Solitary Breakout

What comes to mind when you hear the words solitary breakout? For me, it symbolizes breaking free from your personal mental confinements. Ironically, this was also the name of my first major project in high school.

If you have read my previous blog post, you would have already known that I was not the most social person in high school. I liked to do things in isolation as I felt that collaboration with others caused too many problems. Thus, I avoided group work until the final project of my grade 12 programming class.

The project was done in groups of 4 to 5, and these groups had to create a fully playable video game. Multiple aspects of project development were involved, such as pitching, marketing through poster/video advertisements, game design documentation, prototype development, and a final gold master release.

Staying true to my high school self, I had a pessimistic view of this project, largely due to the collaborative nature of it. I knew that I had no choice but to cooperate with others and, as such, I took this opportunity as a learning experience.

The game engine we used was Unity, as the group was really interested in working with 3-D models. The premise of our game was an obstacle course not unlike the show Wipeout. The objective was to lead your character from point A to point B, whilst avoiding dangerous obstacles along the way.

Our team met twice a week, often at one of our houses where a large table could be setup. A typical meeting could be summarized as everyone staring at their laptop with two boxes of pizza, Doritos, and Mountain Dew on the side. I hate to admit that it was a largely painless and enjoyable time. I was amazed at how much could be achieved when you put multiple heads together. 

As with any project, there were difficult times. Conflicts occurred, meetings dragged into the early hours, errors never disappeared, and lots of compromises were made for the final game. When the product was completed, I was a bit nervous of how others might react. The next stage was to let hundreds of our fellow students demo the game!

Yet this moment was perhaps my most memorable experience in high school. Seeing others react to something you’ve made provides a surreal sense of accomplishment. A lot of people were happy and enjoyed playing the game, but oddly, the most interesting reactions were the ones from people that became angry or frustrated at the game! These reactions were the real learning experiences for us.

Being part of an experience like this gave me a rudimentary idea of what it was like to be a video game developer. It showed me a perspective that I was afraid to explore and discover. It was the moment where I truly realized that team work makes the dream work.

This is when we come back to the idea of  Solitary Breakout. Before this project, I was stubborn about working and socializing with others. I think this stagnated my growth as not only a computer scientist, but as someone who would inevitably need to interact and work with others. I was putting myself in my very own solitary confinement. This project made me escape this confinement and made me realize the importance of others in your personal growth as an individual. I alone could not have achieved what was done by the group and, to conclude, I was as proud of making our vision become a reality as I was of achieving my personal solitary breakout.

So, when have you achieved solitary breakout? Let me know in the comments below. That's all for me for today, I will see you all in a couple of weeks, Bye-Bye!