Finish Your Gamejam! Doin it!

Just doin a little write up, mostly as a shout out to Malt Schlitzmann for writing the foundation for a script for this. 

So here is how it all went down:

1) In January 2022 I asked Malt to write an outline for a script for a Tarot Dating game. I had sent them a little jist of what I had in mind for the game, the general plot, what the characters were like, some little doodles, the general vibe, a mood board, etc. I needed something a little smaller in scope and also fun and less epic feeling to make a game out of so I could practice actually making a game. They got back to me with about 11 pages of branching dialogue (which, if I am honest, was more than I was asking for) and half of it was really really on spot and the rest was not necessarily what I was looking for. I told them I would be cutting it up and editing it to fit into a "gamified" format.

2) During this time I was experimenting a lot with Twine, I had just finished assistant-teaching Twine at a public school camp series so I thought, why not. Unfortunately, I have trouble making twine work in the way that I want image wise, so this project (and another, "Star Driver Pit Stop Boyfriend Fantasy", coming soon!) went on hiatus while I lived my life.

3) After returning to these two projects a few times throughout the year and never quite finding the mechanics or engine I wanted for it, I recently discovered that GBSTUDIO updated their music writer tool to make it more possible. Music being a part of my games is a big part of how I tell a story, so even though GbStudio is my favorite engine to use, I avoided it because of that missing link. This update made it possible again! I am also frankly blown away by how good games in this engine look on a cell phone. This makes a big difference because that is how a lot of people interact with stuff these days. 

4) I actually signed up for the "Finish Your Game Jam" to finish Star Drive Pit Stop Boyfriend Fantasy (coming soon), but then had the urge to practice my pixel art face portraits, and that is where Kenny and Astre resurfaced. I got halfway through Star Drive before getting distracted to Tarot Date, and so now here we are.

5) Going back and printing out Malt's script helped me to find all the spots I really, really liked. And having the distance from what I originally wanted for the game, left room for what was possible for the game while working as a team. I was able to combine my own writing style with Malt's to make something that I think is really special that I don't think either of us could have done on our own.

6) Even though GBSTUDIO is all drag and drop coding, I learned a lot in this process about grouping together code actions to make my life easier later. I also think for the first time I did a good job scoping how large I wanted the project to be, and having it be that at the end, both size wise AND work wise. I was surprised by how soon I got to the "just have to sweep up the loose ends" part of the game dev timeline.

7) super stoked to finish the last few bits for this, and then to finish STAR DRIVER, and then finish a few other projects!