Koishi's Quest After-Jam Post-Mortem

Hello again, everyone!

One of my favorite parts of taking part in these Touhou Game Jams is having the ability to 1) play the entries of other creators and learning a lot from them to push forward into my own works and 2) talk at length about the process of games-making. As I've said before, the creative process is something I cherish; building something from the ground up is very hard to do, and looking back at how you got to a finished article can fill you with pride upon further reflection.

Last Jam, I was pretty down on the process-- in part because I was going through some personal turmoil, and announced a hasty retirement from three-day jams. 

I'm very glad I reconsidered my stance. Koishi's Quest was some of the most fun I've ever had as both a writer and a director. The utter joy I felt when seeing things start to come together during the Jam process and then watching as people tried to solve was in front of them during the judgment period was addicting. It's the feeling every creative strives for when putting something out into the world. 

The team I had the opportunity to work with was also amazing. I am forever humbled that such awesome creatives continue to believe in the visions I propose to them and were as eager as I was to see it become realized. If it weren't for them, this would never have been made. They were all extremely attentive, quick to turn things in and were very passionate about the project. Thank you so much; just thinking about it has me teary-eyed as I type. I'll be sure to point out all the individual members later, as usual.

Enough sentimentality, though, let's open this thing up.

Concept and execution

I knew pretty much immediately upon the reveal of the Jam theme I wanted to make an adventure game. As a child of the late 90s, adventure games and point-and-clicks were some of my first exposure to video gaming in general. I always found joy in discovering things and walking around in unique environments at my own leisure and really getting in to the guts of a game. Their distinct writing styles and unique logic always stuck out to me, and it's that feeling I wanted to chase down. Suffice to say you don't see many adventure games out there these days-- much less in the Touhou universe. I wrote about those inspirations in the hintbook, which is attached to the end of this document if you'd like to check that out.

I knew pretty early on I wanted Koishi to be the central character for a very specific reason: the ability to play with their third eye being closed and having a faulty memory. That would lend us a great opportunity for some unique gameplay elements-- not to mention she's just really fun to write for. (I had a great time writing for her in Kokoro's Doki-Doki Sabbatical's alternate ending.)

The creative decision to make this game with it's black-and-white style was part of that idea. While conceptualizing the game's ultimate vision, I actually consulted munchea, a fellow Jammer, to discuss their academic work on video games which used handicaps as strengths. Through that, I discovered some other games which played with the idea of sensory deprivation forcing alternative modes of thought and started threading some of those ideas into Koishi's Quest. 

I pulled heavily from two games in particular: The Nightjar and Perception. The Nightjar was a promotional gambit by Wrigley Gum to promote a new flavor they had at the time, but it was an all-star production with Benedict Cumberbatch heavily featured. In that game, you input movement commands with almost zero visual effects to interpret from. Instead, you have to follow Cumberbatch's instructions to find your way out before the ship you're on is lost in space forever. It had outstanding audio design, with heavy emphasis on atmospheric noise and the human vs. machine element. Perception is a game about a blind woman who re-visits the home of her murdered sister to try and discover answers. In that game, you can only see the silhouettes of what is around you or feel the sensations of the room or environment you're in based on how much noise you make. Make too much and you'll attract trouble. Make too little and you won't progress. It was an interesting idea which I thought was well-executed. 

Originally, sound design was going to be a lot more integral to the game, with every single item having some sort of aural cue when Koishi would interact with something. We got some of the major stuff going in that direction, but couldn't get as specific as I would have previously intended due to the engine we were using being a bit of a bear. Even still, I thought our sound design was outstanding, especially with the voice acting compression. 

As for the visuals, this idea of using outlines to identify object is directly from Perception-- though it was also a decision made in part knowing the artist would be busy with other projects. I figured making everything black and white would give the artist a lot less work in terms of getting it perfectly down pat with colors and the like. It would also offer a visually-striking element to make the game hard to forget. We did run into a little bit of issues along the way to the point where we brought on a second artist (thank you, Akira), but we got what we wanted for the most part at the end of the day! If I were to go back and change one thing about the art, I would consider maybe making items and the environment in a wire-frame fashion, in order to more easily distinguish what is and is not interactive. (I'd also be a bit more understanding of what size things needed to be to prevent lost time; that was truly a my bad on my part.)

The writing was supremely fun! I had a great time making some very interesting scenarios which I thought fit every character pretty well for the most part. If there was one regret I have, it's probably that I got too clever for my own good sometimes. There were times where I felt like I had made the logic too easy or obvious, as I figured people would approach it the same way I did. I forgot I am a veteran of these things and this resulted in some awkward moments. I also forgot to insert some nag lines--  or take some out-- due to the time crunch. I'm very sorry to everyone who expressed their frustrations about the writing; it is a lesson learned for me. 

