Intro:
Over the Counter is a game centered around operating as a shopkeeper in a potion shop, and the troubles that come with it. Though being centered in a magical world, the player discovers (through the interaction with their boss and customers) that service jobs are still just as tedious, grating, and disrespected as in our own world.
The game hopes to draw empathy towards customer service workers, highlighting how they can often work in unfair and frustrating work environments with expectations that wouldn’t be seen in other lines of work. The protagonist brings with them a series of hopes and expectations, that help to further personify this unfair experience.
I hope to target an audience of young-adults and adults who enjoy narrative-driven stories, and live in areas where interacting with service workers is common (i.e., does not live on a rural farm). Because so many of us work or interact with service workers on a daily basis, I feel the intended audience is decently wide!
Choice Map:
Overview and Ideation:
Over the Counter originally started with a similar, but rather different premise to its final one. On initial ideation, I couldn’t help but get lost in the story and struggle of an entirely non-magical individual trying to live in a magical world. I first wanted the game to be about a non-magical individual who owned and operated a magic shop – but couldn’t tell others about their lack of magic for a host of reasons (shame, discrimination, legal issues with selling magic goods if you’re not magic, etc.). I liked this struggle and the large possibility space for exploring the narrative. With this in mind, I ideated rising actions and falling actions, struggles, arcs, etc. I listened to music to help try and hone in on the exact theme, and recorded songs that I thought would spice up certain arcs. Overall, I hoped to follow the MDA-O structure from a top-down level, building an aesthetic to support the outcome of the player feeling empathy towards the protagonist – and from there ideating on the dynamics and mechanics to support this emotional response.
During this process, I realized that the benefits of sound and visuals would be critical to the story. How I saw it in my head was like that of a visual novel. This being my first virtual game, however, I understood that jumping to something like Ren’Py would require a good amount of practice and tutorial work – and so I spent a decent chunk of time initially going through all these resources to familiarize myself. My early Ren’Py prototypes proved very basic, having essentially only one unique background, one character sprite, and one text formatting setting used so to simply make sure the process of doing those was well-established. Placeholders would be used for the rest of the characters and backgrounds until the more important parts were fleshed out.
As will be seen in the “Iteration History” section, the game does make a major pivot from its above, initially conceived theme, to incorporate greater elements of empathy for the player to relate to. This pivot similarly focused on an “Outcome” (one more congruent with the assignment this time!), and worked downwards from there. With the same core mechanics in place (dialogue and choices with characters to interact with), the dynamics only shifted slightly (impacts of choice and dialogue evolution) so to target more fitting emotions (relation with customer service, dealing with expectations of ones self especially in the eyes of others, etc.).
Playtest and Iteration History:
The game’s first playtests followed its original theme, hoping to flesh out how well the player interacted with the initial narrative idea. However, as importantly (as it would carry through past the pivot!), early prototyping aimed to test that Ren’Py as a platform was working for me, and that I could – as an author and designer – convey my narrative will through the medium. With an initial program developed, even though it only had “one of each” for each asset I planned to use, I began playtesting.
Playtest 1:
With a single narrative arc (talking to a hypochondriac customer) entirely dialogued out, now with respective choices that flagged variables and influenced further choices, I felt comfortable attempting my first playtest. Since the game would ultimately revolve around the player’s experiences interacting with others, I wanted to see if the game seemed cohesive enough to express a character’s voice, and gauge the impact the player would feel by interacting with said character.
This playtest was completed by a fellow game-design student in class who has played Ren’Py visual novels before. This person is indeed in my target demographic! Overall, it was very rewarding to see the game being used and read in the way I had designed! The player very comfortably was able to navigate the controls and understand the presentation of information. Advancement through dialogue, grappling with choices, and overall “playing” seemed smooth – though of course needing final polish. This is one benefit of using Ren’Py!
The playtester also noted that, though only one character could be interacted with, the character’s voice was very apparent through their dialogue and interaction. The player felt immersed in the dialogue – and while there wasn’t enough to flesh out the whole idea of the game – they could see it being done so in a very engaging way through this and other character interaction. They did note, however, that while the minimal interaction was engaging, there was not much that provided intense moments of empathy between the player and protagonist. The story should perhaps be changed so to have moments or a climax that builds meaningfully empathetic moments.
This motivated the following changes and next steps:
- Fleshing out an empathy-rich climax
- Writing out more dialogue and choices
- Plan out a second arc of more abusive customers
- The otherwise priorly planned continuation of story and dialogue (lots of writing in Ren’Py! So this was split into sections)
The Big Pivot:
Taking this feedback to heart, I was concerned about how able this game was to build empathy for its protagonist. While I could lay out the story-rich moments, the arcs, the rising and falling actions, etc., I seemed to struggle with pointing out exact “empathetic” moments. Bringing this up to a member of the teaching team – and playing through Talking to my Dad to see empathy in action – I realized the game’s premise may be flawed at its core. The narrative and struggle would need to be changed so to better target these empathetic moments.
