Get in the Coop Postmortem

This is a postmortem for project: Get in the Coop. Overall, we finished the project in a form that fits our vision when we first started. Personaly, I had a great time working with Cindy and Michelle and had benefited a lot through my first experience on 3D modeling and Animation creation. Here are a summory of what went right and what went wrong through out the development:

What went right:

• The project came out closed to our vision. We successfully made an AR game based on a very simple cencept that allows players to chase chicken where ever they want. We are proud of what we've achieved through out the process.
• Cindy was a reliable programmer who work efficiently and was able to solve technicle difficulties by herself. 
• Michelle's art works are amazing, the aim of a cute approach to the game really add a flavor to the play experience and make it more appealing and joyful for the players. Her UI is also very simple and clear to understand. The illustraions also strengthen the theme of the game by supplying an additional cuteness and also a sense of humor within.
• I'm proud of myself by learning how to modeling and making animation while working at the same time. I made a few mistakes and there are definitely imporvements I could make for the models and animations to make them look better and more natural. But overall, I managed to make them look like Michelle's concept and make them fit to the theme of the game.

What went wrong:

• Even the chicken's model look nice and cute, but during the making process I made the beak of the bird by directly extruded it from the chicken's head instead of making it as an invidual object. And since I textured and colored the chicken through Unity's default shaders, I wasn't able to color the head and the beak with different color in a way Michelle had in her concept art. As a result I have to talk with Michelle and decided a new color for the chicken. Although the new color work also very well on the model, but I think this is an important take-on for me to be careful on next time.
• Another mistake I had due to lack of experience with 3D Modeling is that I made and exported the model facing on a wrong axis. And that resulted in a werid behaivor of the AI with in Unity. I feel very sorry for cuasing extra work time for my teammate just trying to figure out what went wrong. This is definitely a lesson for me that I would forget in the future.
• We started with a good communication during the early phase of the development. However, the communication died out through out the progress since everyone was too focused on their on tasks. And that resulted a miscommunication between mye and Cindy, and a conflict update between Cindy and Michelle. 

Here are some future update we plan to make for the project:

Future Plans:

• A difficulty ramp through out the play experience. The game could be easiler at the beginning for players to understand how to play and slowly increase through out the play time.
  • Numbers of the chickens on the screen. Increase based on the level of difficulty.
  • Change of chicken's behavior, they run faster and spotted player in a further distance.
• A Ranking and Leader borad system that records player's score of the game.
  • How many chicken they chase back to the coop in what amount of time, etc...
• A faster and more stable AR plane-detection function.
• More Chicken Models and Animations. And an overall improvement of quality for the current assets.