During development of Office Raider, I kept the brief I was given in mind. This called first and foremost for a showcase piece that would look and feel appealing to play.

A large aspect of this would be polish, as in the extra flourishes that focus more on improving the experience of play rather that directly affecting gameplay. I made use of many techniques to help polish the game, such as:

• Coin Animations: The subtle bob up and down and spin while idle makes them stand out from the level and makes them more interesting and appealing to approach. Additionally, coins will fly toward the player when they get within the players collect range, providing visual feedback for the pickup along with the sound effect.

• Incremental Counters: Behind the scenes, when the player collects a coin worth 10 points, this instantly is added to the player total. However, when this is sent to be displayed to the updated HUD, it is added one at a time to create a smooth addition effect to both the coin progress bar and the coin total text. This is also used in the score tally-up screen to create a sense of anticipation to the score reveal, counting up from 0 to the total score.

• Sound Effects: Making use of sourced sound effects both provides some auditory feedback for various events like picking up coins, picking up coins of very high value, reaching the quota and pressing buttons in menus. In the score tally-up screen, a sound effect is played for each line that appears. This effect subtly increases in pitch and volume for each line displayed, which further increases the anticipation towards the reveal of the final score.

Office Raider was an amazing opportunity to apply my skills in Mechanics Design, C++, Blueprint and Unreal Engine and to venture into the world of work outside of academia. 

Collaborating with my colleagues, and frequent meetings and progress reports allowed me to refine my communication and time-keeping skills. Additionally, as the work was to be shown to those inside Digital.ai and their customers, I put great emphasis on polish, presentation and pleasing visual design.

However, I did struggle initially with the transition from academical work to professional work. The deadlines and need for communication presented constraints on my creativity and increased the stress of production. Nonetheless, I would overcome these challenges by scoping effectively for each deadline, using planning techniques like Kanban and effectively communicating what can be achieved within scope with my colleagues. This reduced the overall stress of production without slowing productivity.

The creative constraints proved surprisingly fortuitous for my development, forcing me to think and design in interesting ways while ensuring I prioritized aspects that were required by the brief, like presentability, ease of access and familiarity.

Overall, I learned a great deal from this project, developing not only my skills in technical design but also my skills in communication, planning, time-management and problem-solving.