From here, I restructured and rescoped. The game was now no longer about the narrative unfoldings of a secretly non-magic shopkeeper. I would instead target the idea of empathizing with the difficulties of service-work, especially in a world that increasingly devalues service-workers as though they are “below” the customer when working. This could be personified with additional empathetic struggles, such as the protagonist would be eager and excited to initially have their job, but that appreciation would be entirely unseen by others – and that the protagonist would have additional, personal motivations for wanting a job that everyone else seem to want to devalue.
I rewrote the story, and cut out a second unnecessary arc. Just as my first playtest targeted if the game could be played mechanically, the next playtest would need to see if the game’s new empathetic elements could be seen – at least from a very high level!
Playtest 2:
My next playtest was completed by another game-designer in class (a common theme), though this one did not have as much experience with visual novels. Still, this person is indeed in my target demographic.
Areas added/redone since the last playtest, based on feedback:
- Story completely rewritten!
- New dialogue, new choices, new structure
Funnily enough after these pivotal changes (or I suppose rather unsurprisingly), the game seemed to rank higher for empathetic themes, but now needed more narrative completeness. The playtester noted that they were able to empathize with the negative experiences of customer service work and being treated poorly – especially when having to do a service where you deal with someone who is difficult. However, some story elements that were put in subtly appeared too confusing or imperceivable by the player, rendering the narrative confusing at times, and hurting potential for empathy building. Finally, the player found parts that switched between parts where I had player-controlled dialogue advancement (the usual game) and forced dialogue advancement (during important moments) seemed a bit mechanically jarring.
This motivated the following changes and next steps:
- Provide more explicit narrative info, especially in dialogue. I realize that this is the source of most all of my narrative elements – and so I need to meaningful incorporate the principles of “Enacting Narrative” into this.
- Do not hide lore info (unless entirely unimportant) behind narrative paths that the player may not go down.
- Streamline the dialogue advancement process.
- Overall, target a narrative and structure the game around supporting that idea, even if it isn’t giant in scope.
Playtest 3:
This playtest was graciously performed by a member of the teaching team (with observer), and I received fantastic feedback on narrative, mechanical, and assignment-specific elements! It was very helpful to be able to get a more experienced perspective to help guide design thinking and critique. As expected, this person is indeed in my target demographic.
Areas added/redone since the last playtest, based on feedback:
- Story further fleshed out. More characters added. More choices added. Choices carry on to influence other dialogue.
- Narrative advancement streamlined. Less interruption and more consistent dialogue advancement.
- Animations of placeholders completed.
- Two more scenes/locations added, with high empathy/narrative elements to tie story together! (gravesite and sake)
It was nice to hear that the empathetic goal was similarly achieved, with the playtester connecting with the apothecary as they work a “hard job with a bad boss, bad customers”, etc. With more characters, the player felt there was a wider breadth of interaction than I saw in previous playtests, noting that the contrast in “good” and “bad” customers help to personify the setting and theme. While the addition of the gravesite/explicitly seeing the father created a deeper empathetic tie, the playtester also noted that it also led to the story feeling like it reached a climax and ended too fast. Additionally, while the story had been broadened, some essential lore elements still seemed unclear to the player (protagonist background, motivations, etc.) were missing.
This was very helpful to me, as I worried in prior iterations that things would be too obvious if laid out more explicitly – and seeing it played through and pondered on helped me see that it could be a lot more explicit.
This motivated the following changes and next steps:
- Plan out the ending better
- A scene beyond the ending, vs additional dialogue/fleshing out the climax in that space
- An intro to give more information about the player’s background and potential motivation
- Further dialogue to advance the goal of fleshing out tension between finding/keeping job, and father issues. Essentially, expounding upon empathetic elements
Playtest 4:
This playtest was completed by a player also creating a Ren’Py project, so it was very helpful to receive more technical feedback/feedback relevant to the platform! Having a similar general background to my other playtesters, this person is in my target demographic.
Areas added/redone since the last playtest, based on feedback:
- An intro with text, and moments of internal dialogue
- Additional dialogue and choices to establish context
Experienced Ren’Py playtester.
With further dialogue, this playtester immediately recognized the boss as controlling – and along with the myriad of customer complaints and challenges, the themes of difficult customer service work were well-seen. However, despite the addition of the internal dialogue, the player still noted that the world did not seem very magical for a magical world, and that the space could be further fleshed out. The playtester echoed the same feedback that more explicit mentioning of these facts and feelings would be helpful. On more technical notes, I got good feedback on how text alignment should be better (and how), and was reminded that sound and visual assets will serve as an important part of the game – and thus I need to implement them!
This motivated the following changes and next steps:
- Very explicit mentioning of lore details! More intro, more dialogue, more monologue. Give the player more.
