Full Reflection

After writing a reflection for Speed Stallion, I wanted to write a detailed one for this project. I know that I have already wrote briefly about this in the launch post, but I wanted to go into more detail here.

First things first: I thank God for giving me such a passion for game design and the ability to complete such an ambitious project in such a small window of time.

This project was not easy. Behind the scenes, blood, sweat and tears went into making the game what it is. This was a project for CSG 1003 Game Design Concepts at the University of Tulsa, where I was asked to make a text adventure game in less than a month. The requirements were broad so as to allow creativity--it had to be created in Twine with minimum 2 endings, minimum 4 decisions/turning points, and a good narrative. I immediately got to work brainstorming ideas for the game, and I ultimately decided on a werewolf-themed game. I knew that the idea was nothing new, cliché even, but I figured that wouldn't matter if the quality of the resulting game was good enough. 

I then developed the story for the project. I wanted to make it somewhat interesting, so I decided on 4 serums that the player needed to collect and combine. To make things even more interesting, each one has a distinct purpose that justifies its existence. 

From the start of this project, I was well aware of the danger of trying to bite off more than I could chew. While I didn't end up doing that, I certainly couldn't try to chew any more without the risk of choking. I greatly underestimated the amount of time it would take to create this game in Twine. 

Now for some technical bits: I chose Harlowe for the story format because it was easier to change the background color that way.  The story was initially in Harlowe, but when I tried to look up how to change the background, everything was in SugarCube. Then I changed the story format to SugarCube, only to be even more vexed when things didn't work. Then I found out about Harlowe enchantments that made my life much easier, and I immediately switched back. Speaking of background colors, there is a bug that sometimes occurs that will cause the background to only cover a portion of the screen that encloses the text so the bottom half or so is white. I don't know how to fix this, as it occurs inconsistently.

Some of you (a small number at the moment) who have played the whole game through (even smaller) may be wondering what is the point to making some passages loop back to themselves so many times. For the mine, I wanted it to make sense that the player spends all day there and so there is a justification for going to dinner immediately afterwards. If I did it immediately, it would be obvious that the time spent in the game does not parallel the in-game day/night cycle. For the serums, I wanted to make it realistic, capturing the idea that lab work is tedious. I have taken General Chemistry I and II lab, so I am aware how long it takes to do some experiments. (One of them involved dissolving limestone, and it took 45 minutes just to dissolve one of the samples.)

The combat system at night was definitely the most frustrating/nerve-racking part to make. It is so complicated that I had to playtest this part over and over until I was sure there were no bugs. (Who knows, maybe there still are bugs in that part that I haven't found.)

I actually had to stay up late some nights just to get this project done on time. Making a 3-hour-long game in 3 weeks is not easy. I essentially didn't have any free time, as I had to use all of it to work on making this game. I didn't mind much, though, as I really enjoy making games like this. Besides, I knew all those hours of work would pay off, and I couldn't be happier with how the game turned out. With over 130 passages, a day/night cycle, a combat system at night, a cycle of moon phases, each with its own impact on the game, and more, this game was well worth the effort put into it in my opinion.

-slvrfshston