My Role:

Hello, my name is Kyra, and I'm one of the two developers who worked on Memoria! Working on a team of just two people meant we weren't able to split roles very cleanly. Neither of us are strong coders, so we had to rely on each other to work through bugs and issues. And there were a LOT of bugs and issues. Our process was simply to communicate what needed doing and decide who was available and/or willing to do it! That being said, we still leaned into our individual strengths when assigning work. For example, Evelyn knew how the dialogue system worked, so she ended up doing most of the coding surrounding that. I consider myself a pretty good writer, so I handled most of the text that went into the dialogue system.

At this point, I've done game design, coding, art, and narrative design for this game. I think I spent the most time doing game design.

What I Did:

Since there were only two of us, it was really hard to estimate how many hours each of us were going to spend on Memoria. I assigned myself around 25 hours worth of tasks on our Kanban board, but I'm pretty sure I put in at least 40 hours. This is in part due to bugs and merge conflicts.

Coding: I made an elevator that teleports the player between two points of the level, an invisible wall that locks the player in certain areas until they finish an objective, an intercom that plays music until a certain event, where it switches to play a message instead, two doors that open after certain events, a coffee machine that I linked to Evelyn's dialogue system, and a vending machine that I linked to Evelyn's dialogue system. I also edited some of the blueprints that Evelyn made as necessary.

Art: I made custom directional signs to let the player know where the bathroom, cafeteria, and lobby are. I also made custom bathroom door signs. Additionally, in MAYA, I made walls with a cool stripe through the middle and a doorframe/door to match. The elevator was made in UE using primitives, but it looks so good I'm considering it art anyway. I had to voice act as well for the intercom message and a radio news broadcast. I also had to secure assets, background music, and sound effects. Evelyn found the people models, but all the other assets and sounds were procured by yours truly!

Narrative Design: At the beginning of this project, I took the lead on writing how the larger story, and subsequently the demo, would play out. I also wrote and edited the majority of the demo's dialogue. I did, however, receive a lot of input and help from Evelyn throughout the process.

Game Design: Evelyn and I worked together to plan out the hospital's layout, and she's the one who blocked out the entire level. So she did the most work when it came to planning the level's layout. I took the lead on puzzle design. I planned out how the puzzles should go and what events should happen in what order. My goal was to make a series of events that progressed naturally and would make sense to the player.

What Was The Most Difficult Part?

Losing our third member in the first week of the project definitely complicated this project. It's already hard enough to make a full game in just four weeks with three people. Essentially losing one-third of our workforce before development even started put a lot of extra stress on Evelyn and I. Neither of us are strong coders, so coding took us extra time. And we didn't have anyone to help us code or take other things like art and narrative off our plate to let us focus on coding. I am eternally grateful for how hardworking and helpful Evelyn was throughout this entire assignment. If it weren't for her strong communication and willingness to figure out how to do whatever needed doing, I never would have survived this project.

What Have I Learned?

In a strange way, though, I'm happy with how things worked out. Having to do more work meant having to step outside my comfort zone. Being the second strongest coder on the team forced me to learn a lot about coding in a practical application. I had to learn how to work through bugs (Many, many bugs) and how to pivot when things just aren't working. I feel more confident with my coding abilities and I'm glad I got the chance to grow. In my next project, I'll be more ready to assist with coding rather than only doing art. I also learned even more about working on a tight deadline. We were able to fit all the features we wanted into the game, but it took some serious crunch time over the last few days. In my next project, I'll make a personal checklist of all the things I need to do, so I can keep closer track of how far along I am.

What Am I Most Proud Of?

I am really proud of how much Evelyn and I were able to do by ourselves in such a short time. I think our demo looks and feels really good! It feels polished, and we've worked out every bug we found! We both put a lot of time and effort into this game, and despite not being strong coders we were able to make the thing function how we wanted! I'm super proud of what we accomplished, and I'm very glad I had Evelyn on my team. She's been awesome to work with!

Asset/SFX Credits

Intercom Code

Invisible Wall Code

Vending Machine Code

Elevator Code

Narrative Doc