Cosmixology Post Mortem

Post Mortem

Making the Game

In brainstorming what we wanted to do for our capstone project, we were conscious of the fact that we had many writers on our team, and not many programmers. With this in mind, we focused on more narrative heavy game concepts. A very early idea that intrigued and amused the whole group was a dating simulator where you date planet heads - that is, characters with planets for heads.

In trying to flesh it out more, we decided two things: 1) If we're dating planets, it should be in space somewhere, and 2) We wanted more mechanics than the traditional visual novel style of dating sims. Eventually, we decided to have it set in a lounge and bar in space, and the player would work as a bartender-in-training, thus introducing a mixology mechanic.

As a writer, my task from there was to work with the other writers to flesh out a story and develop the characters personalities. We split the work so that different writers working on different routes.

Once we knew what we needed for the game, we made a team trello, as well as spreadsheets to track different events, art assets, audio assets, et cetera.

In doing the writing for my given character, I was sure to update my team on any progress or setbacks, as well as regularly checking my writing against the other writers' to ensure the tone of the player character was consistent.

We conducted a playtest with the introduction of one of the romanceable characters and the first mixing minigame. We were able to conclude that players liked the characters and were interested in mixing, but they generally didn't understand how the mixing worked. We refined the mixing game a bit and tried to make the different ingredients and what they did more clear.

Once the various events for all of the demo characters was completed, we combined everything in Unity using Bolt. We had to do a bit more proofreading and tweaking, but once that was done, our demo was playable and ready to go.

What Worked

Very early on in the development of Cosmixology, we had a very clear idea of the type of humor we wanted to apply, as well as the overall vibe that we wanted the game to have. It helped to give me and the other writers a guideline to follow to ensure that the tone remained consistent.

We were also very good about communicating with each other. At the start of every week, we had a meeting to discuss our plans for the week, and ask/answer any questions we had, as well as generally sharing any thoughts. We also had meetings at the end of every week to confirm the progress we had made, confirm any upcoming dates (deadlines, playtesting sessions, presentations, etc), and again, share any thoughts or questions that had come up during the week. We also updated each other when a task was completed. The thorough communication helped us all to stay on track, understand what everyone was doing, address any concerns, and generally keep ourselves and each other motivated.

What Didn't Work

We really should have playtested more. We were using software which we were all fairly new at, which made progress slow and clumsy at times. We were concerned that we didn't have enough new content at various times, or that the build was broken, and ultimately, we were really only able to playtest with players outside of the team once.

Results

Though I do wish we had been able to get more feedback, I am proud of the final product, especially from a writing perspective. I think we succeeded in creating an interesting story with a consistent player voice. I also do feel that we succeeded in appealing to our target audience, judging by reactions we go whenever we presented the game.

The demo is available to play for free here.