Hello!

And welcome back once again to Perry’s Pies! Today, this is a very special blog for the game because today is not only the official launch for Perry’s Pies but also the Designer Post Mortem blog, too! In this blog I will be discussing a lot of different topics on the subject ranging from the final build to  my overall experience being a lead designer to a much larger team than I had in past experiences and my work that was done for the very last sprint! If you are ever curious about the production side of things, I encourage you to head over to my producer, Brad Farris, post mortem blog! He has some really cool insightful topics on the team, as well! 

Whooo! Now that the final build is done and complete, there are so many more things I get to share with all you lovely viewers! When designing and making a game, there are so many different things that go into the game. Some things, like art and mechanics are noticeable to the player, but there are other aspects of the game, too, that some people never notice or thought about before. 

The first thing I wish to talk about is the art work done in the game and the overall aesthetic for it. When designing Perry’s Pies, one of the first things I thought about was the art and the feel I wanted the player to have when going through the levels. This was extremely important for Perry’s Pies due to it being a horror thriller type genre. In horror games, how the environment is portrayed to the player is a big part of how the player is going to be feeling throughout the game. Horror games need to provide an environment that gives the player the sense of uneasiness/dread and build that up in order to push the flow and immersion during gameplay. How an environment looks also comes down to the modelers too. To help my modelers with the process, I gave them a lot of different references in an organized spreadsheet from the very start. This spreadsheet contains not only the references for the models, but also what floor (if it was a very specific model) that it would be on and what was the purpose of that model if it was something special like an attraction or deterrent. I felt it was important that they knew what the purpose of the model was for, so they could base their texturing and other aspects of the model off of that as well. During all the sprints,  I found this was a really effective way to streamline and guide them.

 Throughout the entire process, I was very encouraging and supportive of their models. I also trusted my modelers to have their own creative and artistic freedom when making the models and texturing. I did this because I didn’t want them to feel too constrained and I wanted to give them a chance to express and show off their creativity. I found that this was actually a very useful way to approach modeling (also one they appreciated and made them very very happy) because I ended up getting amazing results and getting models/textures that were never too far off along with having my modelers be so proud of their work which in turn kept their motivation boosted at all times! So boosted, in fact, that they wanted to do more and more models even when I had all the models needed!

Another major goal of Perry’s Pies was Perry himself. When it came to the completion of Perry and making Perry who he is today, it required teamwork and for basically every department to work on him at some point in the process. In order to get a better vision of how I wanted Perry to look, I first worked with Koda Dowdle, my Lead 2D Artist, to create multiple versions of Perry. This required different forms of Perry ranging from different physical looks to how Perry will be carrying himself in game (whether he will be upright and standing or crawling like a spider/dragging himself along the floor). This was important because how Perry was physically would later affect how animators had to animate him! To make Perry how I envisioned him to look, I also worked very closely with my character artist, Angel Padilla, to create a grotesque zombie-like character model, as well. 

After the character model was done for Perry, he was sent off to the programming and animation side of things. These two departments were working on him at the same time for the sake of scope. Programming focused on making his patrolling AI and his different states that he would have to be in for the game design to work. I gave my programmers references for the different states of Perry, which helped them really understand how he should work.On the animation side of things, I provided them with a lot of different videos I found on Youtube of motion capture actors crawling along floors in order to help them understand how Perry should be dragging along the floor. The animation of Perry was super important because it would affect how the player feels about Perry.

When it came to level design, I wanted each floor to have a different pathways and different feelings to them. The ground floor, since it was the first thing the player ever saw, had to be a little more simpler than the others. This floor also had to be not so overwhelming compared to the other floors, as well. It was basically the introduction for the player. When it came to the basement, kitchen, and factory floors these floors had to be much more complicated and bigger because that is where the player would be running from Perry and trying to find the key on each floor to escape. While designing, I also chose themes that are commonly big areas and makes sense as a player for them to be big, as well, so that it gave my designers creative freedom to come up with cool floors within the restrictions I gave them. This, again, kept my designers motivated, similar to my modelers, because it made them feel like they weren’t so restricted and it gave them more pride in their work. Overall, the approaches I made toward the design and communication of that design to the team was extremely successful and the support, strong encouragement, and creative freedom I gave to everyone really made things a lot smoother. 

