First off, this was such a fun experience! I’m really happy with how Stayin’ Alive turned out. I think it offers a sense of discovery, challenge, and submission. Many times while playing just to playtest, I found myself locking in to try and reach MVP. This also happened to a lot of our playtesters. For example, after I had my friend Angela playtest, I was shown this:
[Image of Angela playing 2 hrs after our playtest, showing that our game has real potential! ]
Looking back at where we started versus where we ended is really wild and really shows the power of playtesting and iteration. I can sometimes get really fixated on certain designs or ideas (such as our first pathing by dragging arrows mechanic), but playtesting really helped me break out of that. It was especially important for this game because there were so many tiny system interactions to balance: making sure animals weren’t dying off too fast, that they had enough food, that they interacted with each other enough but not too much, that the whole population didn’t collapse randomly… there were so many considerations, way more than P1 or P2. We had to playtest so many times just to make sure every part of the loop made sense.
Before doing a systems game, I honestly thought “systems” were pretty one-dimensional, like factories or restaurants, and that a game based on one would feel similarly simple. I was surprised to realize how many interesting dynamics show up in more complex systems, like gentrification in Not on My Block or building a band. I underestimated how much this experience would change how I look at the world, because now whenever I see the most random things (namely, Diego the Galápagos tortoise) I’m like “oh that would’ve been a cool system game.”
One of my favorite parts of the entire project was getting to draw all the assets. Thinking about the visual style and how the overall vibe of the game would feel was incredibly fun. I got to practice animating by drawing different frames for the animals, which was surprisingly satisfying. I also fell down so many rabbit holes researching animals and learned way too much about different levels of endangerment, habitats, and even species that aren’t native to the U.S. like the English hedgehog. I drew a bunch of creatures we didn’t even end up using, but watching the Southern California ecosystem slowly come to life on screen was one of the highlights of this process!
And I have to say, I’m so in awe of my team. Every time someone pushed new code, it felt like opening a blind box to see what new feature or fix would suddenly come to life in the game. It was so cool seeing everyone working in their element and watching the whole game and system grow piece by piece.
