Vet Simulator - A Development Postmortem

After several months of development, Vet Simulator has finally made its way to release. As my first major venture into veterinary simulation games, this project has been an incredible learning experience. Here's a candid look at what went right, what went wrong, and the valuable lessons learned along the way.

What Went Right 🌟

1. Animal Variety and Design

One of our biggest successes was the implementation of diverse animal categories. By organizing animals into distinct groups (Pets, Farm Animals, and Safari Animals), we created a manageable development structure while offering players a wide range of experiences. The modular design of our animal prefabs made it easier to:

• Add new animals without major code restructuring

• Maintain consistent behavior patterns

• Implement unique characteristics for each animal type

2. Core Gameplay Loop

The basic loop of diagnosis → treatment → recovery proved engaging and satisfying. We managed to strike a good balance between:

• Accessibility for casual players

• Enough depth for more engaged players

• Meaningful progression systems

• Rewarding player achievements

What Went Wrong 📉

1. Initial Performance Issues

Our biggest challenge came from unexpected performance bottlenecks, particularly in scenes with multiple animals. We discovered that:

• Initial shader choices were too resource-intensive

• Animation systems needed optimization

• Scene loading wasn't properly optimized

• Memory management needed significant refinement

The solution required a substantial refactor of our resource management system and a more efficient approach to animal instantiation.

2. Scope Creep

Like many passionate developers, we fell into the trap of continuous feature addition. This led to:

• Delayed milestone completions

• Feature bloat in early development

• Resource strain on core feature development

• Testing complications

We eventually had to make tough decisions about cutting features to maintain our quality standards and timeline.

3. UI/UX Early Decisions

Our initial UI design, while aesthetically pleasing, caused some usability issues:

• Too many clicks required for common actions

• Inconsistent navigation patterns

• Information overload in treatment screens

• Mobile responsiveness challenges

This required significant rework late in development, which could have been avoided with better initial planning and user testing.

Lessons Learned 📚

1. Technical Insights

• Performance First: Always profile early and often. We learned to implement performance monitoring from day one.

• Mobile Optimization: WebGL builds require different optimization strategies than standalone builds.

• Asset Management: Implementing proper asset bundling and loading strategies is crucial for web performance.

2. Design Insights

• Feature Priority: Core gameplay must be rock solid before adding auxiliary features.

• User Testing: Early and frequent user testing is invaluable for UI/UX decisions.

• Scope Management: Having a clear, prioritized feature list helps prevent scope creep.

3. Project Management

• Milestone Planning: Smaller, more frequent milestones provide better project visibility.

• Feature Freezes: Implementing strict feature freezes helps maintain focus on polish and bug fixing.

• Documentation: Good documentation saves tremendous time during later development stages.

Looking Forward 🔮

The development of Vet Simulator has taught us invaluable lessons about game development, particularly in the simulation genre. For future updates and projects, we plan to:

• Implement a more structured prototyping phase

• Establish clearer criteria for feature addition

• Develop better testing protocols

• Create more robust performance monitoring systems

• Build stronger community feedback loops

Conclusion 🎯

Despite the challenges, Vet Simulator has emerged as a project we're proud of. The lessons learned during development have been invaluable, and the positive player feedback makes the difficult moments worthwhile.We're grateful to our early testers and the Unity community for their support and feedback throughout development. While there were certainly moments of frustration, the end result has exceeded our initial expectations in many ways.