AdvJam2021 retrospective part 3

This is part three of the retrospective of my AdvJam project. Let’s continue.

Scope
Actually I wanted to include more of everything in my jam entry. More story, more art, more gameplay, even music. So my scope was not clear, which was distracting.
I spent a lot of the time, drawing art and fixing technical problems.
Halfway through the jam I decided to look at the Ink storytelling language, which is amazing. But it’s never a good idea to look at new tools when there is a deadline ahead.
I chose to focus on long-term goals and do what’s best for the game, rather than the short-term goal of the jam. The purpose of the jam for me was to start prototyping the game and at the same time try to show what it will be about.

It may not be the best way to get the word out, because of the very rough shape of prototypes. I figured the jam was mostly among developers, who are used to this kind of thing.

Deadline
I ended up writing scenes for the game instead of for the jam, which was great fun. I did that until only two days were left. I figured if I wanted to show anything, I had to start putting something together now.
I still had plenty of things to create to tell the beginning of the game and quite some problems to solve. But overall I’m happy with what I ended up with.
Especially since I can continue and build upon it.

Mixed reception
After the jam there is a voting period of a month to find the best entry.

Voting categories are:
Atmosphere – graphically or narrative, how did the game feel?
Characterization – how memorable were the characters and world?
Mental Engagement  – puzzles or storyline that kept you engaged?
Emotional Engagement – how did the entry make you feel?
Lasting Impression – Are you still thinking about this entry after a week?

The feedback I got on the prototype so far was very mixed and I’m trying to learn from it what I can.
Of course I’m not a neutral spectator here. But I have decades of storytelling and adventure playing experience and I tried to build *something* that resonated. Something that raised questions and curiosity, like any good story does.

Curiously hardly any of the beforementioned categories appear in the feedback.

The most common feedback was that Oswald, our the main character, walked slowly.
This is a deliberate creative choice. Yet few people understood this.
At the start of the game, Oswald is on his way home through a deserted neighborhood in the near future. He is not the youngest, he is exhausted and the sun is blazing. It’s an exhausting walk for him.
For that sequence I took a low average movement speed of common adventure games. Speedrunners would naturally disapprove. ;)
There were comments complaining about it and at the same time saying it was no problem. So this seems more like a quality-of-life issue and for the sake of what I want to say, not everything has to be about comfort.
That is to say Oswald walks at a regular pace once he is home and out of the burning sun.

The second most common feedback was that the game was sad and the world was bleak. It was even called depressing.
This seems much stronger than I intended it. It’s very subjective and more of what the player brings to the game than otherwise. But shouldn’t it score me points in
atmosphere? Emotional engagement? Lasting impression?
All I really did was show a desert-like landscape with a few buildings and no other people. It can be assumed that there was some kind of natural disaster that caused this.
If that’s sad, bleak and depressing to you, better do something against climate change today rather than tomorrow!
But that’s not what this game is about. It’s certainly not all this is about.
It’s actually a character-driven story, but also about the often quoted human condition.

The third most common feedback was that there was little to do. Yeah, that’s on me. I totally ran out of time. The entry you see was put together in less than two days and I still had to create content during those days.
Yet I still wonder, this is a narrative game. There are great narrative games which are nothing but dialogue. Maybe the point and click interface is confusing people to think this is a Lucasarts-style experience with a variety of items to put a toy store to shame?

In my 2019 project I had the same problem and I reduced the interface to make it easier to grasp. I’m beginning to think it’s the context of AdvJam that makes people think of those classic adventures, despite a lot of entries being narrative games and the rules being at least very open to those.

Jam backlog angst; Just plow through
For the state of the internet in 2021 the community is great. There was no flaming, no name-calling. However in a lot of comments I read about tight play schedules or being behind schedule. I find that very strange. If this is a chore to you, why are you doing it? Shouldn’t it be fun?
And if not fun per-se shouldn’t it be educational from a developer point of view?
After all it’s free. Entertainment, if not a free lesson of how to do or not do things.

Fellow developers put many hours of their hard work into the sapling of a game.
Judgement of an entry has no value, if it doesn’t suggest how to improve it. Or if you didn’t even take the time to consider what the developer tried to say. Besides what you may not enjoy, others may very well do.
Shouldn’t feedback be more constructive and appreciative?
You never know who you end up working with at some point or who creates the next inspiring game. The adventure scene is not that big.

Feedback
I’m wondering how representative any of this feedback is in terms of a genuine playthrough like that of a curious player.
Of course I can just go by the tip of the iceberg, the comments on social media which are often little help and more often done out of self interest. Whatever that may be.

For years I have supported developers in the retro and indie game scene and helped them make or improve their games. I do not comment unless I have something helpful to contribute to my peers.

A streamer and fellow AdvJammer who goes by the name of Jagger has made a very nice and wholesome video of my game. It’s in German and you can find it here.
I would have loved to see and hear more of this nature.
He had no context of the game beforehand. Which means, I should probably have included a short pitch text and a rundown of the controls.
It didn’t take him long to explore the game, but he didn’t use the examine-function at all (right mouse button). The cursor changes its outline when you can interact with something. Some objects were overlooked, so maybe this needs to be more obvious.

I get the feeling he was very open to the experience and he was curious. But despite best intentions he went through the game more quickly than a regular player I would expect. (As he is a streamer, I can understand this approach, though.)

What I really love about this video is how appreciative he is and how he asks questions the game raises for him. That’s what good storytelling starts with and it’s exactly what I intended.
He says the game has a philosophical feel to it.
In a comment he wrote further (translated):

I fear that this project is misunderstood.
For example, it was criticised that the character walks too slowly. I think the pace is perfect. Just right for what you want to show.
In the end it becomes clear that this is not a 14-day project and the potential comes out.
Thank you for the mood conveyed and the food for thought.

To me this is very encouraging. He gets what I was going for.
Thank you for that, Jagger.

That concludes my retrospective.
Thank you so much for being on this journey.