And now, it is time for the reflection portion of it all! As goes with any form of development, there are always things that went really well and things that could’ve ended in a disaster! First, I will be discussing the not-so-fun part of things: what went wrong. One thing that went wrong in the development of Perry’s Pies was animation. While I had previously had a list of animations that I knew were needed in the game, there were still some animations that I had missed by accident. While this wasn’t a huge issue because I was still able to communicate with my animators what I wanted and talk about the scope of the animations, it did slightly frustrate them, which is never good in a team environment. Another major issue that went wrong in the game was programming. This proved to be the biggest hurdle during the entire development. While I would communicate clearly what I wanted and what I was expecting from the both of them, one of them appeared to have little motivation or pride to work on the game despite my constant support, encouragement, and check-ins. When asked how far along he was or how he was doing on the programming, he would state that he was doing good and progress was being made when, in fact, ended up that he wasn’t working on it at all or he was putting “band aid” fixes on major bugs in the game.  This was a major issue because he accepted the work and role of programming Perry’s AI and the overall code for Perry. Due to his extreme lack of work and progress, Brad had to step in and take his place as a programmer or else the game wouldn’t even be playable. For the rest of the development, Brad worked very close and communicated/ met up with Joseph Hagerman, both in person and through Discord, multiple times a day in order to make Perry function in the game. If it wasn’t for Brad and Joseph working day and night on Perry in the last two and half sprints of development, we wouldn’t have much of a game and so I applaud both of them for their extremely hard work on getting over the biggest hurdle in the process! Another issue that went wrong, at first, was communication between me and Brad. In the beginning, we were having a lot of issues on being on the same page and not accidentally trying to do the others’ job. This was a struggle because Brad had mainly been a designer before and I, mainly a producer. I would try to do producer work and he would try to do designer work. After a one-on-one sit down in Sprint 1, we were able to effectively communicate with each other which made the rest of the sprints go a lot more smoothly between us!

Despite the huge hurdle and things that went wrong in the process, there were also many things that went right (literally so many!). One thing that went right in the development was the feel and visuals of the environments in Perry’s Pies. As mentioned earlier, environments are super important for horror games and that is especially true for my game! I explained to the level designers how I wanted the player to feel and they got right to work playtesting and making sure that players felt uneasy when even just going through the level. They even went as far as to add dust particles within the floors, which is something I hadn’t thought of but ended up really nailing the aesthetic of the game! 

Another major thing that went right was the sound and voice acting within Perry’s Pies! Colby was amazing at really nailing the ambient music and overall sounds that the player will hear within the game. When discussing what the game should sound like, I gave Colby a document with all the sounds that would be in game along with references for those sounds and he totally nailed it! When it came down to getting voice actors and recording them, we worked closely together to get the best sound possible from the recordings done with our actors. Sound engineering also isn’t really my specialty so when Colby was discussing the process and scope of sound needed, I listened very closely to what he had to say and if he needed extra support I was there for him. Voice acting also went extremely well overall too!

Next, I will talk about what would be done differently. One thing that would be done differently would be the pre-production for the game. While I had a really detailed GDD despite it being my first time writing one, there were some parts that I hadn’t thought about adding to the GDD. Next time, I will definitely make sure to have those parts in so all grounds are actually covered. Another thing I would do differently would be to have the hardest and biggest mechanic done first (Perry) instead of the smaller mechanics like attractions and deterrents done first. I would also have my level designers make multiple versions of the same level for me to choose from instead of refining one single version over and over again. I would do this so that the level designing would be streamlined more and once an official layout was chosen, then the actual refinement could start. 

Throughout the entire process of Perry’s Pies there were ups and downs and things going sideways, but in the end, the team created such a beautiful (and fun!) game that I strongly believe players will enjoy! I definitely learned so much being a lead designer for a large team and learned highly effective ways to communicate what I was envisioning for the game. I know every person on the team also grew in all their own ways and took pride in making such an amazing game. Without the super talented, open-minded, and thoughtful team that I was given, my dream of Perry’s Pies wouldn’t be where it is now. I would like to thank my entire team for their work and dedication and I look forward to seeing where the future development of Perry’s Pies will take it and its team! I would also like to thank every single one of our playtesters who took the time to critique and make the game even more scary and thrilling! It also wouldn’t be where it is without them! Thank you, reader, for also taking time and interest in our game! And with that, I bid you adieu.