1. What did you learn?
I learned about what goes into creating a proper mobile game. Something as classic as chess can still be hard to innovate upon, but with a good enough idea, I created a spin off that would be fun to play.
2. What was easy?
Once I had the idea of what I wanted to do, I got to work immediately. Creating the amount of assets I did was surprisingly easy, and it was only about a day’s work. Unfortunately, I was over ambitious and didn’t get to use many of them.
3. What was challenging?
Trying to make the game look good. Even still, I’m not sure if I made the right choices between transitions. I didn’t want to overuse the smart animate feature, so it led me to only using it when it really looked good. I went with instant transitions a lot because it seemed to be the least jarring of all transitions so I was able to use it a lot without it feeling repetitive.
4. How could your submission be improved?
If I could, I would’ve tried to use the drag feature to move the pieces. It didn’t allow me to when I first tried to, so I ended up not using it at all. I still think I did a fairly good job without it, but it would’ve felt more interactive than just tapping places.
Also I got very ambitious. It was something I was warned about at the very start, but I didn’t listen. I had very high hopes for this project, but the tools of making a full chess computer opponent weren’t there. I settled for one minigame and the tutorial, but I wanted to fully build out the game. Looking back on it, it’s incredibly unrealistic, but I had high hopes.
5. How could the professor improve the assignment for the next class?
I wasn’t a fan of the micro interaction lab. I didn’t want to shoehorn in a micro interaction, and I didn’t feel as if there was much room for one in my game. I ended up doing it anyway cause I had to, but it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to because of certain figma limitations.
6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?
A big part should be setting my expectations straight. Being ambitious can be a good thing, but being overly ambitious can lead to a product with a lot of unused ideas and content. Focusing on what I know I can do rather than what I want should help with my next project.