Hey, I am back one more time to announce we have reached the end of development on Glass Castle, and have published our final build. I am incredibly proud of the team for the work that they have put into this project. The game has definitely come a long way since the beginning of production. As we move forward onto other projects, I want to reflect on the progress made over the course of the semester building Glass Castle, our strong points, as well as discuss what could have been smoother.

To start off, I want to briefly go over what the team was able to accomplish. Our 2D artists created amazing concept art and UI elements. Our character modeler was able to complete models for our wolf enemy, all 3 main characters, and unique NPC models between the 2 featured worlds, as well as all accompanying textures. Our core modelers created various props for each world, modular components for buildings, fencing, and our world terrains with their accompanying textures. The level designers concepted and fleshed out 2 worlds and our hub, while implementing our custom models. The programmer team kept hard at work designing player systems, saves, abilities, and numerous world functionalities. And finally, our lead designer worked closely with their team to get the game built while making changes to benefit the player, the core vision, and get the game shipped.

We had a total of 811 points assigned over the course of development. Of these 811 points assigned, 656 points were completed. Our average velocity was 99 points per sprint over the course of 7 sprints. We revised a lot of assets of the course of multiple sprints, which led to a lot of cut tasks in order to stay on schedule for release.

Next I want to go over what went right during development. First, we had a large amount of skilled modelers. Brie, our designer, has a lot of experience with modeling software was very proactive in checking geometry on completed assets. Our core modelers were quick to iterate on their work to fit model requirements, and we had a modeler with character experience that was able to step up and build them for us. Next, our programmers built early for extendable controls, which made changes quick. The programming team was also incredibly communicative about work being done, and what work was being commited and merged. We were able to keep a constant channel of communication throughout development over Discord which allowed us to see the progress being made, and congratulate completed work.

Now I will discuss what could of have gone better in our production. Starting on this project at the beginning of the semester, we didn't have a game design document to design around. This slowed the process that the team was able to schedule required assets, as we needed to build upon the document as the game progressed in order to keep the document up to date with planned features, instead of designing features to match the requirements. Another issue early in development was a lack of experience modeling for game engines, meaning that some early models were too highly detailed, and needed to be reworked. The amount of playtesters early in development also coributed to a lack of feedback early on in development. 

For future developments, there are a few things that I would do differently in order to positively effect production. First, I would have a longer period of preproduction. I would like to also change the priority of assigned tasks in order to tackle the more complex systems first, allowing for more polish. I would also utilize my animator more for more in-depth animations, and have them done early on in develeopment to allow for a iteration. Preparation is key, and building a more complex backlog to account for all work being completed would also be something that I would like to do differently in the future. This includes more accountability for reported bugs in playtests and during production.

FInally,  I just want to thank my team for their hard work and contribution to the project. I had a great time working this group of talented people and I can't wait to see what they work on next. Thank you for playing our game, and for following our development. 

Sincerely,

Kade Chambers