I spent this week working on code and building out the systems to support dialogue in the game. I also revamped the game’s aesthetics.

My writing system

Writing the game will require a lot of work and iteration. Instead of creating JavaScript objects that contain dialogue within the code, I wanted a more versatile way to write and import dialogue.

The game’s code now allows me to load JSON files, which are exported from Google Sheets, and import the dialogue for immediate use. Since most of the information is determined within the Google Sheet, I can do as little repetition of code as possible. I have already started writing dialogue and am testing different ways the player can choose to respond to the game’s choices.

Aesthetics

I drastically updated the production game’s look and feel. The interface feels much more like an app than the old version. Gladly, I was able to utilize the same color scheme, but I removed the gradients and patterns. Since the game centers around texting, the interface needed to resemble a modern mobile application.

The old version of the home screen:

The new interface design:

With a few more tweaks to the interface and a bit more code, the only thing I’ll need to focus on is writing as much dialogue as possible.

Constructive criticism

My narrative design class has been very helpful. I received very useful feedback regarding my game’s characters and conflicts. To flesh out my characters even further, I am in the process of writing in-depth details about all primary & secondary characters in the game.

Questions to answer about each character include:

• What don’t they know how to do?
• What are the things that the character has been taught by their family?
• What habits & rituals does the character have?
• Who do you know in real life that feels similar to this character?
• What is this character’s natural environment?
• What do they do for fun?
• What’s in this character’s backpack?
• What is this character afraid of?

The goal is to have characters that actually feel human rather than hollow. I also plan to map out the dorm rooms in which all characters live.

Additionally, I’m planning to integrate quiz questions into the narrative rather than asking players upfront. Not only will this prevent people from feeling intimidated by the types of questions they’re asked, but it will also ensure that players have more chances to make choices throughout narrative scenes.

Accountability partner

Lauren has been very helpful with giving feedback regarding my thesis paper and is currently helping me troubleshoot some bugs in my game’s code that cause the game to show up as a black screen.

Thesis paper intro & body

I’m continuing to write more for my thesis paper. This week, I worked on the introduction and main sections of the paper. I added a lot more information about the characters and removed any notes about word count since the aim is quality, not quantity. The current version of the paper can be downloaded as a PDF. It’s still heavily in the works, so I hope you don’t mind unfinished sentences!

That’s all for this week. Bye bye!