In producing this game, I used everything I learnt from previous experiences, making it a well directed endeavor. Tima and I began by using a Google doc to flesh out our idea as much as reasonably possible with text, tables and diagrams detailing the storyline, setting, potential mechanics, characters and gameplay.

We planned out a story first. The very first iteration of this game was about a bird owner living in a two story apartment whose birds brought in customers. Think Japanese cat cafe, but with birds. We worked out the game on paper as far as we could, and thus managed to evolve the idea and start with something better.

During development, we prioritized detailed planning before implementing, making sure each one was actionable. The vision for the game changed dramatically as we worked on it, but we were able to adjust quickly and smoothly because of the plan.

My contributions to this game are evident in the idea and the visuals. This was a major learning experience for me in terms of animating walk cycles from multiple angles in 2D. In order to stitch some of the art assets together, I wrote code so I wouldn’t have to redraw things if our idea changed, and also to procedurally generate some environment assets. I think we will definitely continue working on this game soon, it’s one of my favorites.

• Lessons learned:

  • Certain types of games are a lot more difficult to design.

  • Adding even basic animations early on makes games feel good.

  • It is easy to design a “skinner box” to pull a player in using operant conditioning but challenging and rewarding to use interesting game mechanics and storytelling.

  • What we have is essentially looped gameplay. It’s not quite successful yet because it has to be more interesting & obscured in a way that the player doesn’t immediately realize what paths loop

With that said, I sincerely hope you enjoy our game.