Laochra: So, before I ask any questions, did you have any feelings about using the engine that you wanted to sort of talk about? Any positives or negatives you thought of?
Alicia: Well, I definitely think, like I put this on my online portfolio in my post-mortem for the group, that I enjoyed working with the custom engine. Um, I think it was a good experience and a valuable like thing to be able to put on my portfolio and say that I've had experience working in a custom engine before. Um, not many designers get to say that, so I feel fortunate that I was able to, like, put that under my belt as experience that I've had. Um, and for the most part, I really, really enjoyed working in the engine itself and being able to work with you and, like, learn how to use it. So, yeah, they're my thoughts.
Laochra: Um, how did you feel about navigating and finding the things you needed to within the engine?
Alicia: I think it was pretty self-explanatory. From working with other engines, I think for the most part, the things that I expected there to be were there. Um, in terms of like navigating once I'd learned stuff and then kept on building and practising on that skill and basically just, you know, reimporting things using the hex editor, um, things just became natural. So, it was really just about learning those first few, um, steps. And you were pretty thorough in teaching me how to do that. So, I think it was a pretty easy process for me at least.
Laochra: Yeah. Um, so you kind of ended up taking on the role of being teaching other people how to use it as well. How- how did you feel about that, and were you able to feel confident with doing that?
Alicia: I wouldn't have been attempting to help other people if I didn't like, if I wasn't confident in doing myself and knowing how the process worked. And I also knew that if there was something I didn't know how to do, I could go to you as backup and be like, hey, what's happening here? If there was ever a bug or like the editor crashed at any stage, I knew I could just be like, okay, let's problem solve this together. And there were a few times where we managed to figure out what the issue was. Um, so yeah, teaching other people was pretty easy because I knew I was confident in myself and knowing how to work it anyway.
Laochra: That's good. Thank you. Um, I guess what, uh… Um, what do you feel were some advantages that you had in this engine, as opposed to other ones that you've worked with?
Alicia: Uh, I think the simplicity helped me, because um, in a lot of other engines there’s extra fluff or things you don’t actually know what it does or what it changes. With this engine I was able to know exactly what it changes, but then I was able to ask you if I wasn’t sure if it would affect something in a negative way. Um, and so that felt like I had more control over how I used things, um, and there wasn’t extra fluff that I had to search or like go fiddle around with. Because everything I needed was laid out in like a clear manner, so that was good.
Laochra: Were there any disadvantages you felt, compared to using other engine’s?
Alicia: Well, I guess this just comes with being a custom engine and having a, like a time constricted project in any sense. Um, not having like- Like an engine like Unity has so many things you can do with it even just for like prototyping, and so the fact that we always had to like take into account the fact that it had to be made first before it could be used and actually test something, was always… it wasn’t necessarily a negative, but that’s something we had to take into account. Like obviously if we had a longer project, we’d be able to do way more. Because systems could be built up, and then we’d be able to play with them. So, I guess that was the one thing that, um, and not necessarily that it was a bad thing, but something I missed was being able to use my designer skills in creating something and testing that in its base form. Yeah.
Laochra: I guess, how did you find when it did come to using the tools that you had available to you, how did you find using those. Um, was it, not just intuitive, but was it helpful, I guess? Were there things you would have liked improved that weren’t able to happen because of time or whatever?
Alicia: Um… like I think, everything in the engine tooling-wise catered to the game. So, it wasn’t like I was missing anything while I was doing stuff, it wasn’t like I was like “oh I really wish I could set this up”, because I knew everything there was necessary. I don’t know, I don’t think I had a wish for- for anything tooling-wise, because it was all there. Of course, if we had more time, and we’d gone with all of that like tile-type balancing stuff and what-not, I would have hoped we’d have something for that, but because we didn’t need it, I felt pretty catered towards. Like there wasn’t anything I wished for.
Laochra: Um, one thing… one fairly generic engine thing, that didn’t exist at the start of the project, but was developed to be used specifically for this game was the UI System. How did you find using the UI System, since a lot of that was set up by you, how did you find setting that up?
Alicia: Um, it was a little tedious at times, but I think its in my nature to not hate that type of thing. I guess, there were a few like, like- the file pathing and all of that having to be really, make sure that was all correct, cos otherwise it screws stuff up. Um, and then, like having multiple places where sprites needed to be hooked up in the inspector, was a little bit confusing at times. But, sprite system, like, it was all- once I got the hang of it, having to hook stuff up was all like, easy to understand. Was just about doing it.
