The Most Annoying Game Ever (TMAGE)

The very beginning of the room modeling!
Jayden instructing us how to import the player model into the room over a call
The wonders of the debugging process...

Inspiration

I, being TMAGE's Project Lead - Kai Blackburn - originally had the idea in a quirky dream I had, in which I was just trying to get ready for a regular day at college -- but every time I did something out of my usual daily routine, I exploded. Some friends of mine said it sounded like a simple but silly game that I could pitch for Project Launch -- and that's how the team ended up here!

What it does

Currently, our product is a single level demonstration of a possibly full game. It consists of being able to interact with different objects -- pick them up, open doors, turn on faucets, etc. -- except if the player does something they are not supposed to, they explode. The player's goal is to interact with all the necessary tasks without exploding.

How we built it

Almost the whole of this project was created in Godot, with some of the modeling split between Blender and the former.

Challenges we ran into

Practically all of them. As we are a team of entirely beginners and this is all our first Project Launch -- we had much to learn. Getting accustomed to a new software and new language is one thing, but making something functional on top of that is a whole other ordeal. Teamwork and team management was also a bit of a hassle, as a full game is a surprisingly intimidating to tackle, as we later found out. Trying to coordinate a team that mostly met online with wildly different schedules was also quite a task.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

TMAGE may be simple, but the fact we managed to make a finished product close to our original goal, as inexperienced as we were starting out -- that is nothing to sneeze at. Getting over the initial hurdle of learning, trial and error, all those very first steps of game design was one of the hardest parts of this project -- but we stuck with it and continued on to the end. I am incredibly proud of my team and the work they have done!

What we learned

There's the obvious -- several of us can now say we are sufficient at using Godot, some of us learned neat 3D modeling skills in Blender -- but there are also soft skills that were developed over the course of this project. The importance of proper communication and teamwork would definitely be a highlight in that area, along with time management and organization. I noted a significant increase in all of these skills of my team from the beginning of the project to the end.

What's next for The Most Annoying Game Ever (TMAGE)

It may be a "one-and-done" project, but if it isn't -- there are many ideas of mechanics, other levels, and better models that we had the hopes of implementing but lacked the time and/or experience for that we could accomplish in the future. Even if this is not something the team returns to, I can certainly say we have all walked away from this experience more knowledgeable and prepared for future projects like this that we take on!