For the large part, the game we made was exactly what I thought it would look like at the start outside of some cuts in scope. I'm very proud that we didn't have to veer from the original vision like maybe I had to in some other games in the past. The only things we really had to cut were some latter parts of the last Enoko puzle and a path/board which would have heavily featured Okuu as an obstacle character.

Talking up the team

This game would not have been possible without the contributions of the other team members.

• This is the fourth project I've worked with Mollyyncy as an artist, and I feel like I repeat myself whenever I talk about her because she's just an incredible creative partner. We get along very well and are pretty simpatico on what these game ideas should look like. The dynamic character sprites are some of the highlights of the game (Enoko's wobbly walking motion was a particular delight) and she did an outstanding job considering her involvement in other projects and that it was her first time working with sprites like this. Her CGs were also EXTREMELY on point and cute as heck; seeing the concept sketches brought a fuzzy feeling to my heart at a particularly hard time in the development cycle.
• Akira joined us pretty late in the process, but without them, there is no game. Their quick work on the environmental and item art saved Molly a lot of time and gave us the interactables we needed to be able to program the game properly. My only regret is that I was pretty bad at giving feedback to them as there were unforeseen developments which prevented me from being as attentive on certain parts of the game (more on that later.) This is the second project we've worked on together. 
• Black Mage is someone I worked with for the first time this Jam. I've always admired their work from afar, so this was a great opportunity to approach them for a genre of programming I was unfamilar with. Originally, I was going to program the game myself in Ren'py, but ran into a number of issues, which required a change in tact. Black Mage was adept at learning the new engine (which made its official debut in Touhou Jam!) and was quick to identify problems and make hotfixes when necessary. I deeply appreciate everything they did for us throughout the process-- even if I was not the best at checking in for updated and getting them assets in a timely fashion. That's my bad as a director. I'd love the opportunity to work with them again sometime. 
• Doody is an absolute master of composition. This is our second project together after previously working on Sumireko together, and this was an extremely different genre of music from that game. Evey time Doody had an update, it sounded exactly like I wanted it to. Doody was correct to pull from games like Monkey Island and Space Quest in the compositions. It really set the mood on every level and are absolutely listenable even independent of the game itself. I think my favorite of the songs was the bossa nova version of Orin's theme for the side garden. 
• Luparia is a Jam game newbie who wanted to help out with sound design, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with them. (I do apologize for tagging you so much in the dev server!) Their work was top-notch in execution, and they were fast to boot. I couldn't explain half of what they did to get the noise and compression done up so well, but whatever they did game the game that Retro Feeling which makes it stand out amongst a lot of entries. I'd love to work with them again on a project needing great audio design.
• M3ds is a Jam veteran who wanted to try out a new role, so I brought them on to do level design. Initially, I wanted them to do the puzzles AND the layouts, but I realized I had to do the puzzle-making as the writer. That left them with making the layout based on what I wrote, and they did an admirable job for their first time doing something like this-- despite my instructions. They're a hard worker I would recommend to any team looking for members. If I had to do it all over again, I'd make sure to give them more of a heads-up on their assignment and communicate better.
• Meg was an AMAZING Koishi. When I first contacted her about doing this role, she expressed a lot of excitement and I was happy she wanted to join back on despite her finding more professional success since we last worked together on Room of a Thousand Petals. I treasure her eagerness to get things right and her ability to take feedback without taking it personally. Her interpretation of Koishi-- particualrly one in an adventure game-- was spot-on and I thought really added to the game as a whole. She got several complements on live-stream for her performance, as she should. 
• Kiroko was very hesitant to join initially as she was working on her own game and didn't have a lot of confidence they could step up to the task. I'm happy they persevered, though, because her grounded performance of Reimu felt authentic to how she was written. We didn't have a lot of time to do proper direction due to the deadilne, but if we had that opportunity, there's a lot of potential there. I'd love working with them again if I have a project which involves Reimu.
• Yoyo was the last member to join, coming in with about... 15 hours remaining. Her charming interpretation of Marisa really lent a lot of levity to the conversations with Reimu and colored with vibrant strokes in a game where audio was so important. Yoyo was also great at taking instruction, and I had some of the most fun as a director I've ever had in working with her in the wee hours of the morning. I;'d love to work with her again on a future project, especially if Marisa is involved. 
• Rozarai is someone I supremely admire as a creative. She has so much intrinsic talent, whether it's for streaming or programming or being a performer. (Watching her emote over Aya's characterization in Kokoro's Doki-Doki Sabbatical is a moment which still lives with me to this day.) Having the opportunity to work with her is something I've wanted to do for over a year now, and finally getting that opportunity was wonderful-- especially since we directly bounced off each other for VA. A late character change was well-earned; her performance as Parsee was exactly what I wanted to see from the character: someone who could hold themselves as an authority and be emotionally vulnerable all at once. I hope to work with her again in the future-- whether as a part of the Jams or other independent projects. 
• Rua is also someone I've wanted to work with for over a year, but I didn't feel brave enough to approach them initially. Even this time around, I still had some hesitation to reach out to her. But she eagerly accepted the assignment to play Enoko and knocked it out of the park. I had written Enoko with Rua in mind and I think it really reflected in the performance. I'd love the opportunity to work with her again if I ever get the chance. 
• Last, but not least is Rose. Rose was the first person to join the project, and wanted to contribute as a VA despite her schedule. Her belief in the idea really helped propel me in some of the tougher times of the dev cycle. I felt bad giving her such a small part in Satori as she is a supremely talented VA, but she nailed the big sister aspect and lent the ending scene a homey and familiar feeling. This is our second project together, and I hope we can work together again in the near future. 

