Monster Managing Monsters is a game that was finished in 6 months for UEL’s Video Games Design and Development course. Set in a seemingly mundane demon-office building, you play as Carl, an imp. You receive requests, as an odd-jobs man, that need to be fulfilled to maintain moral in the office – or else people start leaving. These requests are in the form of minigames/quests that involves player participation. However, there’s a little more to all this.
You see, it is an office filled with monsters after all – and the requests that Carl receive are often rather… demonic. Maybe you have to get the donuts across the street – but the roads are filled with mutated dragons, horsemen, and the fearsome Sedans. Or maybe you have to fetch the spare computer from the storage room – but it most certainly doesn’t require a portal to gain access. Or maybe you have to single-handedly prevent the advancement of the almighty heroes of palpable justice from wreaking havoc in the office. Again, just another day in the office. With a few monsters.
These requests are are fulfilled by completing minigames/quests that involve the player’s participation.
You can check out the source code at GitHUB!
Roles: Lead Producer, Lead 3D Environment Artist, Co-Designer, Tools Programmer
Engine: Unity
My primary role was as the producer. However, due to the scope of the project, I soon saw myself shifting towards the designer role, as well as handling 3D modelling and focusing on systems programming.
As a producer, I would be taking on all aspects of management. I would have a clear vision of the development pipeline – what elements should be completed before others and how long it would take. This also includes scheduling and overseeing meetings, distribute work appropriately to team members, and making sure we are bonding as a team.
As a designer, my predominant focus was on sorting all the design documents, as well as doing most of the writing. Making sure they were coherent and organized, as well as just making sure that they were done. You can see some of my documentation work with the links below!
As a 3D modeler, tools programmer, and animator this included working on all manners of project development. Amongst my responsibilities were: building and texturing 3D models; building systems to simplify mechanics so that they could be stream-lined into others; and all-round bug fixing.
Learning Outcomes
- RPG games can be incredibly complex to code. With RPGs, you have to code logic into the dialogue systems and quest manager. And suddenly, all this logic code can be a nightmare to keep organised. Doing this project helped me understand the true power of object oriented programming, and the importance of separating scripts into digestible chunks. In this way, these “nightmares” were avoided by taking a brief step back and considering several approaches to the same problem.
- Having clean and easy to read design documents can vastly improve the productivity of the team. A good design document will eliminate any possible misunderstandings that would arise through verbal communication. A bad design document only serves to cause more confusion and wastes time.
- If one team member is eager to work and is powering through, don’t expect the same from others. Everyone works at their own pace, just make sure they don’t slack off!
Reflection
- It’s hard to make minigames fun! With the ever expanding world of games, it becomes more and more difficult to put innovation into a game – but sometimes you don’t need innovation for things to be fun either. This is something which I’ll need to think more about going into future projects – do I need to innovate, or is it okay as it is?
- The initial idea was far too ambition, especially when it essentially became an RPG game with minigame elements, combat, and attributes/stats. Crunch time was a common occurrence, and yet it still wasn’t enough – often leaving parts of the code or art unfinished. Even after rescoping the game, it still felt like the project needed 2 years, rather than just 8 months.
What’s Next?
- Work on polish such as animations and graphics.
- Add more content! More minigames, more monsters, and more madness!
Appendices
Documents:
Animations:
Tools:
3D Modelling:
Hoyung Ling 
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