SEAR DevBlog week of 6/16: Ode to a team

This week's Friday Afternoon Bug: AI vehicle inexplicably half the size of the player vehicle (and yes, scale is 1:1:1)

There are a ton of solo developers out there and I have mad respect for them. When I started thinking about making SEAR I considered solo dev myself, given how far all the tools have progressed, how much AI can help understand the basic lay of the land, and how many games solo devs successfully bring to market. But it quickly became apparent that while it may be possible, it would be a whole lot more difficult.

I was never under any delusion that I'd be able to do much in the way of art and assets - I'd have to buy those one way or another. But while I may have the inherent ability to learn and implement UMG UI, vehicle physics, level design, and environmental design, having a team to rely on for those things is simply enormous.

I can't overstate how wonderful it is to come out of a difficult day fraught with dead-ends at every turn and enter a project where a suite of awesome features have been implemented when I wasn't looking. The morale boost is no joke, even if the stuff does still need to be tested. And I think it goes both ways - I'll often be showing something to Mayank, working in his own little silo on his own stuff, and he'll express candid joy at seeing the project coming along.

When we get stuck we can back each other up, we can solve problems. In essence, I'd never choose to work alone given the option not to. The difference is just night and day.

This week saw our nastiest bug from last week resolved, new terrain materials entered into the level design tool suite, great progress on the phase 3 design, and a host of annoying bugs resolved. It was a great week... even if the AI inexplicably shrunk everywhere right before I logged out (seriously???).