Lessons Learned
- Define the goals/purpose of the project early
- Leaving a little room for additional material can inspire unforeseen creativity
- It is important to explore and try new things
- The only way you truly fail is if you didn't learn anything or have fun doing so
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'Chop Wood, Carry Water' was a game I made during a coding class I took in high school.
This was my introduction to coding and game development and as such holds a near and dear
place in my heart. The idea of the game is inspired by the book I was reading for football,
"Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great".
The gameplay loop consists of having to collect enough resources (wood and water) while being pursued by an enemy.
Since this was part of my introduction to programming I wasn't prepared for a lot of the issues associated with
development and looking back I let scope creep do a lot more than creep. I started adding day and night modes and various POVs to name
a few. I've since learned to define the goals/purpose of the project early to avoid
serious scope creep. Though some people might say that any scope creep is too much scope creep, I think
leaving a little room for additional material can inspire unforeseen creativity.
The menu for the game. Though hard to see here you may notice that there is no 'quit' option and as it is a fullscreen game this causes some issues. Unfortunately, covid-19 had taken over and I never got feedback on this so I continued to develop fullscreen applications with no quit button for a while...
A screenshot of the gameplay
There isn't much more to say about this game. It was a lot of learning: the first time I had tried coding, the first time I used Unity Engine, the first time I ever really thought about game development from a perspective other than a player's. My two biggest take aways from this experience are that it is important to explore and try new things, I found my love for game development and computer science, and the only way you truly fail is if you didn't learn anything or have fun doing so.