Capstone Project - Evaluation & posting my game on itch.io

 Evaluation -

- Research

When I first started out with coming up with ideas for my FMP i wanted to make a TTRPG, however I decided to pivot paths a little and make a board game as this is something I have never made before. With that in mind, I made sure to do a lot of research into similar games in the genre I wanted to make which really helped me when it came to developing the mechanics of the game. It was definitely a little scary to work on something I had never attempted before but I actually found the process of researching how games are made and how I could hypothetically make my own games to be really inspiring. 

Theming wise, I don't really know why I chose the theme of cavemen and dinosaurs, I wouldn't say I am particularly fascinated by the topic [don't get me wrong dinosaurs are epic but I'm not the world's biggest fan or particularly knowledgeable on the subject] I think maybe I could have done more historical research into these two really distinct time periods to maybe make my game more educational, however as I was going for a nonsensical vibe out of the gate I don't think this lack of in-depth research takes away from my game too much.

I am really glad I also did research into artists to inspire my art direction for this game, I don't think my regular art style would have fit very well with the theming of Hotel bunga so this exploration of different art styles really helped me. I think I could have developed an art guide to explain how the art style of my game works, this would especially be useful in helping the pipeline of the game's production, however as I was the sole artist working on this game, it wasn't overly important. 

-Concept phase & Iterative design

For the concept phase, I think I did an awful lot of unnecessary iterations especially in the development of my character's outfits. As you only ever see the characters from the waist up I didn't really need to design full outfits for any of them and I think if I had stuck to just designing torso-up characters it would have massively cut down on time. Despite this, my excessive iteration especially in the beginning of the project does show that i explored a lot of routes for character designs so it wasn't entirely for nothing.

I mentioned several times that I was going to do iterations on the art style for all the assets within the game, reimagining them as cave paintings. I never got around to doing this and while I definitely don't regret the art style that I chose, i think it may have been good just to see how my game could have looked if I chose a drastically different art style. With that being said, I think if I had done that it would have impacted the amount of time I spent on this stage of the game's production.

-Game mechanic development

Developing my game's mechanics was something I was really worried about, Board game rules are a lot more rigid than TTRPG rules so it meant that I really had to make sure everything was explained well, every action was intentional and that my game was still fun and easy to understand for my target audience. Playtesting came in really handy for checking that everything worked well, and I am very grateful for everyone who gave up some of their time to help play through my game, I learnt a lot about what does and doesnt work for game mechanics, and also how to take and implement constructive criticism to improve my game as a whole. This point about feedback has been vital to the production of my game, I made sure to check in with my peers and professionals throughout this project to make sure my game was as appealing, fun to play and understandable as possible.

I think to improve in this area, I maybe could have play tested my game with more individuals that fall within my target audience, however other than my cousin I really don't know anyone within this age group and so this would have been a bit tricky to do.

- Final artwork & formatting

Putting the final cards together was a bit of a challenge, I had to learn a new software and so I did have to restart a few times to fix some silly beginner mistakes such as issues with printing bleed. Despite this I feel a bit more confident using formatting software, which will definitely help me in the future with creating more games and giving me another skill to add to my CV. I would have liked to have used InDesign more, however it runs really slowly on my PC at home so scribus was easier to run. I do think most of the shortcuts and skills within scribus are pretty much transferrable to Indesign, so it should be easy to switch over to InDesign at a later date.

When it came to drawing the artwork for the cards, I got to practice using the fundamentals I had learnt in a more exaggerated and cartoony style. It was really fun to challenge myself to draw in a completely different style to how I normally draw! I had a little trouble with drawing the hands of the characters, however i picked up a new technique on how to draw them and now find them slightly easier to draw in my own work. On top of this, even though I was working in mostly 2D i did get to jump back into 3D to help me draw some more trickier hard surface assets. In my own work I have been doing this a lot, it has helped me so much with drawing things in perspective as this was something I previously struggled with, so this project did allow me to practice that a little. 

