The first entry of a journal documenting the development of a video game.

Role-play

I once read the best video games are adaptation of games you played as a child. One game I played was role-playing—pretending to be a fictional character in a fictional world. I remember when a friend and I raided the house for supplies—chairs, cushions and blankets—then hauled everything to the garage to construct the bridge of our spaceship. Once the ship was ready, we set course for the unexplored sector and landed on planet ZX-1. We then suited up in hostile environment gear (bike helmets and water pistols), opened the hanger bay door (garage door) and stepped onto the surface of the planet (the backyard). I look back on that experience and fondly remember how it made me feel.

Role-playing is compelling because it allows you to create and explore a story at the same time—and story, creating and exploration are deeply rooted in human nature. You escape reality and step into the shoes of a character you just saw on TV. You act out situations, solve problems and learn cause and effect in this imaginary world. This leads to funny, unexpected and dramatic moments. By the end, you've completed an adventure. Returning to reality with a sense of accomplishment and a story to tell mom and dad.

Video games can be a tool for role-playing. Making a game that captures that feeling I had as a child sounds like a fun experiment. Two minds are better than one, so I recruited a friend, and together we started brainstorming.

Mos Eisley cantina

We needed to decide what to role-play. The more specific we can be, the more constraints we create, the easier it will be to make a focused story and capture a specific feeling. One of my favourite stories since childhood is the original Star Wars trilogy. My favourite scene, the Mos Elsey cantina. Located within a space port. A hive for alien traders, smugglers, bounty hunters, pilots and criminals. Dimly lit booths and tables line the walls where patrons conduct secretive business. Role-playing a character from this scene is appealing.

From this scene, we can derive the following information and start building our world:

• ▪ A diverse cast of characters—humans, droids and dozens of alien species.
• ▪ A cantina is:
  • ▪ safe harbour for the crinimal underworld, free from government control, where violence goes unpunished.
  • ▪ a meeting point for people from all walks of life—where information is traded and jobs offered.
• ▪ A job is a catalyst for adventure—smuggling, bounty hunting or other high-stakes, illegal work with varying degrees of risk and reward that requires exploring the galaxy.
• ▪ The galaxy is vast, with countless planets, all accessible by ship.
• ▪ A ship is both transporation and a home.
• ▪ Threats come from all sides—governments, crime syndicates and other criminals.

What makes a game good

In addition to the story constraints, we also need game constraints. Principles we think make a game fun that will guide development.

Target audience

Don't design for a target audience. Trying to predict what a bunch of strangers want is a fool's errand. We make the game we want to play and gamble there are others like us.

“People ask me from time to time, do you make a movie with an audience in mind? And my answer is, yes, I do. But the audience I have in mind isn't some faceless blobs that I'm trying to second guess, right? It's me. I'm the audience. I was betting that there are other people like me out there.”

Imperfect

Don't get stuck trying to make a new feature perfect. If we make something that is better than the thing before it, ship it. No matter how unpolished. If there is nothing before it, then anything is better than nothing. This will help keep the project progressing and stay in a constant state of experiementation. The less concerned we are with breaking 'something perfect', the more willing we'll be to try anything.

Use Clerks as inspiration. A black-and-white film shot in a single location on a $27,575 budget that earned a cult following. Rough, unpolished, yet "utterly authentic" in its depiction of a full day of middle-class life. Its low-budget aesthetic adds to its authenticity and charm.

No tutorials

The player learns how to play through clever design, not tutorials. Players play games for adventure. Adventure is self-driven (agency), exciting, surprise and discovery. People are curious by nature and get joy from discovery. Being told what to do removes agency. Being told what will happen removes discovery.

“Learning to play a video game is part of the game. It is a significant part of the pleasure of the game. If a game is any good, you will never stop learning how to play it.”

Player acknowledgment

“The game world must acknowledge players every time they perform an action... Our basic theory was that if the world ignores the player, the player won't care about the world.”

To be continued...

This game is under development and will continue to be documented in future notes.

Helpers

Friends who helped make this project.

• Sida Yuan

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