Project: Catopia.
The ecosystem was that of a wild cat family, and the mechanics worked together to create a system that is cyclic and has many interdependencies between cats. The sort of fun/ play it affords is probably abnegation, because of the (potentially) infinite nature, cute theme, and easy difficulty.
I learned a lot from working on a (slightly more involved) digital system with a team within three weeks, specifically about how I like to collaborate and organize. While we were developing, we made a lot of design/code choices that would allow us to scale our system easily in the future, and work modularly, which took a lot of extra effort. I think all that extra work will pay off in P4; I’m pretty proud of what we produced. Cats, befriend levels, Abilities, and events are implemented such that we can continue to add many more, with ease. We also used a Notion kanban to delegate tasks and keep track of our work. This project may have helped me realize that I have heavily masked ADHD because I kept insisting that all verbal information be written down.
I felt really satisfied to watch players actually have fun with this system, and treat it like a toy that they could hack or break. It’s the first time somebody has tried to take advantage and discover new play methods for a system I created! As someone who doesn’t play games, I don’t consider myself a gamer, a game designer, or a game developer, but this time I definitely made a game.
The two mechanics I enjoyed the most in this game are: the Ability mechanic, and the “keeping a cat upon dying” mechanic. I found that these two allowed for more play, and more possibilities more interesting choices. I hope to refine my sense for game mechanics. I also hope to continue to make my voice heard in group efforts, and take responsibility for planning, organization, and keeping people on the same page, even if only for my own sanity. I shall continue to be obsessive about written communication. (Most of all I hope to get an ADHD diagnosis 🤪)
