Dev Log 1

After a holiday fix, we've finally arrived at a new semester. In this semester, we will have to finish the game. Now we have already started to make preparations.

My main job now is to work on the story, levels and sound effects. In terms of the story, I have been talking to the other members of the group. I realized that they are not familiar enough with the current story outline. During the meeting, I described to them some of the experiences of the main character of the story and the damage caused by cyber violence to the main character. Then I described several of the supporting characters in the story to them in detail as well, so that they knew the relationship between these any main characters. Finally, I informed the group members about the bad person behind the story. As a text adventure detective game, it's actually essential to let the designers know the mystery. Only in this way can the message that the story wants to convey be more clearly understood by the designers. We didn't want to waste our work because of different interpretations of the story during the design process.

For the puzzles, I'd like to start with some graphic puzzles that are available on the web. The ones that interested me the most were examples of civil service exam questions from China. This exam focuses a lot on the candidate's ability to think logically. Those puzzles are difficult but quite informative. I can find inspiration for my own puzzles by studying those test questions, and then make puzzles that are suitable for our game. The difficulty of those puzzles should not be too hard, but also give the player some small challenges. This reminds me of what my professor taught me about "Aha moments" in a Game Design class two years ago. I'm going to incorporate what I've already learned to enhance my puzzles.

As for the sound effects, I'm going to incorporate some of my previous game jam experience into my sound design. In the past, I would go to some free sound sites to find sound effects to add to the game. This is a very efficient method. But it also has its drawbacks. For example, the number of copyrighted free music is very small, and the selection in the music library is not rich. Sometimes when I need a certain sound effect, I may need to go to many different free sound sites to search for it, and I may not really find the music I want. This time, because of the sound effects elective I took, I wanted to try making my own sound effects. Of course, that's probably going to be on the back of my to-do list. Finishing the story first, level and puzzle design is the top priority for me.