Laochra: Yeah, no worries. Um, I think that’s all the questions I planned to ask- oh! If, there was one thing that you would like added, whether it be it made your life easier, or something you wish you would have seen, was there something you wish was there that wasn’t?
Alicia: Hmmm. I don’t think there is. I think like, this is if you were going to continue making games on this engine outside of this project. I think having some sort of more documentation to go back to and refer to would be nice. So that way even if I’m teaching someone and I’m confused, I can just go and have a look at that instead of bothering you. So, if it was a different group setting and there were more people, that’s probably something that would be beneficial. Um, but inside the engine itself, I think it caters to the game. So, it would depend what game you’d be making next, and that’s a smart way of going about it, I think. Otherwise, you’d be adding too much unnecessary fluff on the outside. But yeah, I think that’s it.
Laochra: Um, any final notes that you’d like to say?
Alicia: Well, thank you! I- I had a really good experience working on a custom engine. I think it would definitely be a different experience if it was someone that wasn’t as like communicative and like, open to explaining how things worked, and why things weren’t possible, and how you did things. So that was a really interesting learning process, being able to get a glimpse into how a programmer would set up systems, and it was beneficial to me to learn a bit about that, rather than just being like “oh this thing magically appeared for me, I’m just going to play around with it”. Being able to actually learn how it actually came into existence and what its used for was really nice.
Laochra: Yeah cool. So, you managed to take something from it.
Alicia: Yeah definitely! Definitely.
Laochra: Thank you so much!
Laochra: So, I guess before I ask any questions, did you have anything you wanted to say first about how you felt with working in the engine?
Blake: Um, I mean, it was very efficient. You know, there was that conversation we had, like, it was like a week, week and a half ago where I tried booting up Unity to get some gameplay for Lights Out, and I was like, wait, I forgot, other engines have, like, a six-minute load time. Um, so that's obviously like a huge benefit of your engine. Um, something I definitely didn't appreciate enough, to be honest. Um, yeah. I'll talk more in-depth later if you've got any questions.
Laochra: Yeah. Uh, I guess how did you find the convenience and usability of it?
Blake: It's great. Um, there's no bloat. Um, I mean, it helps that it's specifically like your little project that's been tweaked for this project that we're working on. Um, like, everything I need is there, right? I don't have to worry about navigating through, like, all like the windows. Like all the little tabs in any other, um, engine. I feel like I shouldn't be saying engines out loud. I'm just going to speak about engines. Vaguely. Um, yeah. It's just like everything I need is there, and I don't even need to use that much. In the end, it was mainly Alicia did all the hard, heavy lifting. Um, yeah. No, I loved it.
Laochra: So, from what I recall, the main thing you used it for was for the sounds.
Blake: Just sounds, and then if I ever wanted to play with like the UI, which I did recently or just. Yeah, I mean, I used the art importer a little bit. That was pretty cool. Um, yeah. I mean, everything I needed for was very straightforward and very clear and very easy to use without needing much documentation. And the beauty of you being the sole developer for it was it's like, hey, Laochra, can you help me? You know what I mean?
Laochra: Mhm. Yeah. Um, I guess if you were to say one big thing. Or a couple of things. What is the biggest thing that you would change to make your experience better?
Blake: Um, my experience better. Um. I mean, like, I feel like there's a few ways I can go about this. There's, like, the idea… Okay, so this question, is it from the idea of what would make it better for me working on this project or if I were to use it, like, externally for my own sake?
Laochra: Uh, let's say for this.
Blake: For this project, um, probably nothing. Um, I'm just having a look at my notes here. Um, I don't know. I mean, like, obviously, like, more documentation would be nice, but I didn't need it. For - for what I contributed to the project I had no issues. There's nothing I would improve on. I don't know, maybe change the font. Yeah.
Laochra: You didn't like the font? (laughing)
Blake: No, I hated the font (jokingly). No, I don't know. Take that as you will. I don’t know, I like it. I got no issues.
Laochra: Okay, I mean, is there anything else you'd like to sort of say, I guess?
