Devlog: Preparation Phase 

During the two week prep phase of production for Next Chapter, I worked on a few tasks that would support our work later on in the project. I helped with creating a character profile for our vertical slice memory character, Jessica, worked on making sure our documentation was up to date, and started writing some dialogue for the memory portion of the game. During this time we also added a new member to the team, so some time was spent getting him up to speed and incorporated into our existing production plan. 

Documentation 

By the end of last semester we completed a proof of concept for the game, as well as a presentation to pitch it. Our presentation had the most current version of our documentation, but our Confluence wiki wasn’t updated to include any last minute changes or details decided on in the last couple of weeks of working on the proof of concept. These missing pieces included important details such as how many times a player would have to perform a certain action before moving on to the next minigame in the memory, or exactly what actions and controls would be used to complete activities. The first part of our prep phase consisted of adding these details to our wiki, which we did by using separate live documents for each feature and organizing them into folders to keep related features together. 

Folders for grouping documentation of related features

I contributed to the documentation for Jessica’s memory including each of the memory minigames, as well as documents for the library including the book recommendation and sorting features. With our wiki up to date with the most current information, we are more easily able to access information when we need it and make sure that any work we do is in line with our design. Switching to live docs instead of static pages has also allowed us to make changes more quickly and easily than before. 

Sample of feature documentation

Character Profile 

As part of a larger group discussion, I helped to create a character profile for Jessica including information like her personality, motivations, and appearance. These details were important to support our designs across multiple areas of the project, including art and narrative. The profile also became the basis for the dialogue that I worked on later in the prep phase. In creating this profile, we aimed to paint a picture of someone who is relatable and who players can feel empathy for. We made an effort to avoid giving our character any traits that would perpetuate harmful stereotypes about people affected by addiction, since our goal is to transform the player’s mindset away from those stereotypes and show that addiction isn’t a choice and could happen to anyone. With this in mind, we created a character who would be considered successful, both at work and in her social life. By choosing these kinds of traits, we hope to steer players away from stereotypes related to the appearance or life circumstances of those suffering from addiction. 

Whiteboard from team brainstorm about Jessica's character profile

Dialogue 

The last thing I worked on during this prep phase was dialogue for Jessica’s memory. Since the date scenes are some of the more dialogue-heavy parts of the memory section, they will be important for establishing how Jessica’s addiction will change her relationships and interactions with the people around her. Because of this, I wanted to start with these scenes when writing the dialogue so we could establish a baseline for her personality and interactions, and make sure the ensuing changes were impactful. I started with the pre-accident date to establish Jessica’s relationship with her partner, before moving onto the post-accident dates. While working on the dialogue, I formatted it according to the requirements for YarnSpinner so the dialogue can be quickly copied into the game once writing and editing is complete. Doing this formatting now (including any choices or sections breaks) saves time during implementation of the dialogue later on. The next step for this part of the project is to get feedback from the team and decide if/where we want to add events such as changing the characters’ positions or facial expressions during the conversations.  

Sample of first date dialogue in required formatting for YarnSpinner

In the end, along with the prep work from the rest of the team these efforts helped to set us up for the beginning of our Alpha phase of production and keep us on track with our production plan. With consistent documentation for our features and more detailed descriptions of our main character, we are in a better place after these two weeks of prep to create an impactful transformational game.