendations “What should be corrected in the game”. And the main thing was that it was necessary to “add the game”. That is, there was no “fan” in the prototype, without which there is no game itself. After participating in this podcast, they unanimously decided to throw the old lame horse nicknamed “Bild” and direct all his strength to create a clean -up.

Spring 2020 came, quarantine and a bunch of online exhibitions in which it was necessary to take part again, but with a “frozen” prototype. Along with conferences, we went to the competition to Unreal Engine, in which 2 qualifying stages were surprised for ourselves. However, to squeeze into the final with the version that they had was completely impossible. Therefore, before the final stage of the competition, they decided to reanimate the prototype for the last time.

There are 2 basic activity in our game: missions to save the victims and breaks between them in the form of a game hub – a spaceship on which the rescuers team moves. Over the summer we completely processed the ship, so that this particular part was replaced in the old prototype, also changed the interface, repainted, finalized the controller of the step -by -step mode, turned off the non -working functionality and the Russian language. In this form and rolled out an update at the end of last month. All this in one person was able to do our founder – Vlad. Thus, the resources of the rest of the team were not distracted from priorities in the development.

We did not go to the final of the competition. After all, in the prototype, as before, “there was no game”. Let us add beautifulities there, two cut scenes and updated the interface, this was not enough.

As for the final build: we plan to release it by February 2021. In the meantime, we use it to check the lighting in scenes, check the scale, check the effects and prototypes of individual mechanics. Before adding mechanics to the clean -up, first we create its prototype on blueprints, run in a new build on the subject “Was it to work” and rewrite on the pluses.

The period that I was visible: February 2019 – October 2020.

Why am I:

Only one prototypical build was able to strive for the creation of a team, participation in dozens of exhibitions, attempts to participate in competitions, creating documentation, announcement in Steam and much more. Build is your best friend in development and marketing. It must be created immediately and updated all the time.Especially if you do not have finances for promotions.

the build can also be used in development, checking the prototypes of the mechanic directly in it. Then it is easier to rewrite them on a clean -up than to pitch right in it.