Post-Mortem of a Tactical Strategy Game

With the increasing popularity of video games and the emergence of game streaming brought about by platforms such as Youtube and Twitch, combined with the multitude of ways to learn how to code from schools and online resources including Codecademy and Treehouse, game development has become incredibly approachable. Yet that does not mean it is simple. Developing a game requires a substantial amount of work, even before a design is considered worth making into a complete game. Over the course of this thesis, I created eight designs with accompanying prototypes. Only one was made into a fully functional release. I sought to make a game with a great design while increasing my understanding of game development and the code needed to finish a game. I came out realizing that I was in over my head. With the amount of work involved in creating an entire game, iteration is key to finding an idea that is capable of becoming a game that feels complete and enjoyable. A game's design must be fleshed out before technical work can truly begin, yet the design can take nearly as much time and effort as the code. In this thesis, each design is detailed and associated with why it seemed great and why it was replaced, with extra focus on the final design and how players felt about it. These designs are followed by what I learned about game development over the course of the thesis, including both the technical and emotional sides of developing a video game.