Reflections

Working in Unity

Working in Unity was one of the focal difficulties for most of the members of the team. Working in a language that was foreign to the majority of us (C#), an artifact that was exaggerated by the unfamiliar environment of Unity, was a task that was daunting for the most of us. Having more experienced members in the team has definitely eased the process of learning as they were able to set up the developing environment and write utility functions that could be used across multiple mini-games within the main game so everyone had a clear starting point. Furthermore, through the tribulations of trial and error, each of us managed to learn to convert our visions of our grandiose game into a reality on the computer screens before us. It was hard, but it was fun, creating sprites, coding behaviour and ultimately creating something that we could all be proud to put our name on.

Women in Engineering (Serious Concept)

For some of the male members of the team, while the concept of women in engineering and their difficulties was often mentioned, it wasn't something that we had taken time aside to seriously consider. However, given the opportunity within the creation of this game, it's now a concept that has been seriously considered by each and every one of the members of the team. Understanding the serious stigma that exists against women in engineering, in both education and the workplace, has led some of the previously misguided members of the team to change their myopic views.

All members of the team seriously enjoyed propagating a serious idea that could help the environment that each and all the team members lived and thrived in. It was an engaging experience learning and helping the world of engineering in dissolving itself of one of its oldest and more prominent problems.

Team Environment

The team environment that was created as a result of the project functioned very well and all the members of the team were accepting of the concepts that other members proposed even when they differed from their own. This allowed us to get the best ideas as members were not scared to speak up and contribute their viewpoint.

Our collective team work ethic was also very positive and encouraging. If there was a task to be done, team members would use initiative and take it upon themselves to do it. During our implementation when we were split into subgroups, we still kept in contact through Facebook Messenger and would send a screenshot/video when a new, impressive feature was implemented that we were proud of. This created a very rewarding environment which encouraged others to contribute even if they were feeling burnt out from other courses/assignments. Our constant communication and support of others helped to create not only a fun and rewarding environment but also a very productive one.

Many of the members of the team have expressed that in one way or another, the development process has been one of the most enjoyable that they've experienced. Whether it would be the smooth communication, the unproblematic merging of contribution or the impressive work that the members showed, the team environment has proven itself to be a positive one.

Work Distribution

The way our team split up work was key to our success. We identified early on that merging unity scenes would not work well and therefore it would be best if we could avoid working on the same scenes. To achieve this, we decided to split up into 4 subgroups, one for each minigame and one for the lobby. This allowed us to work at a fast pace, the only communication needed for small changes would be with the other subgroup member. Working in this way also encouraged peer programming and allowed us to spot mistakes early on in the process.

Implementing and Mapping the Serious Game Concept

Our choice of serious game concept is Women in Engineering, and our game idea is centered around this. Our game idea allowed us to implement and map women in engineering easily into many different aspects of our game. The beautiful thing about One Day or Day One is that it mapped so well to the serious concept because the serious game concept drove us to this idea, as opposed to coming up with an idea and forcing mapping into it. Setting the game world in the Engineering building on Enginuity Day ensured that deep level mapping came naturally. Our game concept gave us structure as well as freedom to create (a great example of this is the mini-games), and we were able to implement the serious game concept well without feeling too constrained by it.

One of the strongest mappings in One Day or Day One is the conversational aspect both with set discussions with NPCs and also with other players in multiplayer. A huge focal point in our game was not only introducing students to Engineering but allowing to see it as an option for them. For this reason, our NPCs are in different stages of their degrees, in different specialisations and with different views and opinions. Several women in the engineering industry were also featured as NPCs to offer their experience and guidance. The variety of NPCs allows the player to find someone they relate to and enables them to get advice from a range of people.

While the feature of multiplayer does not map to women in engineering, what it allows the game to offer the players is a strategy to empower and encourage prospective students. Multiplayer allows the player to converse with other prospective students, but also with undergraduate students, lecturers or women in the industry. This would give the students an opportunity to ask any burning questions they have in a relaxed setting, which will hopefully encourage them to be more confident in networking events in real life. Using the multiplayer feature, virtual events could be held which would allow Enginuity Day to reach a wider audience and offer more students a chance to be introduced to the possibilities that engineering could hold for them.

Each minigame maps to a different engineering specialisation, and includes aspects that map to our serious game concept. Personal feedback and encouragement is an example of this, however, the majority of serious game concept mapping to specifically women is done through the game world rather than the minigames.