Internship Weekly Blog – Week 7

Day 1 – The Mental Dip

Not the best of days. I felt a little bogged down by the amount of balancing and tweaking left across the whole game. It was mentally draining thinking about everything that needed refinement. That said, I started the last section of the level and managed to finish half of it by the end of the day. Small wins.

Day 2 – The Push Continues

Picked up momentum and completed half of the final stretch in terms of level blockouts. There’s a sense of pressure now — we’re close to the finish line, but every small detail still needs time and attention. Slowly chipping away at it.

Day 3 – Stuck in Design Limbo

Wrapped up the layout of the final stretch. But creatively, I hit a wall — I couldn’t think of good gameplay ideas for this section. It felt flat, and that bothered me a lot. I left it open-ended hoping for inspiration to strike soon.

Day 4 – Breakthrough!

Good news — I cracked the gameplay problem from Day 3! After some brainstorming, I landed on something that’s both fun and thematically consistent. Implemented and playtested it, and now the final stretch feels properly paced and meaningful in the overall flow.

Day 5 – Fixes, Playtests & Huge Milestones

This was a big one. I spent the first half of the day working on landscape fixes and cleaning up the level visually. Later, Mihir (my supervisor) came over to my place, and we did a solid offline playtest session.

We also managed to:

  • Complete and implement the checkpoint system

  • Make sure it works on player death/respawn

  • Add a fun "slip on banana" animation in Unreal Engine (and yes, it actually works now)

The playtest gave us fresh insights and helped polish rough edges. And honestly, finishing the checkpoint system and death logic felt like a massive win.

Summary

Overall, Week 7 was a rollercoaster — mentally tough at times, creatively fulfilling at others. But by the end, we’ve emerged stronger, with a playable, functional, and much more fun version of the game.

                                                                                                      AAKASH NADADUR | LAB 3 GAD

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