After a long, dedicated fourteen weeks, our final board has been placed and we are happy to announce that Builder's Brawl is now completed. The team drove forward through hardships, and serious feature cuts and came out with a game that each one of us is very proud of. Here I will share with you the postmortem of our game, the hurdles we faced and how we overcame them to create a genuinely fun game with a unique concept. 

From Concept to Creation

The Victories

Builder's Brawl was conceived in a very long eight hour drive from Ventura to Chico, California. The basis of the game was formulated, put into a design document and at the time, every concept was laid out and put into words. From the art style, to the maps, to the abilities and camera, there was painstaking thought put in with the belief that much of the pre-production was complete. This design document helped to form the basis of the game and created a style and vision that would last throughout production.

The Hurdles

With the design document being so strong, one might think that everything was covered, Builder's Brawl was focused and succinct. Fast forward to week one of production and suddenly questions are being asked that had never been thought of before. How tall are the characters? How long are the boards? How wide are the boards in comparison to the characters? Whats the shape of the characters head? How large are the levels? The little things had clearly been missed in the "pre-production" phase and for three weeks the team needed answers to continue. Stress was at an all time high until these questions were put to rest and smooth sailing ensued, for a time.

The Great Flaw

"What's the Incentive?"

During our very first playtest we were asked a very good question, "whats the incentive to building?" Wholeheartedly we believed that gameplay is driven by the player wanting to play the game. But in reality good gameplay gives the player that want to play. We had a flaw in the system in that there was no incentive, and there was no reason to build to the other side if the other player would do it for you. There was no reason to fight either, and there was little incentive to do basically anything except fight over the very last plank being placed to get to the other side.

The Solution 

A point system. A simple point system solved our flaw without drastically changing our gameplay. This was important because at this point we had to either revamp the idea altogether or come up with something that wouldn't scrap anything, allowing us to continue production. A point system gave players incentive to be active and allowed us to control the direction of play, high points for killing another player and extremely high points for getting to the other side first, low points for building. You gain points for engaging in the main activities of the game and you needed to be active to have a chance at winning.

An added bonus of now having a point system was we needed a way to display who was winning and this created the point bar and the faces of each player which would move across it based on point total. This as a bonus opened us up to more art and eventually gave rise to the concept of personalities for each player and unique animations.

The Art Debacle

Inconsistency

Six weeks into production, the main mechanics of the game had been nailed down, things were moving smoothly, until models started to come in. Things weren't especially lining up and there were major inconsistencies from the art direction of say the river level, to something like the volcano level. With four levels in simultaneous production, there was no way that we could not have this style defined and fixed quickly.

Creating the Personality of Builder's Brawl

The answer came in a leadership promotion for one of our team members. A designated art director had to be chosen, who then went on to lay the foundation for all our style by creating shared assets. These shared assets were rocks and boulders that were used on every level and textured uniquely to that level. Thus the rest of the modeling team had a starting pallet to work from. Also from there our art director began to hand make all of our terrain textures and the personality and look of Builder's Brawl was finally nailed down for good.

The Biggest Decision

"Where's the Brawl?"

From its inception, Builder's Brawl was pitched and designed with a focus on the 1v1 intimate struggle between two friends over who would finish first. Half way through development at 8 weeks in, with a functioning game, we had a decision to make. Either Builder's Brawl would make the jump into four player chaos as its name intended, or we would build the rest of the way as a two player game. After much deliberation, and our head programmer saying it would "break everything", we rebuilt the game into a 3-4 experience that finally was a true BRAWL. 

 In the end this was the best decision we ever made and pushed our game to the next level. Finally you could sit on your couch with a few friends shoving and yelling at each other as you board slam each other to death. Our game had taken full form and embraced the fun.

A Final Word: The BB Team

At the end of the day, Builder's Brawl was a success due to the communication, teamwork and grit of every person listed above. We set out at the beginning of the semester to really push the limits of what had been done before and we achieved so much that every person was proud and overjoyed at the product we created.

A majority of this team was seniors and as the final game in their college career, I believe they can know they left with a huge milestone project that will be built upon and remembered at our university. In a mere fourteen weeks we created the basis for a fun, unique game that gave compelling gameplay and  smiles to the faces of our players.

From all of us here on the Builder's Brawl team, thank you for reading about our game and seeing the growth of it through these weeks.

A bright future looms for all of us. 

-The BB Team