BizarreCraft
is one of two major game projects undertaken by the fourth cohort of
FIEA students, and the first large-scale game project in which I
participated. It's a networked real-time strategy game unlike any
other. There's no resource gathering, no building construction, and
most of all, no death--just two zany factions trying to pull the rug
out from under each other with the most bizarre attacks imaginable and
drag the enemy commander to their own base.
On
the BizarreCraft
project, I served as a member of the design team. I collaborated with
the other members to create and refine ideas for the gameplay, the theme,
the characters, the attacks, etc. At one point it became clear that a
working prototype of the game design would be useful, and that Warcraft
III would be an excellent tool for making such a prototype.
Having had a lot of experience creating new content and scripting for
existing games, I volunteered for the task of making the prototype.
This turned out to be my most important contribution to the project, as
I describe in greater detail on the BizarreCraft
prototype page.
As
the BizarreCraft
project moved into production, I was assigned to be part of quality
assurance. I tested components of the game as they were completed,
documented and reported bugs, and worked closely with the programming
team to hunt down the causes of the game's more perplexing errors. I
eventually became the person entrusted with entering all project
documentation onto a wiki and keeping it up-to-date. Whenever there
were any changes, they were reported to me, and I informed the rest of
the team. I was also tasked with writing much of the design
documentation. Finally, I also wrote the BizarreCraft
game manual and the box copy, and compiled the tutorial video and the
trailer.
Along
with the
rest of the BizarreCraft team, I experienced the
"crunch" at the end of a game project, working long hours and even
staying up entire nights to complete the game. In the end, we achieved
a game which we are proud to have developed.
