Hammy - University Team Project
The Project
About
Hammy is a tablet game designed for kids of very young age. In the Game children memorize the pattern shown on the first screen and are required to tap the same pattern afterwards. The focus of the game is to train the attention span an memory of children.
What I learned
Working with mobile platforms especially iOS was something completely new to me. Furthermore the game had to run on an 2011’s iPad2. Learning to handle performance got me into a deeper understanding of game optimization. Despite the technical challenge we built up a team with six members. We had to learn how to split roles and organize a really mixed but talented team. And last but not least it was a game for kids. That was the trickiest part because we had to project kids thoughts.
Key Reflections
- Working on new platforms
- advanced knowledge of game optimization
- Building and organizing a mixed team of 6 specialized members
- To put ourselves into a new audience
Making of
My Responsibilities
- Setup the iOS build workflow
- Figuring out the technical boundaries
- Ensure the capability to run on low specs
- Modeling, rigging and animate the characters
- Optimize game assets especially textures and VFX
Prototyping
In the early ideaton phase, we have tried several game design methods with analog materials, such as mood moard for art style, paper and wooden bricks prototype, and a white board full of sketches and notes.
Key questions were:
- What are the requirements of a kids game?
- How far can we push the visual quality on mobile?
- What is the scope of the project?
Production
Due to your team size of 6 we where able to split roles. In that way every member worked with his primary skillset which opens up new possibilities. Working with a quite bigger team was a great experience for all of us. We had a lot of constructive discussions and of cause a big mount of fun.
