Checkpoint 1: Individual Assignment

Moodboard:

Spotify Playlist Link:

Three Directions: 

Game 1: College Stories

A Collaborative Episodic Storytelling Game

Concept

College Stories is a multiplayer, collaborative storytelling game where 2–4 players collectively author the story of a shared college experience. Each session represents one “episode” — a week in a character’s college life (e.g., Week Before Finals, Freshman Orientation, The Internship Rejection). Players take turns playing as either the protagonist or the world (i.e., the people and circumstances around them), improvising decisions, consequences, and plot twists together using a hand of narrative prompt cards. At the end of each episode, the group votes on a Story Beat card that becomes a permanent, canon part of the character’s college arc, shaping what episodes come next. The game ends at graduation, where all the Story Beats are read aloud in sequence — revealing the kind of person the protagonist became.

Unlike solo choice-based narrative games, College Stories is built around collective authorship. No single player controls the story; meaning is constructed socially, making each playthrough unique.

Kinds of Fun (MDA Framework)

1. Narrative: The core loop is driven by storytelling — every card played advances a dramatic arc with emotional stakes.
2. Fellowship: The multiplayer structure creates shared laughter, debate, and emotional investment in a story everyone helped build.
3. Expression: Players are able to express their own values and humour through the choices they make on behalf of the protagonist.

Narrative Approach

1. Emergent Narrative: The story is not pre-written; it emerges organically from the interplay of player decisions and the cards drawn. 
2. Episodic Structure: Borrowed from serial storytelling (like a TV drama), each session is a self-contained episode with its own plot, but all episodes contribute to a larger character journey.

Game 2: Survive the Semester

A Survival Game Set in College

Concept

Survive the Semester is a single-player almost ‘roguelike’ where each run represents one college day. You wake up Monday morning as a student with a set of limited stats, such as Energy, Focus, Social Battery, and GPA Points, and you must navigate a procedurally generated gauntlet of daily obstacles: a surprise quiz you forgot about, a group project partner who ghosts you, a dining hall with a 40-minute line, and a 2 AM fire drill the night before an exam.

Each obstacle presents a fast decision (fight, adapt, or dodge), and every choice drains one or more of your stats. If any stat hits zero, the day ends in a “crash” — but unlike traditional survival games, you don’t lose. Instead, you carry your scars forward into the next day, which stacks and escalates the difficulty. The run ends Friday. The goal is simply to still be standing.

You can also unlock “Coping Skills” (e.g., “Coffee Dependency,” “Stress Baking,” “Power Napper”) between and during runs, which can act as power ups. 

Kinds of Fun (MDA Framework)

1. Challenge: The escalating difficulty and stat management create a satisfying test of prioritization under pressure.
2. Discovery: Procedural generation ensures each run surfaces new obstacle combinations; players discover new coping strategies over time.
3. Submission: The pick-up-and-play loop (one run = one school day) makes it easy to play in short bursts; should feel like a casual but engaging experience. 

Narrative Approach

1. Emergent Narrative: There is no scripted story; the narrative is constructed entirely from each run. A player who burned out Wednesday after a bad quiz and survived on coffee has their own story to tell.
2. Environmental/Systemic Storytelling: The world communicates story through systems (stat depletion, debuff names, obstacle flavor text) rather than cutscenes or dialogue, keeping the pace fast and immersive. 

Game 3: Campus Rush

Simulation Game in the Style of Diner Dash

Concept

Campus Rush is a single-player real-time simulation game where you play as a student juggling multiple overlapping “stations” of university life simultaneously, all on one screen. I was thinking of something like Diner Dash, but instead of customers and cupcakes, your stations are the recurring tasks of student life:

• The Study Desk — Answer flashcard questions correctly before the timer runs out (mini-quiz mechanic)
• The Laptop — Reply to emails from professors and group members before they escalate
• The Kitchen — Prep simple meals during short windows to maintain your energy stat
• The Bed — Strategically take power naps (timed, risk/reward mechanic — sleep too long and you miss class)
• The Door — Friends knock with social events; accepting helps your Social Battery but costs time

Each in-game week is a level. As the semester progresses, more stations unlock and the pace accelerates. The game ends at Finals Week: a boss-level sequence where all stations demand attention at once. There is a light narrative layer runs beneath: short, funny story vignettes play between levels, revealing your character’s evolving college experience based on which stations you prioritized.

Kinds of Fun (MDA Framework)

1. Sensation: The colorful, busy UI and satisfying feedback loops (a “ding” when you finish an assignment, a cozy animation when you nap) deliver constant moment-to-moment sensory pleasure.
2. Challenge: The accelerating pace and multi-station juggling create a progressively harder test of multitasking and quick decision-making.
3. Narrative: The vignettes between levels give the player a sense of a character with a growing story, even within an arcade format.

Narrative Approach

1. Emergent Narrative: Depending on the choices of the character, the story of whether the character survives the campus rush will be determined.
2. Environmental Storytelling: The character’s room and stations visually evolve over the semester (more clutter, motivational posters appearing, a growing cup collection) to reflect the passage of time and the player’s choices.