Creation Year: June

Despite a family vacation in the middle of the month, I've been able to get quite a lot accomplished.  A welcome respite from the last few months of spinning my wheels.

Spring is complete.  Summer is complete.  That just leaves two more micro-games and Seasons will be done(ish).  To be honest, I'm already reconsidering Summer and Fall.  But I knew that if I spent all summer thinking about the design, it would never get done.  Better something less awesome, but ready for ArtPrize than something well designed but completely theoretical.

The other day, I had a frustrating experience.  I finished Summer on Wednesday, but then realized I hated it.  The more I consider this piece, the more I am impressed by the following realities:

1. Seasons will be installed in a loud bar with plenty of other distractions. 
2. I am requiring something more from my audience than just to look, shrug, and move on to the next thing.
3. Players will not have time to spend more than a few minutes at my piece.

These realities are affecting my design more and more.  Because of them, it means that the player doesn't have time to be confused.  Goals must be clear and feedback immediate.  If I were to make some sort of meta-game that spans all four seasons, the rules would have to be explained ahead of time, but (1) and (3) limit the potential of them reading and understanding them. 

Most art games (that I love, at least) require a few play-throughs to really understand well.  I think of the many students I've watched play Passage  for the first time only to keep walking straight across the screen without exploring the maze beneath.  And that was in class!  My players won't have half that focus, probably.

So I went back and tweaked Summer, changing some rules and adding a few.  Thankfully, it was easy enough.  After playing Spring and Summer with some real-life (instead of testing) numbers, it's playing much better.


Very soon, I'll have a new website to launch.  You'll be able to play the demos there.