PFD Week 3: "Hell's Champion"

"Hell's Champion"

This is the 3rd blog in the series where I actively talk about the progress I'm making on my chosen professional skill titled, "Game Development through Team Collaboration".

This week will go over the transition into the next project, codenamed "Hell's Champion"


The University Internal Game jam

At University, my class (including 2 peers from the team for the mini-project) were tasked with completing a game in around 4 days. This was assigned Monday morning with the submission day and time being 12pm on Friday.

The brief was titled "Running out of Time". Using this brief, me and 2 of my team peers worked together efficiently to complete the game in time. To efficiently develop this game, we spent roughly 6 hours on the first day verbally discussing what the game could entail and how we could design it. Roles were established including myself as game/UI designer, another peer as sole programmer and the final peer being the 3d modeller and animator. We worked closely together for the duration of the jam as we knew this would allow for the most efficiency and considering previous issues caused by a lack of communication.

Hell's Champion - Play on Itch.io

After completing this game, me and 2 of my peers approached the remaining 2 team members and pitched the idea to be pursued as a larger-scale project. After a couple of team meetings, it was decided to start the new project now code-named, "Hell's Champion". This project, although identically named to the jam project, will be created from scratch with an entirely reworked design.


"Hell's Champion" as the new Project

New game concept to pursue as a team:

"Hell’s Champion" is a deck-building first-person shooter set in a vivid Norse mythological universe. In this action-packed adventure, you play as a savior who awakens in Helheim and must harness a customizable deck of elemental abilities to battle through the nine realms - from the frozen depths of Niflheim to the divine battlegrounds of Asgard. With fast-paced combat, strategic resource management, and challenging boss encounters against figures like Garmr, the Norns, and Odin, the game blends myth, tactical deck construction, and immersive exploration to deliver a uniquely dynamic gaming experience. 

With a fresh perspective on the idea, a GDD was created to synchronise everyone's interpretation of the project. This ensures that all team members have a central location for all of the game's information. This is beneficial because according to Perron (2012), a well-constructed Game Design Document is crucial for aligning team vision and reducing miscommunication (Perron, 2012). This is useful because it helps prevent miscommunications and misinterpretations from all team members, where the team will now have very similar perceptions of the design. This was something neglected with Tides of the Moon, and after reflecting we decided to prioritise the GDD before anything else is developed.



(GDD for Hell's Champion - Contents Table)

Developing a GDD for these reasons has really improved my co-operative skills in a team environment, where this could easily be as such a parallel scenario in which I would experience in the future in the industry as a professional.


Reflection

Reflecting on our transition from the game jam to "Hell's Champion," it's clear our team has significantly improved in collaboration and communication. The jam challenged us to define roles clearly, and my experience as the game/UI designer showed how valuable role clarity is for efficiency. The Global Game Jam website emphasises that clear role definition and effective communication are key to success in rapid game development environments (Global Game Jam, n.d.).

Despite our success, the tight deadline highlighted some ongoing issues with design clarity, reinforcing the importance of a thorough Game Design Document (GDD). With "Hell's Champion," prioritizing the GDD was a direct response to our earlier mistakes with "Tides of the Moon," where we underestimated its importance.

Creating the GDD has boosted my teamwork skills, making sure everyone shares the same vision. This process taught me how crucial clear documentation and consistent communication are for team success and professional development.


Conclusion

In conclusion, we spent 4 days creating a game for a jam, and then pitched the game to the rest of the team. After that, a GDD was created. Reflecting upon the previous project, "Tides of the Moon", I believe we learned to design together as a team as priority compared to improvising on a development build with our independent interpretations.

References

Perron, B. (2012) ‘Game Design Document: From Concept to Completion’, Game Developer, [Online]. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/game-design-document-from-concept-to-completion (Accessed: 14 February 2025).

Global Game Jam (n.d.) ‘About Global Game Jam’, [Online]. Available at: https://globalgamejam.org/about (Accessed: 14 February 2025).

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