🚀 Software Engineering Postmortem: The Last Petals of Spring 🌸

Project Overview 🌷
The Last Petals of Spring is an immersive Yuri visual novel developed using Unreal Engine 5.5. The game follows Aya, a young protagonist, as she navigates heartwarming choices among her close friends. Most of the gameplay unfolds in Aya's room, where players guide her through various dates and interactions that deepen her connections. Each playthrough offers a unique story, showcasing different emotions and bonds. Players can explore all three romantic paths once a route is completed, providing rich replayability. 🎮✨

Initial Project Goals 🎯
The main goals for this project revolved around implementing the following user stories:

• Narrative Progression System 📝
• Contextual Dialogue System 💬
• Adaptive Audio System 🎵

These goals were visualized and managed via a Kanban Board to keep track of progress and ensure an efficient development workflow. 📋

How the Goals Were Met ✅
Adopting an Agile development approach, I outlined user stories and iterated over them with strategic planning. Using a Kanban board allowed me to maintain a clear visual on progress and deadlines. Thanks to this approach, I successfully completed Milestone Version 1.0, ensuring the core systems were in place and functioning as intended. 🚀

What Went Well 🌟

• Completion of Milestone Version 1.0 was a significant achievement. 🏆
• All primary user stories were implemented effectively, allowing the game to reach a playable state with all planned features.
• The narrative and dialogues were well-received during initial testing for their emotional depth and fluidity. 🌈

What Went Wrong 🐞

• I encountered visual bugs with the Visibility attribute of certain components, particularly in Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) and Blueprint Scripting. This bug occasionally caused UI elements to disappear or render improperly, impacting the player experience. 😅

How the Challenges Were Addressed 🛠️
To tackle the visual bug issues, I turned to ChatGPT's Code Copilot. This tool provided me with invaluable assistance by suggesting Blueprint scripting solutions that helped me debug and resolve the component visibility issues efficiently. 💡🔧

Lessons Learned 📚
Throughout the project, I deepened my knowledge of Unreal Engine's Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) tool, which is pivotal for creating user widget blueprints. Understanding this tool has greatly improved my ability to design dynamic and interactive UI elements. 🌐✨

Future Recommendations 🔮
Looking ahead, I'm keen on integrating cinematics into the visual novel. I believe this addition would elevate the storytelling experience by adding more visual engagement and emotional weight to pivotal scenes. 🎬🌟

Conclusion 🎉
In conclusion, The Last Petals of Spring has successfully reached Milestone Version 1.0, fulfilling the primary project goals and packaging the game for initial feedback. While challenges like visual bugs posed hurdles, the solutions and lessons gained have equipped me for future improvements. I’m excited for the next chapter of development and potential cinematic enhancements! 🌻👩‍💻