House of Ignotus - Experience Summary

House of Ignotus - Level Up!

House of Ignotus was my final year project where I was given the freedom to gathered a team of 10 talented developers (1 designer, 1 public relation manager, 3 artist and 5 programmer) to work together for a time span of 7 months. It was the most intense and longest game development cycle that I ever participate in, all of us push through our limit to finish the game although we still have complete our personal assignment and thesis at the side.

Throughout the whole development period, I was juggling between the 3 roles - designer, project lead and test advisor at the same time as I have the most experience in all 3 aspect. My main task as the designer of the team is to make any design decision that is beneficial to both the game and team and set up any document that could help the team understand and share the same vision for the game. All these documents are constantly updated throughout the project whenever there are changes made during weekly meeting to ensure the team will always have access to the latest information.

As the project lead, my responsibility revolves around ensuring that the team are completing their scheduled tasks on time and making alteration and adjustment to the schedule or scope to make sure the game can be complete with the highest possible quality within the time frame given.

Majority of the decisions I made as the project leader are based on 3 criteria - does it fit our team goal, does the team have the ability to handle and is it possible to accomplish based on the time frame set. Besides that, I was also in charge of creating production documents to provide the team with a proper documentation that records vital production details.

Due to the nature of my job scope, I was tasked to report the overall progress and point out any crucial issues that required immediate attention to the mentors and advisor during the consultation sessions. In conjunction with that, I was facilitating and hosting the weekly meeting and occasional lead meetings to ensure all the information are being conveyed to the team members precisely and critical problems can be addressed and resolved promptly.

My primary role as the test advisor is to construct a viable test structure for the game that would eventually turn into both the test plan and test case documents. Besides that, I am also tasked to brief the team about the test procedure, provide the test lead with timely advice and guidance, set up and oversee on-site public playtest.

The main reasons why I was still holding the position as the test advisor although I was already assigned with two other roles are because I am the only personnel in the team with proper training, previous experience and knowledge of the subject matter. My direct involvement in setting up the production model and schedule also allows me to predict and choose the appropriate time to execute or conduct any testing session.

As a summary, I am able to develop the following skills during this project:

- Research and apply finding from horror genre on multiple medias

- Design a complete psychological horror puzzle PC game (Gameplay mechanic and vision)

- Craft a complete set of design documents

- Write material for horror genre with the intention of narration and gameplay

- Setting up the lighting of the mansion in Unreal Engine

- Design and create the overall aesthetic and layout of the mansion in Unreal Engine

- Construct the production and test documents

- Conducting in-house and public play test session

- Minor image manipulation in Photoshop

- Minor audio editing in Audacity

- Know how to use source control tool such as git krakken and source tree

The development journey was full of challenge but extremely rewarding, all the screaming during the play test sessions was the best seal of approval to the my design skill and to all the effort from the members. The fact that the game was completed and received praise from the players was a clear indication and validation for myself that I am able to utilised all my previous experience and skill learned. I am also extremely glad that I am able to work independently on different part of the game besides designing and help my artist and programmer progress faster in their respective production.