To Visual Effects or not to Visual Effects

For my Programming 2 class, where we learnt about advanced C# libraries, we were required to make a console Black Jack game using ASCII letters as one of the week-long projects. We were immediately taught about the libraries that we needed to use in the first few days of class, so we could start working on the project. Excited about this project, I started as soon as possible. Knowing about my prior commitments, I finished the project a day earlier. The day of the submission I realised that the project was not 7 days long, but it was 10 days long. I took the next few days to change the visuals of the game by making the background white and changing it to suit symbols instead of the suit letters. I also implemented a betting mechanic in the game. I had gone beyond the requirements of the project and I was really happy with it.

On the actual day of the submission, my classmates and I were looking at each other’s games. My game was appreciated for its visual elements. I thought it was because I implemented a betting mechanic in the game but they did not even pay attention to that. Everybody admired the visual aspects of the game, the suit symbols, the background and the alignment of the text. The visual aspect elevated the game and not the betting mechanic that took me way more hours to implement than the visual changes. 

This is the day I realised that visual effects and polish supersedes game features and mechanics.