Prototype Postmortem: The small(er) giant is still a giant against a man

Goooood morning and welcome to my POST MORTEM!!! Yippie!!

Its just the first version of the prototype released, I wanted to get it out as soon as possible as I've hit my most basic goals for the project. Will I continue making this project? Will I drop it? Well... I'm not sure yet. I know I have room to grow, and there are a few mistakes I'll have to fix before this project sprawls even more on the back-end. Without addressing them, I know this development process will be HELL. So let's get to the issues I've encountered:

1) The scope is... wow... aka: This is a big project for me and I did not realize

I'm a hobbyist artist and contributed to games for art, though I was eventually drawn to learn more about the process. Partially, I've always wanted to play around with games, partially, I wanted to learn more about development to work with teams better and do a better post mortem on a past project. During the start of development I know I wanted to make a simple game to test my game development mojo. Yeah, I know about arrays, yeah, I know about inputs. I just need to combine A and B and BOOGSHH. 

Well, that's not what happened. At least not after the first, barest prototype.

I've finished a one spell-casting system with only the print() functin showing you what you've printed so far. After that, I realized I don't really know how to make an actual UI for this. I have always forgone UI in my previous smaller projects, opting to focus on gameplay itself. And so I have asked my friend to make it. Parkah also redesigned the way spells are cast and made it more modular. "Wow..." I thought, "I really don't know a lot about programming a game huh."

UI, polish, feedback, adjustment. I've found myself overwhelmed. One reason I wanted to get this game out as soon as possible is because I've hit my most basest targets and I don't really know how to continue. Continuing would mean a whole new development cycle of polishing and shaping. Maybe just even shaping, as more missing details begin to unveil themselves the more I work on it.

Once there are so much stuff on there, it gets intimidating to add stuff. Probably because I dont fully understand some of the core systems for spellcasting; I must go even smaller for my next projects to be able to actually get something shippable and to maximize learnign about different aspects of a game. For this one, I don't know. I think its small enough, but its also too big at the same time.

2) Project Development methodologies... what even are they (genuinely)

I do not know what project development methodologies are. I know what some of them are called, I have tried to understand them. But I haven't tried them nor worked with them(I think.) My background is more research focused than project management, and at the same time, I think it is a skill issue on my part given working in teams can be confusing to me.

Perhaps I can ask around more and do a little more pokign around here and there. I do think that the first reason is a lot more important than this second reason. But this second one is a huge black whole of information for me anyways so I don't know...

3) Friendship is magic

This project would not have reached this far if not for my friends who are very good to me. I want to thank Parkah for programming the more difficult parts of the game and for even adding the aiming features and touching up the janky code I've made myself. I want to thank two other unnamed friends, one who had helped me keep my sanity by keeping my scope-creep in check, and my other friend who had introduced me to amazing concepts and games that helped shape the idea of "wizard typing game" into the more cohesive idea it is now. I think they are the two wolves inside of me. One helps me cut down the scope, the other one shows me what it could be.

4) Music, Level Design, UI, Menus, Writing, Polishing, User Stories and Experiences

Wow well that's a lot of words. But also, those are all the things I did not put to mind when I first started. When I started, I just really wanted to try out an idea. And my end goal was a prototype. Over time, I've felt like I could add more, add this, add that. And I've ended up with a game in my head right around the prototype had finished.

5) Things are harder than I thought: Sidetracked to a feature or a distraction?

There's even one more feature I was not able to make after I got sidetracked into an additional feature I discovered while doing experiments for it, counterspelling enemy attacks, which what dispellable was supposed to be. That said, I think it's a symptom of the enemy dispelling game loop being vague, up until now. I've made one aspect of it, dispelling summons, which I know would work. But the concept of counterspelling spells is a lot more difficult than I thought. It would take me to go back to the very first tutorial and to the aspects I haven't been able to add. It also made me realize that I have made a core feature of my game wrong, if I want the game to have any sense of playability.

I need to focus on that first, the very first one, and figure out how to work on this one next. I think that is my final challenge in order to get out of this phase. It will take a long time, and I might lose interest in making my own game after it--- hopefully if ever because I realize my hubris. I do think it will be the best for me as I would be able to practice on making a smaller game that's perfectly wrapped up, and fully documented through the tutorial.

So I guess in the end, it is not just merely a distraction, but fear of having to go back and learn the basics, and a realization of how much things would change if I do. I thought I could get away with not doing it, but... I have reached this point. 

6) What I want vs my audience want

Though at the same time, some people are interested in the mechanics I do have. Its hard to level out which I find more important, and which I'll work on first. I don't want to disappoint. I also don't want to leave out a feature I think is so, so cool and amazing, and interesting.

I think I can change my counter-spell mechanic into something else, maybe a spell called magic reflection or magic dissolution: where you type a spell and a few words of the spell you want countered, that, or type just a keyword and the rest of the spell that you want countered. It's a high level spell as it needs you to be faster than your opponent. Maybe thats how you 'unlock' it?

Regardless,

I am glad I have completed this project. And I do think having people test this early version out would help me figure things out more. I would like to hear what a wider audience would have to say. As for my goals for this project. I will admit I just want to make a game for myself. Though one that is at least understandable to other people. So I don't know, my metrics for this is whack. I am inspired by this by a video on the state of wizard games on youtube. If I will be dounly honest, I want to make a game that would shake up the wizard game genre, something that that guy would comment on (not necessarily like, though it would be a plus. I think my game pissing him off would also be good. Lmao.)

Do I set my sights higher like that? Aim for a reaction by TheStellarJay? Maybe I will. Maybe that will be my challenge. I don't aim to make the most perfect game ever, but I do want to mess around with this and polish it mo--- ok now we are back to square one. I guess my goal would be to make a game that I think would appeal to someone with a strong opinion on wizard games, through some of my academic readings concerning 'magic.' Wether I will be successful or not, we would see, but for my goal, that is my goal for this game.