Over the last few classes, my group had been spending time in developing a concept for a video game of our own! This whole time in class, we have been playing and dissecting games from the perspective of players, but now we got to experience what it was like to put a story of our own into the form of an interactive, non-linear framework of a text-based game. Even making a bare-bones prototype up for a game demonstrated how intensive this form of storytelling can be. This is why my group had a good method for breaking up the task into fundamental parts: story, gameplay, and marketing.
Once we had understood the capabilities of the Twine software – learning how to make branching paths, actually coding the options, and writing in the bar effects, expansion of the game became much easier. Honestly, most of our time was spent on learning how to code the many exponential paths each option resulted in. Our “gimmick” was having the character wake up day after day and make seemingly repetitive menial decisions to emulate the Groundhog Day effect of the pandemic, where days seem to be the same events over and over. We then were able to integrate an overarching story through our use of a frame story, where the character exposits by writing their college essay, or dream ranting. Overall, making just this demo of a text-based game showed me just how challenging game development can be, giving me a whole new sense of respect for both indie and triple-A studios making new, amazing games.
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