To improve this section, I think maybe I would create some more artwork for the manual cover [especially as I plan to expand it], and think about drawing more things in the cave painting esque style to better tie it in with the overall aesthetics of my game.

- Manufacturing

I had a bit of trouble in this area, although I had done plenty of research into how I would manufacture my game along with making it sustainable, when it actually came to applying the research I had made i was a little slow and ended up not going the route I would have liked to to get my game physically made. I think a lot of this came from apprehension that I had not done something correctly and that the final product would not turn out how I wanted it to, so i kept putting it off and checking and double checking [and triple checking] that I had done everything right when as far as i knew I had and I was just unnecessarily doubting myself. It felt very scary to me to invest so much money into something that might not be right so I ended up going a more convoluted way of getting my game produced. I still have a final product that I am proud of, however the route I took to get there was probably way more complicated than if I had just trusted myself and gotten it printed through my original planned means.
In the future, I need to trust myself a little more and not be afraid of doing something especially if my fears are unfounded. Also... maybe think of more practical token solutions than hand painting pebbles for a game... they look cool, but i realized midway through painting them just how silly of a suggestion that had been [and why most games just use small card tokens, which had completely slipped my mind until after I had received the pebbles, ah well.]

- Time Management

Of all the topics mentioned in this evaluation, my time management for this project was never a big concern of mine. I had planned to give myself enough wiggle room to get everything done in the time period with a few weeks to spare and so I was able to get everything done that I had planned to do, as well as some extra! There was a few points throughout this project [especially early on] when I had a few wobbles about whether or not I could get everything done, but I was consistent in my work and overcame the hurdles I encountered. The only mishap I had regarding time management is what was mentioned above about actually manufacturing the game. This is by no means a fault of my planning, but rather as mentioned my own self doubt. If I had stuck to my schedule I would have been able to get my game printed in time [printed professionally that is-]. As an extra note, I really find the use of Gantt charts and Kanban boards to help me stay on track and realize what tasks need to be completed next, I will definitely be using these in the future!

- Final thoughts

Seeing Hotel Bunga complete feels like such a huge accomplishment, i am immensely proud of the work I have done, how I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and made something I probably wouldn't have made elsewise. I think the exploration of something so different from what I usually do allowed me to practice being more flexible with my work and build up skills I maybe wasn't all that confident in. I think a lot of the things I have learnt throughout this process will really help me in the future and my goal of working within the tabletop games industry, and I now have a physical product that I can develop further [and hopefully sell a couple] in the future!. My biggest improvement take away from this project has been a personal one, I need to be more confident in my own work as I feel it holds me back from doing a lot of things that I want to do. I shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes [especially when i mentioned earlier on that even if I did make a mistake with printing the cards, Hayman creative would have likely informed me in advance and helped me fix the issue]. Overall I am very pleased I made this game, I put a lot of effort into all stages of the production process and I think it does shine through in my final product. :))

Publishing my game on itch.io -

As well as getting a physical version of my game manufactured, I also decided to post the digital files on itch.io for people to play on software such as owlbear and tabletop sim [havent tested this one personally but i have some friends who have this and said my game could work on there!]. I put a few advertisements about the game on the page along with a brief description, info on the game, and what is included in the download.

As for the price, I put it on there for  $5 which is different to what I usually put as on my projects for itch [that being donation only] as I put a lot of effort into this game and tried a lot of things outside of my comfort zone and i just think it is worth a little more money :) this is about the price for these sorts of downloads on itch comparing my projects to other physical board game downloads.

Posting a digital download gives me the benefit of introducing my game to an audience, building up my following so I can hopefully manufacture more copies in the future, and also getting more followers in general for my company page.

Below is the link to the page I set up! i tried to make it as visually interesting as possible whilst staying on theme with my game.
https://hearthvalley.itch.io/hotel-bunga