Conclusion

One of the principles I always strive for when creating games is to be unapologetic. I knew going into the Jam, this game might be a bit of a tough sell to the audience who was playing it. I really leaned into that by making the game black-and-white, which amped the already-challenging nature of adventure games even more. I figured if it was already going to get tough reception for the nature of its genre, then making it visually and aurally striking would be a motivator to complete the game. (This is also why the CGs at the end are completely in color; the idea was the player went through all this trouble to earn a tender moment.) Essentially, those who "get" it would really get it, and those who might struggle could at least be treated at the end for their endeavors.

To that end, I made sure to tell our team to commit completely to the bit. The music, the art, the voice acting, the sound design and the engine were all chosen with that in mind. I knew, ultimately, some of these choices would be unpopular, but we wanted to make the game we wanted to make and to that end, we accomplished our mission. The game and the accompanying hintbook are about as authentic to the true experience of 90s point-and-click adventures as it gets, and I will always appreciate how much fun it was to create.

Seeing everyone's reactions to the game was a roller-coaster, as I expected it to be. Even still, I found myself taken aback by the sheer polarity of the comments. Koishi's Quest was a game you would either really like, or really don't from what I saw in both streams and comments. I printed the hintbook after some feedback and even THAT proved to be a bit divisive. I was shocked at just how controversial the game proved to be; I did not anticipate such a reaction.

I remember two streamers downloading the original Jam version after our final update had come out and getting frustrated enough to quit it, which was very discouraging initially. That was around the time we also got some pretty pointed negative feedback, so I was particularly in a depressive state to the point where I cried about it. (I'm okay with admitting this, as I was largely embarrassed afterwards.) But there were several other streamers who totally got what the game was going for and fell in love with the charms of it. I had tears of joy seeing some of those reactions. Being able to interact with those streamers live was wonderful and I appreciated their earnest reviews at the end.

I knew we were going for something really ambitious, and hoped that people would understand what the game was going for stylistically and forgive some of its tendencies in favor of the overall feeling we tried to present. That said, I can understand some of the more pointed criticisms in retrospect.If I could do it over again, I would be more careful in writing and open up the timeline so that it wasn't so event-dependent.

Upon reading the results, I felt like I had failed the team and their contributions. But those are the breaks sometimes, and I've learned a lesson about scope and communication once again. I think if our process hadn't been so affected at the beginning, things could have gone differently.

My ambition for the game idea likely prevented the game from seeing an initially polished experience on launch.  

We suffered a key departure right at the start of the Jam which forced me to have to pick up more tasks than I initially anticipated, which did have an effect on the rest of the schedule. I wasn't able to manage the project as much as I wanted to since I was now essentially centered inside it after having to pick up writing and puzzle duties in addition to directing and VA'ing. This created breakdowns of communication-- especially with the programmer-- which resulted in the buggy first launch. By the time we got the major fixes out, we had already gained a reputation as being a particularly difficult and long game, which I think ultimately scared a lot of people off after the initial burst of ratings. We ended up with 27 overall in a three-week period, so that more or less confirmed it, especially since there were over 80 entries. The low ratings reflected this, and while it ultimately sucks on a surface level and doesn't reward what we were going for, it absolutely does not remove any of the passion and talent of any of the crew members who lent their skills to this game.

It bears repeating over and over I'm still so proud of the team for putting together such a wonderful experience. It took some wrangling of code to get there after the 72-hour limit, but I still cherish every moment it took to get this game out. I had the opportunity to work with some truly talented people on this project, and I will always be humbled by that.

We did what we set to do and made no compromises (well, the hintbook exists, so I guess that's one compromise). As a creative, I feel that is something to always try to achieve.

If you played or watched the game at all, thank you very much for giving it a fair shot. To anyone who hasn't yet, I encourage you to give it a try. 

See you in June for Pride Jam 6!

-- junejijo, on behalf of BakaBaku Circle