Mechasaurus Mayhem was a very fun project to work on. The small time frame of 8 weeks ensured that the team had to stay on top of things and organized throughout, and the team came together flawlessly.

For the first 2 weeks of the development period, the team came together to plan the game. We decided to build off of another game we developed, Zip-Zap-Dinosaurs, to fully flesh out the vision that was intended for the unfortunately lackluster game. We took time to discuss the best and worst parts of that game, and then to plan out how we were going to develop Mechasaurus Mayhem. Thanks to this, we were able to follow a solid development plan that helped greatly in getting the necessary assets finished for the final game, some of which were revisited and fine-tuned from Zip-Zap-Dinosaurs. 

Having a strong foundation let us realize the goals for the game that we wanted to achieve. Powerful and deadly dinosaurs; fun, unique, and strong weapons; and levels that the player wants to explore. Between weapons like the Bola, the Boulder Gun, and the Sniper, gameplay became dynamic with quick weapon swapping becoming a must for the various dinosaur encounters. A small slip up could lead to a dinosaur taking a chunk out of the player’s health bar, keeping the player always on their toes. The first two levels display this quick and dynamic gameplay experience well, and are a thrilling and challenging set of levels that encourage fights and exploring. 

Yet upon reaching the third and final level, the dynamic of the game changes drastically. Instead of being in a game where dynamic gameplay is rewarded, the game turns into a crawling sniper game. Featuring narrow paths and an overwhelming density of dinosaurs, the player is hard pressed to continue their close engagements with the fearsome dinosaurs, and with few options tend to opt for the safety of long distance sniping to pick off the many dinosaurs one by one. This shift in gameplay can be attributed to a short play testing period. During the end of development, the deadline was revealed to be half a week sooner than expected, cutting the playtesting time to be concurrent with the bug fixing time. Better attention and management in regards to the expected deadline from the boss of the team would have meant that this disparity in difficulty would not have been missed.

That same level that showed a change in game balance also gave rise to a desire to develop an inventory swap system. The Bola is a powerful weapon with its stunning capabilities. However, after reaching level 3, the player has picked up such an assortment of weapons that quickly swapping to the Bola is a difficult endeavor. Being able to change the weapon order would help revive the dynamic feeling of the third level by granting agency to the player in their preferred weaponry. Additionally, having an automatic reload while not holding a weapon would take some stress away from the player when they are in a multi-dinosaur fight, giving them more time to focus on actually fighting the fearsome dinosaurs.

In short, this game is a very fun shooter game with unique weapons that are enjoyable to play. Having time taken to plan led to a smooth development process as well. However, failing to allot time to play and test the game’s balance cost the game a consistent flow. These lessons will serve to help in my game development planning in the future.