So far in this course, I would say my biggest success has been my ability to learn and implement a new framework to begin setting up the project for my teammates. Our project this course is to create an HTML5 Tower Defense Game and we decided to use Phaser3 as our game framework. My role in the group has been primarily graphics and engine development, and because I already had a very basic understanding of the framework, I felt responsible for getting the layout of the project set up. The roles of my teammates dealt primarily with gameplay mechanics like enemy unit AI behavior and Tower interactions, so I felt it was necessary for me to set up the game menu layouts so they could work on these mechanics.
There were several breakthroughs during this process that occurred that helped in my success. One was understanding how to integrate graphics into the game. This involved researching different free tile sets to use and software to create graphics and tile maps. I ended up finding a program called Tiled that for creating the game levels and a program called Aesprite that is used to create and manipulate existing pixel art style graphics. Aesprite proved to be especially invaluable throughout the development of the project to create spritesheets, custom buttons, and any other graphics we needed. With graphics on hand, integrating them into the project code was straightforward but unlocked a lot of creative flexibility for us in the project.
Another breakthrough came when I learned how the different ‘scenes’ function in Phaser3. The Phaser3 framework is built upon separate ‘scene’ files that act as different game screens for the player. Learning how these scenes link, interact, and pass data between each other was a foundational part of learning the framework and set up the creation of the menu layouts and laid the foundation for future features. Some of these features outside of the game include loading and saving the game from local storage and adding audio music and sound effects, with more to come.
Our team knew about the capabilities of Phaser3 when we were researching the project, but as we dive deeper into the framework, we are learning that it is a very powerful tool in the development of games with numerous features for different types of games that simplify complex mechanics like physics and object interactions. We’ve learned a lot about the framework and it has been rewarding to see my teammates learn themselves as they implement their own contributions to the project.
Something I’ve learned about myself has been that I need goals to work towards. Making this project has been enjoyable and its encouraging to see the project develop week by week. Working on independent projects, I get sidetracked to the point where it’s difficult to make progress. From this course, I understand that making any amount of progress is still progress, and that setting deadlines for myself is especially helpful for me in getting work done and meeting a high-level goal.
