Boarding Party

Overview

Boarding Party was a 3D strategy game project developed in Unity and C# over roughly a year in a personal, small-team context. Its core concept involved two players planning their actions before both plans were executed simultaneously.

Design Challenge

The simultaneous planning and execution concept created interconnected gameplay and technical dependencies. Decisions in one part of the experience could affect how the overall loop worked, making it important to consider the concept as a connected system.

Scope and Technical Trade-offs

In retrospect, the project scope became too large for its context. Choosing 3D increased complexity and the number of dependencies involved. Without a technical artist, those dependencies created production difficulties, and animation became a bottleneck. Based on these lessons, a 2D implementation would likely have been a more rational technical choice for proving the concept.

What I Would Do Differently

I would begin with a small vertical slice or MVP focused on proving the simultaneous planning and execution loop. Reducing art and animation dependencies would make it easier to validate the core gameplay before expanding the project’s scope.

What I Learned

Boarding Party gave me concrete lessons in scope management, dependency awareness, and balancing technical and design trade-offs. It reinforced the importance of choosing technology and presentation around the needs of the project, maintaining shipping discipline, and validating the core loop before expanding.