Postmortem

Successes

I think one of the things I did well with this little game is that it was fun. Yes, it's a bit of a general statement, but from every playtest I've done, I've been told that The Pooping Meowmeow was "really fun". What is interesting to players is the main character Meowmeow's appearance and animation. Another player mentioned how interesting it is that the generated bullets are cat poop. There have also been reports of intense feelings of excitement when a cat is being chased by its owner. Overall, the tone of the game is fun because it's built around the fun theme of “playing as a cat and pooping everywhere". I think I succeeded in being "fun" for my little 2D platformer game.

Challenges

In fact, the idea at the beginning of this game and the design of the whole game mechanism were not so smooth. I only thought about the main character of the game at first, which was probably my cat, and his attack was to poop everywhere. But when it came to the most critical core parts of the game, which was how to score and how to challenge the player without getting bored, it took me a long time to figure that out. I also got feedback from players during several playtests, and finally decided to let cats score in a more challenging way. Then I encountered a lot of programming and Unity development challenges, which includes the completion of some mechanics, such as the placement of self-filling bullet point cat food, the arrangement of platforms, etc. In general, the game still has some deficiencies in detail mechanics, which is obviously a challenge I will tackle in the future.

What I learnt

First of all, this is the first time I've made a 2D platformer game completely on my own. I think this whole attempt is a very valuable learning experience for me. I learned how to systematically build a game, how to design different levels, scoring mechanics, maps, character animations, etc. I also learned a lot about 2D platformer games, I searched and played some other 2D platformer games in order to learn more about the mechanics. Of course, in terms of programming and development, I learned a bunch of new features, functions and problem-solving methods. I think the design process of this game is a challenge to my own ability and also an opportunity for me to learn a new perspective of game design.

Possible future revisions

First, in terms of overall UI and visual design, I think my game has a lot of room for improvement. In the design process, due to time constraints, I spent most of my time on the level design and game mechanism modification, and did not give much time to the visual design. Secondly, I think there's a lot of spaces for revision in the mechanic details of my game. For example, the interaction after  hitting the enemy with bullets, as well as the change to the overall enemy chasing method. Thirdly, in terms of sound effects, cat attacks can also be made more striking, so that players can have a better play experience.