Ethan Nappi
3D Animation
Get Low, Grandpa!
Summary:
What's stopping this grandpa from going to the party? The answer: nothing. Old age and bones never kept this grandpa from partying! Help grandpa escape the retirement home, dodge nurses, set off fireworks, and slide his way to the big party in this endless runner!
Game Info:
Genre: Endless Runner
Project Status: Live
Platforms: Android & IOS
Engine: Unity
Team Size: 6 (development), 8 (live ops)
Roles
September 2022 - December 2022
Producer Accomplishments (live ops) · Managing live ops updates on “Get Low Grandpa!” · Achieved 15% D1 and 11.5% D7 retention rates one month since launch · Training new team members on our workflow · Analyzing player data on where players fall-off · Tracking tasks of the live team · Developing ads for MassDigi’s marketing team
May 2022 - August 2022
Lead Design/2D Artist Accomplishments (development) · Developed “Get Low Grandpa!” from concept to publish · Led design discussions focusing on emotional impact on players · Researched extensively the design strategies of different game genres · Coordinated discussions of ideas and features between programmers and artists · Bridged technical communication between programmers and artists · Trained artists on how to use Unity and Plastic SCM effectively · Produced our team artist pipeline flow chart · Finalized the color palette of in-game sprites and UI
Contributed Art Assets
What I Learned
Development
Working in MassDigi's Summer Internship Program (SIP) took me full steam ahead into how they develop mobile games. We were advised through every step of development from concept to publish, which meant that every decision we made about our games and how we developed them was our idea. A lot of what I learned was from the failures and successes of other teams, my team, and myself.
Here's what this experience taught me:
Our team initially concepted ideas that felt disconnected between emotion and gameplay, had too big of a scope, or lacked a reason to play. Settling on our first concept, "Puddle Jump," quickly revealed to us the value of having comparable games and the scope of work on everyone while developing a game without them. During development of our new idea which became "Get Low, Grandpa!" we ran into difficulties communicating between programmers and artists, utilizing an artists with varying skills, programs, and experience, and switching briefly to remote work when developers in the program became sick.
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Connecting mechanics to emotion connects the player to the game. The initial concept the team went with was difficult to connect with and didn't translate well to gameplay. With our next concept "Get Low, Grandpa!" we connected "excitement" with fast-paced gameplay, vibrant colors, and lots of juicing.
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SCOPE SCOPE SCOPE. No matter how exciting it might be to make a game, you can't work faster than the time needed to make it. Games take time and you will run into issues.
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Know when to abandon a project. Our team's initial concept quickly showed a wide range of issues that two weeks into production, was dissatisfying and showed signs of a disappointing outcome. We abandoned the project and swapped to our secondary project that resolved the issues listed above.
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You can't have too much communication. Issues arose when team members went and did work without a shared vision. Whether art didn't meet technical requirements, mechanics didn't match an animation's motion, or gameplay didn't match the theme, talk through ideas.
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Look at comparable games. You'll find quickly in the first session of playing any game within the same genre what the base mechanics are, why, and how it works. Your game should feel the same if not better.