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Edutainment
Our team voted to make an adventure game about avalanche safety.
We hoped we could make edutainment less heavy-handed by blending game design with real-world application.
One inspiration was Zoo Tycoon, which teaches facts without seeming "educational" at all.
What Pandemic?
Our team made it a priority to meet together at school in-person, aiming for once every two weeks.
Online meetings had a single channel of communication. We all took turns talking about one topic at a time.
In-person, conversations were fluid, dissolving and adapting as we overheard topics. This was great for innovation early on, and a more enjoyable workflow.
Team Roles Semester 1
Research
Music/Sound
Production
Level Design
Level Art
Art
Story
Code
Story
Code
Research
Team Roles Semester 2
Code
Research
Music/Sound
Production
Art
Level Design
Code
Art
Code
Art
Story
Code
Story
Code
Research
The Programmers Get Sick
Sadly, both of our programmers had impairing illnesses for half of development.
Semester two was extremely stressful. I really hoped our coders would return any moment.
I'm grateful to Zach and Amelia for their achievements, like spline-travelling and in-game avalanches.
I'm disappointed I couldn't focus on art the way I'd hoped.
Game Design
On-boarding with Ethan
Playtesters weren't using their tools when they needed to, which concerned us.
Ethan and I joined a call and discussed what we could do. What happened was a very satisfying design session where we reordered events, gave them more punch, added a small tutorial hill next to town, and spread teaching moments across the map.
After implementing the changes, players understood and applied safety techniques better.
Awful Scene Editing
Our main scene held the entire 3D environment, made using "Polaris Low Poly Terrain". It would occasionally crash, losing any progress.
Without our programmers, usability updates were stalled. Adjusting components and splines was extremely tedious work.
I did organize, learn shortcuts, and improve components, but too little too late.
This problem both wasted time and drained morale.
Avalanche Safety Gameplay
The game's loop challenged players to set off for resources, avalanche detect along the way, and spend resources to repair bridges and lookout points.
So how did we do?
Learning through dialogue was slightly heavy-handed, but applying avalanche safety skills in the game felt natural and put the concepts in the players hands.
The game was passably entertaining - getting collectibles and progressing was fun, but our overscoping left some areas feeling empty or slow. I'm confident that with a little more time, we could expand on the fun we built here and fill in the gaps.
This game was a partial success, and shows me that education
and game design are two tasks, not one when together.
Art
3D / 2D Experiments
I made some experiments to discern what sprites would fit best on the mountain. Smooth shading, contrast with the background, and appropriate detail all helped.
"Polaris Low Poly Mountain" stretched textures improperly, unfortunately I was not able to fix that.
Style Guide
Knowing I would need more help with art, I made a style guide to keep art consistent with the project's vision.
See full Style guide here.
Sadly, I did not have time to accomplish all of these goals, such as painting the town, or giving the player an unlockable costume.
Fantasy/Modern Characters
The characters of the game are humans and fantasy creatures that help the player along their journey.
I was not able to put the care into these characters I wanted because ultimately, good looking characters were not first priority when our goal was an educational game.
Story
Premise
After the player causes an avalanche and destroys a town's hiking trail, they are tasked with rebuilding it and given the tools to prevent avalanches.
The setting is a small modern/fantasy town with ancient Norwegian influences.
Character Roles
NPCs teach the player to play the game and avoid avalanches.
Dylan is a hiker who never has what he needs to progress.
Heidi, a nature dryad, gives the player exploration tools.
Frida the Valkyrie rescues them and offers rescue facts.
Ox is a cranky old mountain goat who yells at them for being unsafe and gives them their tasks.
Ballad is a human who teaches them about avalanche prevention tools.
Players Love to Skip Dialogue
I soon found out that to capture players, every line needs purpose. Every line must be as short and catchy as possible, and then shorter and catchier. On top of this, everything I wrote was tutorial dialogue.
I put wordsmithing to good use, and used vivid language to keep the player interested. After more work, players listened to dialogue and learned the mechanics better.
Conclusion
Presenting at XP Game Conference
Presenting at XP was a great way to finish our games and our four-year program.
It was heartwarming to see friends we hadn't seen since the pandemic. And we could play everyone's finished games.
It was a very business-focused conference, which made us feel out of place. But one of the business types even owned a ski resort and was very interested to see what we'd done.
Presenting to industry speakers and getting feedback was also very fulfilling.
Meme Spirit
As tough as our job became, making each other laugh was never complicated.
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