- Gather assets for sounds and visuals, and ensure they are cohesive.
Playtest 5: Final Playtest
While this is the final playtest, I did have some mini-plays and advice sessions between these two playtests. They helped to ensure that new features were working as intended (such as audio voice blips!), and that new lore elements seemed cohesive.
My final playtest was graciously completed by another fellow Ren’Py creator and game designer! This person is indeed in my target demographic.
Prior to the final playtest, I implemented a lot of polish and features based on feedback, such as :
- A more expansive, lore-rich intro
- A post-grave scene! With important game choice!
- Expanded scenes, in every scene. More grave dialogue. More boss hate. More father lore by customers. More internal monologue expressing feeling after something meaningful is said to player. Overall, more explicitness.
- Assets!!
- Sounds! Doors creaking, rain noises, door chimes, birds chirping
- Vocals! Unique voice blips for each character, hand-coded to match intonation and vocal pauses
- Sprites! Multiple sprites for each character, complete with different facial expressions that change during dialogue.
- Title screen
- More polished animations
I was very excited to see this game in action, with all of its polish and work! It’s very rewarding to see a game finally come together. Compared to prior playtests, the player was much more immersed. Assets and vocals really helped! I could really see the principles of “Evocative Spaces” in action. That is, the players had a much wider breadth of lore because of the additional information they already know and recognize from the space, characters, tones of voice, etc.! Additionally, the inclusion of more explicit lore elements did not seem to “spoil” any story, and rather increased interest and immersion! The player finally seemed to very intuitively understand both the empathetic themes of the story, and enjoy the narrative arc that carried it simultaneously.
Moving forward, I am inspired to continue adding more explicit lore elements and increasing the duration of the experience. More customers and more interaction will help to make it feel like more than just a chapter. More choices, evening ones that aren’t super meaningful, can additionally help to make it feel like a more involved experience (a note by the playtester).
Final Playtest: video
(Please note, while the microphone picks up the player’s notes well, it fails to pick up most of the vocal blips and other game audio and SFX. Please refer to the actual game for that!)
Important Timestamps:
0:30 – The player has immediate positive interaction to the vocal blips/sound effects.
0:59 – “Immersive” – Intro now has enough lore!
4:33 – Player understands this job was father’s job, and has connection.
5:20 – (relates to prior timestamp) Remembers prior lore and mentions father, showing connection!
6:02 – Player notes on prior choice, addressing core theme of the game (“I should be able to do the job I love!”).
6:39 – Empathizing with jobs in customer service, immersed.
6:58 – Positive feedback on good text spacing (“yapping in real time!”).
7:56 – “I’m going to be a good customer service representative!” – Important, because I never said that struggle explicitly, so empathizing!
8:32 – Player likes funny text. Sizing and spacing working well!
9:18 – “That’s the option I’ve been looking for!”
12:04 – “I need to be documenting this conversation” – Noting that protagonist shouldn’t be abused as worker. Core theme.
15:05 – Introspection on what father would want of protagonist – important theme!
16:30 – What did you empathize with? “Hard that person wants this job, but system doesn’t let people have it” (devalues it).
17:12 – “I feel for these people who work in retail.” – Core theme!
17:50 – Player notes tension between wanting to honor father’s legacy, but tragic that that is at odds with what is feasible real job. Real struggle with what exists in life.
18:55 – Player recognizing high-level theme of dealing with preconceived expectations, that is communicated through story.
Reflection:
Overall, this was a tremendously rewarding and educational experience for me! As my first digital game, this was the first time I ever used an engine to try and create something fun – none-the-less with emotional impact and meaning! The most important storytelling item that I learned was that, what seems obvious to me is not necessarily so to the player – and giving information doesn’t stifle, it creates intrigue and more questions!
It was very educational to see how to use a game engine, and how to navigate the resources to learn such. To say the obvious, I now feel more comfortable programming in Ren’Py and actualizing on an idea with it! Learning my next engine will feel like less of a daunting challenge, and I know I’ll be able to scope things better because of this experience. Next time, I would like to spend more time planning things out and prototyping in my engine of choice – which was difficult due to the time constraints. Overall, it was so wonderful to be able to see a thought become a meaningful digital product – and to see its impact on those who played it!
And Finally… the Game!
(default password, as discussed)
Acknowledgements:
AI was not used in this project! Except for some coding help with larger Python functions that threw errors – I even disabled CoPilot in VSCode!
All audio game from Mixkit.co
Voice blips were taken and modified from FriedSpin: https://friedspin.itch.io/dialogue-blip-sfx-lite-12
I found the back shoproom image on Pinterest at: https://nz.pinterest.com/pin/1134344224961097707/
I found the gravesite as an anime wallpaper at: https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=867618#google_vignette
I used several of Sutemo’s sprite packs at: https://sutemo.itch.io/
The front art was taken from Simone Ferriero at: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1319281222368803&set=a.714325189531079
