I'm going to start writing these more weekly now because 1. We haven't really had access to the itch page until now and couldn't write anything and 2. We're more than halfway through the game's production and things are starting to ramp up, meaning that there's a lot more to write about. After meeting with many of the leads on Sunday, our goal was to start planning for the next big milestone, which is the test plan due on April 6th. At our meeting, we discussed with each of the departments what we felt was our top priorities to add next to the game and what tasks needed to be completed. 

In terms of my department, outside of bug fixes associated with getting the build to completely work, our next big steps included minigame connectors and an upgrade system. One of the most prominent critiques of our game during the demo presentation last week was finding ways to interweave our minigames together and keep them consistent throughout the mission. Sure, they all took place in space and represented a part of the postal delivery process. However, they were minimal yet glaring inconsistencies that, if fixed, would create a seamless and feel like a cohesive story overall. For example, having the number of packages the player be the same amount that the player drops in the delivery game or if the player's damage taken in the asteroids minigame is reflected in the delivery minigame. Little changes or details like that would help to maintain the game's connectedness throughout the various missions. As a result, I worked with both my team as well as the design team to come up with different additions or changes that could be incorporated into the game in order to serve as a connector between the minigames. We came up with a sizable amount of possibilities and we discussed each one in detail to determine whether or not it would be feasible enough to add into the game. We only have a limited amount of time on our hands and have to utilize that allotted time wisely. 

Another suggestion that was brought up to us during our demo presentation was the idea of an upgrade system. We had originally considered this idea very early on in the game's production, but more so pushed it to become a stretch goal since our main priority at the time was getting the core minigames working. Now that we are the stage where nearly all the games are working as intended, the idea of an upgrade system is becoming more and more necessary. The player earns points throughout each minigame, totaling all the scores up at the end, and adding that score to a leaderboard to compete against other postal workers. However, outside of a ranking system, the points offer no other monetary or physical value to the player. By incorporating an upgrade system into the game, it would entice the player to want to achieve a higher score in each of the minigames in order to earn points to purchase upgrades. So, I worked with some members of the design team this week to explore the various possibilities of upgrades for the minigames and determine what could easily work or be added into our game and what doesn't seem feasible. A lot of the ideas centered around my game, and most are easy changes to variables that can be added into some of the scripts. Others would require every team to work on it, thereby potentially delaying the progress of some tasks. 

I know my thoughts on each of these additions make me sound like a member of the design team, but I feel like these are all important things to consider as a technical lead when programming these features into the game. As someone who aspires to be a gameplay programmer after I graduate, I always think about "How will this affect the gameplay?" or "Will players think this is fun?" or "How does this affect the game's flow or core mechanics?" These are all questions that are crucial to me for when I'm writing the scripts to add these mechanics or features into the game. And since the test plan is designed to see how we can make the game fun for players and get them to continue playing it, I feel like things like the minigame connectors and upgrade system should be our biggest priorities for that phase, especially if we plan on publishing the game after we graduate. Overall, while not a whole lot of programming got done this week, a lot was brought to the table and now, my team and I have a good idea of where we need to go next for the next couple of weeks if we truly want to make Space Mail a game for everyone.  We have a lot of good stuff coming and I'm excited for you all to see it.