[SA Game Jam 2017] Collecting Regrets (WT) 72 Hour Jam

Comments

• Sean_Goncalves

  4:24pm 3 Sep 2017

  Why the 72 hours?
  
  So it seems we may be one of the only teams taking up the offer for the 72 hour extension, we didn't intend to but we're really glad that the option is there or we'd be releasing/not releasing a product we weren't completely happy with; and that'd be a shame as I haven't been this excited about a concept for something I'm making in a good while.
  
  Originally @Karuji and myself weren't planning on jamming; but after theme was announced and we'd been chatting for a while we thought we may have had a pretty neat idea the only downside was/is that it is very heavily narrative dependent and neither of us are exactly writers so that was an issue we needed to address, we tried to get a writer to join our team early on the Saturday morning but unfortunately Romeo being an Honours student and not planning on jamming either had other Varsity related commitments and said he'd only be able to help out possibly Sunday or Monday for very brief amounts of time.
  
  So we said we'd keep that in mind but we wanted to try and see how far we'd get in the 48 hours and as such I took on the responsibility of writer as well as other roles and as I'm not proficient in writing, it was tough getting stuff down especially considering we wanted a branching narrative with player choice impacting the story they are given, It was a tough task to handle but I got about at least half of the narrative arcs done and some of the art assets to accompany it, and @Karuji killed the programming and systems; they're all ready they might just need some refinements.
  
  But yeah if we released the game at the 48 hour mark we don't think it'd represent the concept effectively enough so we're taking the extra time to ensure that everything is done right Romeo is currently rewriting/editing what I had already written and finishing off the remaining story arcs, I'll be focusing more on asset production ensuring i keep to a similar standard to the assets I have already produced and the extra time will allow for that and Julian will be helping with implementation and bug fixing where needed.
  
  So yeah we're really excited to show you all what we've got and also well done to all the other Jammers there's some really cool stuff going up and I'm super keen to play some of them when I get the chance.
• Karuji

  5:34pm 4 Sep 2017 edited 6:14pm 4 Sep 2017

  Cutting it close, but there is a playable build :)
  
  (Currently only windows, but wanted to make sure that was playable before I try and do the other OSs)
  
  https://karuji.itch.io/collectingregretsjam
  
  
  
  Edit: Did a hotfix since some of the story paths were breaking, also uploaded builds for the other OSs
  
  Edit2: Changed the itch url since the team seemed rather keen to work on the game more, and this way there is a definite "this is the jam version" if there is later iterations that happen.

  

  

  CollectingRegretsCover.png

  1920 x 1080 - 862K

  Thanked by 1kirsty_lee0
• japiegreeff

  6:17am 5 Sep 2017

  Wish I could have been there to share ideas - I was totally in the mindspace as you!
  
  It looks really awesome guys! The whole branching thing really works as well for the theme. For that sort of thing I think it also really works when you have things far down the line impacting the story later down (so something like until dawn). I think this is something that really could have post-jam legs.

  Thanked by 1Sean_Goncalves
• Sean_Goncalves

  1:32pm 5 Sep 2017

  @japiegreeff Thanks man yeah, that really was the biggest hurdle in trying to make a game like this for the Jam; finding the right balance of content and length vs how much time we actually had to get everything done, so hopefully there was enough here for it to have the right kind of impact we were looking for. And yeah definitely we all seem pretty keen on taking it further, and there's definitely some things we need to fix in this build but we just need to find some time for us to all work on it. But really glad you enjoyed it :D and thanks for playing.
• EvangaLa

  1:52pm 5 Sep 2017

  Like the different story arcs and endings. nice. Art is cool!

  Thanked by 1Sean_Goncalves
• SleepingSafari

  9:43pm 5 Sep 2017

  Gave this a go and really liked it. Interesting take on the theme!
  
  The art was cool, the design clean and easily digestible, and the story had some good moments. Branching narrative was also handled well :)
  
  Liked the way you introduced the gender choice (via clothing) and that it also didn't force you to choose the opposite sex in the following section. None of it denotes specific gender. Very conscious game design.
  
  Saw that you had to tap twice to confirm decisions. Think a single tap would work better and add more weight to your decisions. Also, for a game with such a sombre title, the story felt quite positive (maybe it was just my playthrough though). Think it would be cool if the story had a bit more negative repercussions, the would reflect the idea of "regrets" more.
  
  Found a few grammar mistakes, obviously just have to watch out for that in text driven games ;)
  
  Enjoyed this entry!
  
  

  Thanked by 2Sean_Goncalves Karuji
• Sean_Goncalves

  5:39pm 6 Sep 2017

  @EvangaLA glad you enjoyed it :) and thank you for your kind words
  
  @SleepingSafari Glad you enjoyed it as well
  
  Yeah we spent quite a bit of our time developing the basics of our narrative and looking at ways in which to construct the questions as to make the game as immersive and inclusive as possible. So glad that you picked up on it :)
  
  And yeah the double tap was something we implemented especially for the earlier questions so that players didn't unintentionally choose the wrong card by mistake, but I definitely get what you're saying with the single tap; I'll add to the list of things to test going forward maybe we can have other kinds of questions where only a single tap is needed or so on. but it'd definitely add more weight to some decisions.
  
  We had so much content that we wanted to get into the game but unfortunately we had to make some cuts and the playthrough you got was probably one of the I think two better paths but yeah there's definitely some bad ones in there, you were probably just lucky enough to avoid them. but with more time we'll obviously be able to write down and plan all the story arcs and balance them better.
  
  Also with time constraints usually mistakes are inevitable but duly noted thanks :)
  
  Thank you for playing :D

  Thanked by 1SleepingSafari
• EvanGreenwood

  9:09am 7 Sep 2017

  The first time I played this my entire life went "perfectly". I wasn't sure what "collecting regrets" was about.
  
  Tried it a couple more times and saw that other branches had lots of tragedy and difficult choices.
  
  Wish you'd had time to develop the end of the story arcs. I feel like wondering whether we'd made the right choices is more poignant later in life. As it stands the moment of reflection for regret comes quite abruptly.
  
  Also, if you'd had time, it feels like this kind of experience could be made more powerful with the right ambient sounds and music (that cues the mood or gives detail to the scenes).
  
  Though what you've made is really solid.

  Thanked by 2Karuji Sean_Goncalves
• Karuji

  11:27pm 7 Sep 2017

  @SleepingSafari get what you're about choices being instant and not being able to take it back fitting more thematically than being able to change your mind. Thanks!
  
  @EvanGreenwood yeah, decision were going to be a bit more difficult overall as time went on. Unfortunately we kinda pulled the team and the project together in a really ad-hoc manner, and losing power for a couple of hours on Monday didn't help either >_>
  
  But all of us as happy with what we made and want to take it further so hopefully you'll get the 'full' game in the future!

  Thanked by 1SleepingSafari