That was really fun to make! Really different from my usual work. I channelled my DMing experience to write descriptions that didn't appeal to the sense of sight and it was such an interesting challenge for me, to make something coherent and project myself into, "how would I make sense of this space if I couldn't see?" Also I loved working with some Fimo to craft tiny bridges heeheeheehee ~ Of course the project ended up actually bigger than anticipated because I put a lot of lore into the tiny grimoires, but players seemed to really have fun while playing and it really seemed pretty immersive! Of course as usual with puzzles it's very hard to balance, since some people will blast through the game while others will take a long time to finish. Oh well! God I love game design. Our artist made some really pretty illustrations and an awesome anthill in the middle of the map, that's so great. And lamaxelle crafted the big board out of wood and it smelled so good and it looked incredible!
WHEW, THAT WAS AN ADVENTURE!
3.5 months of development, with classes on the side. I had a lot of fun working on this game though! I used a paper prototype to iterate quickly and progressively freeze the game's mechanics early in the development, as they were being implemented. It also acted like living design documentation.
Creating the UI was a monstruous amount of work. I did almost all the UI animations! Also I created a whole-ass constructed language for this. I shouldn't have, time-wise, but I did. No regrets though, I felt like it, and it was fun.
Main thing is, I wish we had handled our workload better, and in a smarter way. Sure, there would be less stuff in the game maybe, but at least we would have been able to get some sleep. Well, lesson learned for next time...
I ADORED working with this team though. They're all so incredibly sharp, and hardworking, and good at what they do, I can't wait to see what they'll do next!
Ah, the first game I worked on at the CNAM-ENJMIN. It really showed me that the school, and the curriculum, was going to be something special! Because right from the get-go everyone in that team was incredible to work with.
They all brought their own experiences and uniqueness to the mix, and it was a joy to create this game. Couldn't have dreamt of a better way to start the year.
I remember scribbling the journal pages and scanning them, I always enjoy the added physicality and the embraced jankiness of real-life pictures and collages within the context of a videogame. It's always so fun to do, to feel the physical elements and interact with them and craft them with your own hands. It's really consonant with how I feel that game-making is a craftsmanship.
Also, I recorded the paintings' voices, and I absolutely couldn't believe my ears when I heard what Etienne had done with my lines. He's a wizard, a true practitioner of the dark arts! You love to hear it.
Made to get the hang of Shapes, I used it as a way to build up my unity fundamentals, as a basis for future projects. Just two months later, I can say it worked!
This was so interesting to make, because we were in a full team of 9 with people from every line of work. Of course, there were a lot of inefficiencies due to inexperience and the cost of communication in a team like that, but I had fun, and I think we scoped the game rather correctly!
