Take the Compliment

Drive around as a knee-height robot and hurl compliments at passersby. Keep your battery charged by complimenting in swift succession.

Take the Compliment is a solo project developed to learn Unreal Engine through practice. It is a compilation of learning experiences that has expanded the list of mistakes I can now prevent – touch wood.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .

Successes:

Assessment deliverables were met.
In a nutshell, my deliverables were to create a core gameplay loop that rewards in-game acts of kindness, and to not include acts of aggression or violence.

Intended play experience was delivered.
Gameplay is slightly chaotic with a sense of humour and focus on player movement. That said, I had intended for mastery over player movement to be more necessary than it is.

Criticisms:

Core mechanic is not fun in isolation.
Point and click functionality is not uncommon and has been better implemented in existing games. I would have liked to experiment with alternative core mechanics, however lacked the technical ability to produce prototypes quickly.

Player score does not encourage or reward gameplay.
The score system was initially more creative, but it conflicted with the core mechanic by asking the player to stop complimenting pedestrians and, instead, leave the area to increase their score. I shelved the idea and opted for the standard approach of x points per interaction – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I would have loved to design an engaging score system or, more simply, implement a motive to encourage the player to increase their score.

Level environment does not add to the play experience.
The designed level only exists to fill out the game world. I had hoped to design a level that dynamically alters the play experience, but failed to consider the idea during the planning stage and chose to not prioritise revising the already functional level.

Level pacing and replayability was not considered in the planning stage.
Take the Compliment is an arcade-style game with low replayability and that is my largest gripe with this project. The lack of a motive to earn a score and the lightly planned level design are leading contributors to this gripe, however the problem is that I mistakenly thought I would not need to consider pacing because the game is endless. Difficulty scales to ensure the game cannot truly go on forever, but it scales with the intention of bringing the game to a close rather than ramping up the challenge or the fun.

Sound design was considered in post rather than the planning stage.
With the exception of using a robotic voice to accompany on-screen text, I did not consider how sounds could enhance the play experience until after the project was functionally complete.

Cheers for your time!
-- Tim