Blake: Uh, I don't know. I just, like, I just kind of like, um. I gas it up when I talk about everything here, basically. Um, I talk about how there's, like. I feel like there's, like, a certain richness about sitting in a room with you and knowing that you've developed an engine. Um, it's just it's just like a very nice level of accessibility for someone like me who kind of gets, like, in over their head when it comes to, like, any other big engine like Unity or Unreal. Not saying there's anything negative about them, but for someone like me who's like, well, I'm not going to make a Triple-A shooter, right? As of right now, I'm just making my little roguelikes. So, when it comes to using like your engine, right. This is something that's so perfectly developed for me to be like, well, everything we have in there is what we need for this project. And if I need something, I go to you about it, right? Um, but I guess it also leads to the downside of what we had during the big post-mortem about, like, if we have an idea, I either propose the idea to you or Alicia, and I kind of like design board game it in some way. Um, even then, though, it's not like I would jump in there and actually program because I don't know the language. I- all I know is C# and a little bit of Java. Um, not that it's ever useful. Um. Yeah. No, I don't, I don't, I don't have any complaints or like, any more positive notes to make. I say the art and Porter is, quote, fucking sick. Didn’t really use it, but it was very cool. Um, yeah. Um, yeah. I think that covers everything. Um, did you have any other questions for me or.
Laochra: No, I was sort of happy to go not too in-depth because I don't want to take up too much of your guys’ time, but I think that sort of covers things. I feel good about that.
Blake: Cool. Sweet.
Laochra: Thank you so much!
Laochra: Um, so before I ask any actual questions, did you have anything you wanted to say based on using it? Um, using the engine. Um, any thoughts that you had? Positives. Negatives. Um, and also, if you could sort of speak at least a little bit loud for the microphone.
Pierce: Yeah. No worries. Um...
Laochra: I can ask more specific questions, if you like.
Pierce: Yeah, I'm a little bit, um, lost for the question.
Laochra: How did you find, um, navigating to things that you needed to use?
Pierce: Um, I think for the most part, um, I did find it really easy to, um - or at least after I was taught how to use the menus. I did actually find it pretty easy to remember to follow back and repeat the same process, so I actually found the UI pretty easy to remember. Um, for doing certain processes.
Laochra: Yeah. Cool. Um, did you use the art importer at any point?
Pierce: Uh, unfortunately not really. Um, and it was due to lack of, um, time to use it.
Laochra: That's okay. Um. How did you find, uh, like, uh, instantiating the prefabs so that you could, when you were, uh, looking at the assets for your portfolio and setting them up to look nice in engine. How did you find doing that?
Pierce: Yeah, I found it supposedly pretty easy. Um, my only issue when it comes to, like, um, putting the, uh, prefabs into the engine was probably the, um, the icons for the files. Um, they didn't have a unique icon that associated to the engine itself because they were some kind of generic, um, file that I could kind of recognise. Um, it sort of made me slightly... well, I guess it kind of made me a little bit confused because, um, sort of, for some reason, my mind just keeps- keeps, um, you know, so it's assuming that it's some kind of a file for something else without having a dedicated, um, file icon for that specific file type for your engine.
Laochra: Yeah. Cool. I mean, that's something that I can look into. I'm not totally sure how- how that actually works.
Pierce: That's totally fine.
Laochra: Yeah. Were there. Were there any specific troubles that you found when using the engine that you feel could have been improved on or like was there, yeah, major difficulties that you experienced?
Laochra: It's okay if you can't think of any. Yeah.
Pierce: Yeah. I couldn't really think of any. Um.
Laochra: That’s okay.
Pierce: Yeah, my only, um, suggestion is maybe have, um, like, you know, you, um, in Unity, um, you usually have a dedicated window that keeps the, um, your projects or, um, file system. Yeah. So, I was thinking that it would have been nice if, if you didn't have to, like, click on the menu in order to bring a prefab imported. So rather than having to import the prefab and menu, um, I would just be able to use the menu, um, in order to drag into the viewer. Yeah. So, I think that would have sort of streamlined things a little bit. Yeah.
Laochra: No worries. I was going to ask if you if you could choose to add anything to the engine. Uh, but that seems like that would be it.
Pierce: Yeah, absolutely answers the question. Yeah.
Laochra: No worries. Um, any other thoughts? It's okay if there aren't any.
Pierce: Yeah, I think it's looking I think looking pretty awesome stuff for doing custom engine.
Laochra: Oh, thank you.
Pierce: Yeah. I’m actually kind of excited to see what kinds of features that you can add into it. Yeah. Especially those features that can be like, pretty easy on artists. Um in in easy to get into without too much of trying. Yeah. Um, in comparison to engines like unreal, which is one of those engines that I have trouble navigating through due to its weird UI and stuff. Yeah.
Laochra: Yeah. So, you found that a bit easier here?
Pierce: Yeah, totally.
Laochra: That's good. I'm glad! Are you happy to wrap that up?
Pierce: Yeah, I'm happy to wrap it up. Cool.
Laochra: Thank you so much!
