404: Fall Not Found
DESCRIPTION
In this tongue-in-cheek meta-game loosely inspired by There is No Game, a developer partaking in a game jam decides to delete his project and start over. After a narrow escape, the player character asset ventures to the Recycle Bin to restore his fellow assets and submit the project to the jam.
Developed for the Cozy Fall Jam 2023. It ended up ranking 12th out of nearly 200 entries total.
MY ROLES
Game Design
Map Design
Programming
Narrative/Writing
GENRE
Meta-Adventure
TEAM SIZE
5 (Originally 6 but one member was unable to participate)
JAM DURATION
3 days
Core Concept
When the theme for the jam ('less is more') was revealed, my team spent approximately 2 hours brainstorming ideas, coming up with around six in total. However, none of them could easily be designed to fit the theme. As a joke, I pitched the idea of submitting an empty project titled 'Less is More'. However, this ended up creating a spark and quickly led to the development of a brand new core concept that resonated more with the team than any of our previous ideas. Our new idea was a meta-game which breaks the fourth wall at every turn. The biggest inspiration for our new core concept was There is No Game, from which we borrowed much of our game's sense of humour.
For the gameplay, we decided that the player should traverse the labyrinthian Recycle Bin, where all the project's assets had been banished. To begin with, there is no music or audio, and everything from the walls, floor, and even the user interface is replaced with white 'file not found' placeholders. Each time a new asset is found, it returns to its place in the environment which is slowly restored overtime.
My Contributions
Although our team was large, I ended up wearing many different hats for this project. First and foremost, I knew I would be designing the gameplay. When our core concept was finalised, I decided not to focus too heavily on the gameplay as there were many other tasks for me as well, and also because we already had a solid and entertaining premise that we were confident players would appreciate. While I had originally wanted the game to be a platformer, I changed it into a top-down RPG-style game as it would be much easier given everything else I had to juggle. I also chose for the map to be a large maze, which it took me around two hours to fully design.
Another key contribution of mine was the narrative and script writing, which I mostly did independently. While the team had mutually agreed on a rough idea of the narrative, I went on to make my own adjustments in order to make the plot more cohesive and easier for players to understand.
Finally, I planned to co-program the game with two other team members. However, one was unexpectedly absent for the whole development process, later apologising and explaining their inability to take part in the project. As a result, I covered for them and ended up doing a large portion of the coding and other in-engine work myself. This was the main obstacle I encountered in this project and caused me some stress, but I was thankfully able to overcome it and finish the job.
Post-Mortem
This game ended up ranking 12th among nearly 200 entries to the jam in total, scoring consistently well in all three categories (Cozy Autumn Vibes, Presentation, and Fun), which I consider an excellent achievement.
I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project in spite of some factors such as stress. I believe one main thing that enhanced my enjoyment was the fact that I was working with a team which were all on the same page with regard to the core of the experience we intended to deliver.
While the game in its final form may lack replay value, given the appeal of its writing and story do wear off with each repeat playthrough, we knew that wouldn't matter too much for a jam submission such as this which people would rarely play more than once anyway.
The overall experience of working on this project taught me many things, one of which is the importance of being open to the ideas of your teammates, even in areas you specialise in more. Though I was the sole game designer involved in the development, there was plenty of input concerning the premise and story from just about the whole team: from the artists to the composer. I even had to scrap several of my own ideas in favour of those the rest of the team were clearly enthusiastic about. I think the ability to swallow one's pride and recognise you are not the only one with a creative vision is a valuable one when working in a team. In the case of this project, compromise on my part turned out to be the right call for several reasons. It allowed my teammates to feel like they were contributing more than if my ideas had won out, which also helped them to work more effectively and in unison. In addition, I myself benefitted from yielding to the meta-game concept, as much like There is No Game or Baba is You, it was an idea that practically designed itself.
On the topic of teamwork, I made sure to give credit to those I was working with wherever it was due. Although my contributions were significant, I also had to make sure I did not take my teammates for granted and recognised their part in the outcome as well.
One last thing I learned was that the presentation of a game can go a long way in elevating the overall experience. Although the gameplay was less than substantial, the game still ranked in the top 20 in the Fun category.