The Challenges of Student Development

Welcome back, Tough Cookies!

The countdown to Release Day has begun! With just 13 days left until we share what we have spent the past 7 months creating, the nerves are definitely high, but we are equally as excited!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been diving into our design process and sharing the behind-the-scenes of My Friend Barrington. From character design and environments to FMV and audio, we’ve talked about the different ways our team approaches storytelling through gameplay.

But today, we want to talk about something a little more real: what it’s actually like building a game as a team of students.

When Tough Cookie Productions first came together in September, many of us were meeting for the first time. Suddenly, we were working as a team of twenty developers, each bringing different skills, schedules, and creative ideas to the table. It was exciting, but it also meant learning how to build a game while learning how to build a team.

One of the biggest challenges has been balancing development with everything else that comes with student life. Classes, assignments, exams, part-time jobs, and life outside of school don’t pause just because a game is in production. Some days we’re deep in level design discussions, and the next day someone is racing to finish a paper due at midnight.

It’s a juggling act, to say the least.

Deadlines have also played a big role in shaping how we work. With our April release approaching and the Level Up Showcase just around the corner, we’ve had to learn how to prioritize tasks, manage production schedules, and keep the project moving forward even when things get hectic.

Communication has been another huge learning experience. With a team this size, ideas are constantly bouncing between designers, artists, programmers, narrative writers, and producers. Sometimes that means long conversations about how a mechanic should work. Other times, it means finding ways to merge different ideas into something even stronger.

Our producers, Ryan and Andre, have played a big role in guiding that process and keeping the team aligned as development moves forward. With weekly builds, we’ve been able to see the game come together in real time. Environments evolve, mechanics improve, and the world of My Friend Barrington becomes more complete with each iteration.

More importantly, we’re learning what it really means to build something collaboratively.

Because at the end of the day, Tough Cookie Productions isn’t just a group of students working on a project. It’s a team learning how to turn ideas into something real.

And yes, sometimes that means debugging a level at midnight and then showing up to class the next morning pretending we got eight hours of sleep.

That's the student developer experience.

We’ll be back soon with more stories, and we can’t wait for My Friend Barrington to be yours. The countdown has officially begun!

Stay tough, Tough Cookies.

— Tough Cookie Productions