Devlog 2

Development Process

The development for this went pretty smoothly; especially compared to some of our experiences with collaboration on digital games in previous semesters, it felt like there were very few setbacks. From the start we all had a similar vision: that we wanted a fairly minimalist game entirely based on digital components. After the first meeting each of us took some time to build on that idea, each making a quick prototype for a game independently, so we’d all bring some different ideas to the table. 

After we settled on our eventual idea though--a game themed around scavenging for images on the web--it was all pretty collaborative. We decided on the “meme-comic” template as a framing device for the images since it enabled us to create a lot of content within the timeframe and fit with the eclectic types of images we expected our players to find, and then, since we’d need the comics to actually make the game function, each set to work drawing them so we’d have them ready for our playtests.

Some of the comics we came up with.

What went right

Humor over competition-

When we are designing this game, we pictured for ourselves a competitive game that includes a voting system and secrecy, but excludes any intense competition. Just like in a family scavenger hunt, players do feel an urge to find mystery objects, but at the same time there is no anger, depression or toxicity created from the game. We did quite well on this part, since players are all trying but no one brought up an intense argument.

Creativity over plagiarizing-

The game is inspired by many other games, either table-top, physical or digital. It’s also strongly associated with popular humorous expressions and meme culture. We were quite afraid that the final product would, in some ways, feel too much like a “remastered” version of these inspirations. It is good to see that with the brand new rules we defined, the game went beyond stitched-up fragments of other games, and playing it has become an unique experience.

Urge over relaxation-

Our team members debated upon whether to add a tight time limit, a loose one or completely none. We finally decided to make it as tight as possible(while still acceptable, obviously), and this has pushed the pace of the game a lot. By having an intense atmosphere in the room, the game will also feel less like a casual conversation.

What went wrong

The anonymous bot-

The free trial of the anonymous bot broke down after we reached its 50 images limit. When browsing for anonymous messaging solutions, we weren’t told about this limit at all. Though this is not related to our system design, it can still be prevented with a backup solution, and thus we would give a more completed demo presentation.

The feeling of scavenger hunt-

When coming up with the idea of “online scavenger hunt”, we were picturing players running through piles of files in their own unique ways, and finding a good image is as cheering as finding a treasure box. However, since almost all sites are now restricted on their designs in only a few ways, many of the image feeds are too “humanely designed” to the point that hunting through them feels like browsing through a normal daily feed. Communities like wikipedia and reddit however, showed more randomness in its content arrangement during our playtests, and is generally more fun to play through.

Redundant materials-

In this project, in order to support our game’s system, we programmed a p5.js based random generator from scratch. It’s cool and efficient to use it in a demo, but from the perspective of system design, it has added more layers to the designers. The same function can also be achieved using a random number generator online, and a folder of numbered images. This might not necessarily be something “wrong” to talk about, but we are surely aware that things can be done straightforwardly. 

What we learned

A simple game can gain lots of systeming variations from the outside-

Unlike go and many other simple yet complex games, our game’s variety comes from the outside systems: the contents on the internet. The materials and ideas a player can have in this game is arguably infinite, not to talk about them expanding and refreshing every second. Though this coincidental choice, we learned a new method to keep a game fresh to play.

Prior stability over complexity-

Many of our projects in the last semester were quite ambitious, but most of them didn’t end up like what we wanted them to be. In this project, although simplicity is already written as our initial goal, we still spend many time creating a randomizer, instead of looking for a more stable way to send messages anonymously(we didn’t spend our time on comparing discord bots, instead we just picked the most popular one, also being the most monetizing one).

Group roles & responsibilities

The way the project was broken down was that the three of us collaborated on ideas and rules, which was around half of the process, then split up to do the tasks that make the game a reality. The largest portion of the first half being the three of us creating the comics used in the game, as well as scouting out links to website pages that would work well with the comics.  Xander put together the rulebook, Nicky set up the discord bot and created the presentation, and Ethan coded the interface for the game that generates comics and links. 

Future Development

There was a lot of good feedback after our presentation we can take into consideration. Without anything needed to be said, clearly the biggest fault of the game is its reliance on a discord bot that runs on a subscription pay model. If we had more time this would have to be streamlined, creating our own way to make votes anonymous. Not only would that make the game free, but also make the user experience much easier to submit their images. Related to this would be tweaks to our rule set that would allow all players to play without stress. In our presentation, players felt a bit rushed by our 90 second time limit due to the sort of lengthy image submission process. With more development time, we definitely would focus on streamlining player interaction.