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Week 13: Final Countdown
As the semester draws to a close, we’re now entering the final phase—focused on finishing touches and polish. Narrative We’ve officially locked the overall narrative structure and decided not to make any major changes. Instead, we’re focusing on refining the details, such as improving phrasing, adjusting the order of audience reactions during Day 1’s key…
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Week 12: Soft Opening
Narrative & Design: Affection System and Endings Last week, we drafted the affection point system along with the courtroom dialogue. While the overall structure is now in place, many of the dialogue branches and choice options still need polishing and expansion. In designing the affection system, we wanted to align it with the game’s core…
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Week 11: Prepare for Soft
Playtest Success & Feedback Our Playtest Day went successfully — we had 25 participants and received a wide range of valuable feedback. User Experience & Interaction Content & Narrative Bugs & Technical Issues Replayability & Flow Pacing & Reading Load Player Suggestions Some of the points raised aligned with known issues, while others brought up…
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Week 10: Playtest Day
GDC Feedback During GDC, we received a lot of valuable feedback on our game. Game Length & Pacing UI/UX Improvements Dialogue & Narrative Characters & Archetypes Gameplay Mechanics Theme & Tone Plan for Play Test Day With Playtest Day coming up this Saturday, and Soft Opening just around the corner, the entire team regrouped this…
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Week 9: GDC Playtest
Remote Progress During GDC Week This week, most of our team was away attending GDC, but since we had secured a time slot to playtest our demo, everyone continued contributing remotely. Despite the physical distance, we pushed forward and made meaningful progress. Art & Cutscenes On the art side, we decided to incorporate a few…
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Week 8: Post Half
Post-Half Feedback & Reflection Following our Half Presentation, we received a wide range of feedback—both encouraging and critical. Many reviewers praised our project for tackling a timely and important topic—freedom of speech—through a creative lens such as a dating sim. Positive Highlights Critical Feedback Our Reflections During our presentation, we intentionally spent more time on…
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Week 7: Half Presentation
Half Presentation & Playtest Night After wrapping up our Half Presentation on Monday, we attended Playtest Night on Tuesday, where we gathered valuable feedback from seven playtesters. The insights we received helped us refine our direction and identify areas for improvement. Playtest Feedbacks Overview: Let the tester experience Day 1 narrative Playtest scope: Day 1…
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Week 6: Character Development
Narrative Development This week, the narrative team initially focused on writing the Trigger Warning scenario, developing the script and character dialogues. However, with the Half Presentation approaching next week, our Producer suggested prioritizing the first-day storyline to ensure clarity for the audience. As a result, we shifted our focus to the opening scene, which introduces…
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Week 5: Balancing Research and Development
Balancing Research and Development To improve efficiency, our team decided that art and gameplay development should progress in parallel with research. While thorough research is crucial, we believe that iterating on a tangible prototype early on will help us refine our design faster. Otherwise, we risk stagnating in the planning phase without making tangible progress.…
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Week 4: Narrative Structure
Meeting with Dean Richard Scheines This week, we had a brief online meeting with Dean Richard Scheines, arranged by our advisors Brenda and Ralph. To prepare for the meeting, we created a slide deck outlining our game design and initial ideas for integrating freedom of speech concepts into gameplay. Due to time constraints, we provided…
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Week 3: Research & Design Concepts
This week, we continued refining our transformational goal, recognizing its importance as the foundation of our project. Establishing a strong core early on will help prevent uncertainty and repeated revisions down the line. Framework Current Idea Next Step High-level purpose Bring awareness, understand knowledge of Fos and AF SME consultation Audience & Context CMU Student…
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Week 2: Transformational Workshop
To deepen our understanding, we attended a Transformational Game Workshop led by Dave, where we learned about the framework of transformational games, how they differ from other games, their intended impact, and the challenges that come with designing them. After the workshop, we gained new insights and identified key questions that need to be addressed…
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Week 1: Meet The Team
Overview Our project is a transformational game centered around the theme of freedom of speech. The target audience is limited to CMU students, but beyond that, we have full creative freedom in how we approach the topic. Meet the Team After finalizing our work schedule, we held a meeting to get to know each other’s…
