Deconstructing the Game Structure.
I would say that the idea of irony in my project is properly conveyed. More than half of my playtest participants have the feeling that “rating people are horrible” and most of them are satisfied with the ending design.
(Spoiler Alert)The idea in the project, according to the first devlog(), have changed several times. First I want players to choose their attitude towards moral dilemmas and raise their ethical thinking and reflection. But the original plan failed due to “strategy” aspect over “moral” aspect. I am afraid that the game can be played as a puzzle game that only have one solution. On that, I would say the game will not suit as morally notable game.
Luckily the third plan worked out. I will choose a side first for players. And in later level design, I could say that the idea is to raise their conscientiousness and feel loth about the action “rating”. They will face their kin in the test, and some famous cases in history. In the end, for different players like total utilitarian or just game completer, they will all see the outcome of the people who rating others like numbers. The ending design, at the very moment when I finished the last scene, are designing itself. I got goose bumps after completing the ending. Not that the ending is designed well or have elaborate mechanism, it’s just telling me the idea worked out!
Other aspect I would say went well with the project is the path of learning new knowledge. Not only my Unity developing skills and C# programming improved, but also every aspect of the game itself. Through programming, I found more content can be added and therefore more narrative and mechanism raised in my head. In the beginning, I keep telling myself that the time is limited, even learning from all past projects that I started early this time, I know that the scale can be unacceptable if I cannot manage it. The plan is to finish the game with endings and complete mechanism. With that in mind, I start collecting Unity skills that the project need.
It is really frustrating at the beginning. There are loads of functions that I would like to program but I don’t know how. I stuck on a very simple thing: how to stop other functions when the textbox is going on? The details can be found in former devlog(). The procedure of learning is difficult but when all outcomes piled up in front of you, I would be lying if I say that I am not proud. Looking back, the help of many Youtube channels and tutorial makers on Bilibili (Youtube-like website in China) are critical to me. Even there are many ways of accomplishing a function, they could help me find a proper way out.
The aspects during developing that I am not satisfied are 3. The overall visual aesthetic design, the sound effect and limited total number of ending. I’ll skip the third one because I will make another ending after submission.
For the visual aesthetic design, I used pixel art as my projects in the past. Because I know the idea is innovative enough for me and I cannot afford another innovation on art design. Most of the scenes and items (UI, characters and other stuff) are assets from Unity asset store. For me I almost went through assets store every day to make sure I didn’t miss anything useful. In project, there are 9 or 10 different asset package from various artist. On that, the art design can only be tolerant but not that consistent as from one artist all along. Luckily the style of pixel art is suitable enough for this kind of development. So the game in the end seems quite consistent.
And more VFX shall be used considering lots of details. In one level of choosing whether to kill Adolf Hitler’s father, it would be much more comprehensible if there is a nostalgia filter showing that we travelled back through time. Due to lack of time and experience in VFX, I gave up that design which would be one of my regrets.
The second part is the use of audio. I’ve learnt my lessons during the past development experiences that I added certain sound effect in hitting the button and character talking and walking. And the ending’s background music can contrast the atmosphere beyond expectation. The lack of audio design is still one thing that I think can be improved. The main levels are almost silent and it could be explained as some design. But I would say that I did not have the time choosing an appropriate music so silence is my choice. Good music and audio design will help build up game world. For that I would describe my project as only acceptable in audio design.
If there were more time, I would systematically learn about shaders and other VFX content in Unity. I would find a pixel art artist to customize my asset even it will cost a lot. And I will spend more time on find the proper audio asset and consider it as an essential part in making a game.
In future plan, I would added 2 more endings in my game. For now it only has an ending for utilitarian, not moral players who refuse to rate at all. This ending will be added before final exhibition. And one more ending for players who enjoy total random, which are also originated from thoughts that we have no rights on judging people, the ending will also be decided by random. Not practical schedule for this ending but the overall design was finished.
Furthermore, the panel design within levels can also be improved in coming version. More levels will be added including more forms of moral dilemma. I would like to develop an “Inspect” skill to player to tell whether each subject is lying or not. And thus one or two more resources will be add into the game, completing the reward feedback.
If time can be repeated, I would spent less time worrying about the technical obstacles and study more possible functions for my game. Unless projects in the past, I spend enough time in Final Major Project this time, and the outcome is satisfying for me, as my players feel the same as myself or even more after playing my game. So there are not much regret this time.
Thesis are really helping me about developing the game. I stated an opinion that every moral related game has an ethical framework consist of level of morality, moral dilemmas and reward system. I start designing the game by putting players in a low level of morality. In which system that can rate people’s value and sacrifice the group with lower total score, I would say the level of morality in my game are quite low. And the idea is to make players discomfort with it.
In moral dilemma design, I choose cases from history and came up with some of my own. In reward system which I did not fully explore in my game, I used the only resources in my game – health points as a reward. They will survive the test by doing the wrong thing – rating people. What game system teach them are wrong and the reward system reminds them of it. But further design can be implemented as players’ feedback should be in more forms.