This past week we all sat down and understood a key concept: we had three sprints left until our deadline. Thus, we needed to make the best possible game in these remaining weeks. To do this we realized that features would need to get cut, and our efforts focused on what mattered most.

The team came to a decision that with our three sprints left we could have one to solidify the features our game would have. The last two sprints would be dedicated only to focusing on refining those and providing all the feedback necessary. A main problem with this was what were the things we needed to prioritize?

On any project I believe one needs to identify the core of the experience and work out from there. Over the past couple months we’ve done just that and have defined what exactly our game is: a 2D action RPG where you play as a squid and blow up spaceships. Additionally, we had identified our three main systems of zero gravity, tentacles, and the destructible environment. With these both in hand we knew that we needed to only prioritize features that were critical to those functions. Our last major feature then is the thing that connects a ship together, and is crucial to gameplay, in the form of the energy powering everything. Adding this feature would connect and cement each environment into reality and was a crucial part of the experience.

Everything else we knew we could cut. This meant no upgrades, final area, and enemies. While these would add onto the experience they are not required to get across the flow that we want to create in a ship. The player being a squid that literally blows up spaceships. Since they do not contribute to the critical path we all agreed that those features wouldn’t make it into our capstone build. I hope this gives you some insight the next time you need to decide what to cut!

Thank you for reading!

Enjoy the read? Want to chat? Follow me on Twitter @LiamCraffey~