Blog Post 16: Final Bug-Fixing and Polishing Sessions
With the core mechanics now functional, the final stage of development focused on bug fixing and polishing the environment. Over several intense days, our team conducted full playtests, carefully observing player movement, stone interaction behaviors, and environmental glitches.
Small issues cropped up repeatedly: collision volumes overlapping, teleportation misalignments, and occasional texture streaming delays. Each problem, while minor individually, threatened the overall player experience if left unchecked.
We divided the tasks efficiently. Joel focused on blueprint-level fixes like improving teleport smoothing and adjusting trigger radii. Kamal helped optimize asset LODs further to ensure textures loaded promptly even during quick turns in VR. Meanwhile, I meticulously inspected every corner of the environment, adjusting lightmaps, fixing z-fighting issues between floor and wall meshes, and refining occlusion culling for distant assets.
Steve also contributed by reviewing art consistency, ensuring that props matched stylistically across different elemental sections. Small additions like subtle ambient fog and dust particles in Earth zones greatly enhanced the environmental atmosphere without affecting performance.
Working together during these final polishing sessions, the maze transformed from simply "working" into a truly immersive, believable world. Every detail now supported the player’s journey visually, mechanically, and emotionally.