Infection Defense
I was hired to work on Infection Defense by Auxin Games as a freelance Unity developer. Infection Defense is an educational game about defending the body against harmful bacterium and viruses. This project took me about nine months to complete. This was my first experience working as a freelance developer. I am experienced as a 3D Unity developer, so there was a lot to 2D development that I had to learn as I worked on it. My greatest challenge was learning to work on someone else’s project and ideas. However, I found this part of the process very easy.
Main Focus
For this project, I was tasked to pick up where a previous developer left off. I had to learn how to work with the existing project code in order to extend it with new features and fix bugs. The main portion of the work was updating the game’s UI and integrating new art assets. This extended into database integration with Firebase and preparing the project for deployment on WebGL, IOS, and Android.
Infection defense is a learning tool designed to cater to the next generation of students. Learning upgraded. Your one goal is to prevent bacteria reaching the blood stream.
The Process
For this project, my client and I would have meetings on Zoom where we would go over new features, bugs that need fixing, and so on. After which my client would provide me with a document of tasks for me to integrate. We used Unity Collaborate to sync and update the project to the latest version. I found Collaborate very straightforward and useful to use, and intend to use it on future projects where I have a team of people to work with.
The schedule for the job was to work for about ten hours a week, then push my updates to my client on Fridays. The workload was not always this consistent however, as I would wait for other members of the team to complete assets before I could implement them. This resulted in having weeks with very little to do, as well as weeks with a significant work to get done for a deadline. I did not have an issue adapting my schedule as the project continued.
Eventually I changed my habit to pushing my updates more often on days when I got a lot done. My client would test out the project and inform me on any bugs or adjustments that he would like made. I found this form of collaboration very useful.
Completed Project
When playing Infection Defense, the player first sees a map of the human body. A cut will appear somewhere on the body, and that will lead to the first levels. When entering a new level, the player will first be greeted with educational information about the immune system. After reading through all the educational slides, the game-play begins. Harmful pathogens will start making their way from the left hand side of the screen, and the player will be tasked to defend against them by buying defense sells from the shop. The player must manage their cytokine count which is the currency for this game, and place the defense cells wisely.
Throughout the experience, the player can test their knowledge by answering quiz questions. On a correct answer, the player is rewarded with a choice of cytokines or health. All quiz questions must be answered correctly for the highest score on the level.
Conclusion
My first experience as a freelance Unity developer was a very positive one. Auxin Games was very pleasant to work for. I learned a lot about interacting and communicating with my client. I also learned a lot more about Unity Development, but never felt overwhelmed by the tasks given to me. My time spent learning Unity and programing paid off and felt well worth it from this experience.
