Games Portfolio - Project Conclusion

Here is the final conclusion for my Supreme Commander artefact. This conclusion is to be used in my written report, summing up my views on the project as a whole and how I feel it has turned out.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I am disappointed with how my final product turned out, handing in the bare-bones of what I originally hoped to have. Constant issues held me back from working in editors, having to re-install Supreme Commander four times at home due to random ‘MohoEngine.dll’ errors and having problems accessing the GPGnet ‘Vault’ page meaning I could not access the working version of the map editor. Eventually, all of these problems were solved and solid work began on my final product, however by this time the deadline was already close and not much time was left to work on my game mod.

More problems caused slow development on my videos, with 3D Unit Models flying through the air, breaking into pieces and appearing un-textured when loaded into the game using de-bug. Texturing was a major issue, with the NVidia Texture Tools used to create the .dds files in Supreme Commander bricking a fellow student’s computer, losing his work and having him re-format a week before deadline. The risk wasn’t taken for my models, in fear of losing all work done so far, as well as work created for other units alongside my Supreme Commander project.

Due to these problems and errors when attempting to import simple models into Supreme Commander, the biggest part of the project to take a hit was the gameplay. The map and models themselves struggled to appear in the game correctly, meaning more time was spent attempting to get these items working and hardly any time was dedicated to working on my ideas gameplay. Originally I planned to have battles between the protesters and their opposing faction, however none of this made it into the final product due to lack of knowledge regarding weapon scripts and too little time to work on them after struggling to get the models into the game in the first place.

If I were to do this project again I would defiantly be more prepared for the problems Supreme Commander caused, with the map editor crashing upon loading a new map and the MohoEngine.dll errors requiring a full re-install. I would make sure the map and all models were fully complete a good five weeks before the final deadline, leaving plenty of time to successfully import the items into Supreme Commander and work on the gameplay.

Overall, the only parts of my end product I am fully satisfied with are my videos and Supreme Commander Map. The map, after several problems, now works perfectly and both my videos have all necessary information needed to showcase my project and explain the development.