Week 9 – Paper Work Week

This week was a “paperwork week” for our team, as Ayaka and Annie traveled to GDC in San Francisco, leaving us without programming support. While development work paused, we focused on building out our narrative, setting up a blockout for the Upper Tree Level, and conducting a playtest with middle school students.

Development of Narrative

We began shaping the game’s backstory.

The player is introduced as a carefree junior high student who loves spending time in the backyard but never takes responsibility for cleaning it up. One day, while tossing around a Frisbee, the player accidentally knocks over a trash can and simply shrugs it off.

Suddenly, a squirrel leaps out, angrily chattering in what seems like nonsense. The world begins to blur and distort, and the player starts to shrink rapidly. Once the surroundings come back into focus, the player finds themselves miniaturized in a strange, oversized world. The squirrel’s squeaking now becomes understandable:
“You destroyer! As the guardian of this place, I will teach you a lesson! Kid, you have much to see and hear – listen to me and learn!”

Level Blockout: Building the Upper Tree Scene

Alongside the narrative, we created the blockout for the Upper Tree Level.

In the scene:

The large circle on the bottom right represents the bird’s nest.
The red cubes inside the nest symbolize pieces of trash that the player must remove.
The large square on the upper left indicates the location of the NPC bird.
The small cube on the lower left is the trash bag where players are instructed to dispose of the collected waste.

This rough layout helps us define gameplay flow and scale. In the coming weeks, we will continue updating and fleshing out the scene with assets and interactions.

Middle School Playtest Feedback

We had the chance to conduct a playtest with middle school students, gaining insight directly from our target age group.

Here’s a summary of the feedback:

📝 Gameplay & Mechanics Issues

Players don’t know what to do at first → Need clearer onboarding/tutorial.
Unclear that both hands are needed to pick up leaves.
Leaves fall too easily from hands.
One player felt she was normal-sized, but everything else seemed oversized.

🎨 Art & Animation Feedback

Art style is cohesive, and the squirrel is cute.
The squirrel could be more lively → Needs mouth movement when talking & more interactions.

🧠 Understanding & Learning

Players understand the game is about decomposition but don’t see how their actions impact the environment.
Need more instructions to connect actions to environmental effects.

Showcasing at GDC

Meanwhile, at GDC, we had the honor of showcasing our first level at the CMU booth. Huge thanks to everyone who came by to playtest, and to our faculty member Amanda for helping coordinate everything!