OUR ROOM, FINAL PLAYTEST: BUTCH NASSER
Recorded on Zoom, Oct 31, 2026 (recording length 02:10:47)
Participants: Butch Nasser (playtester, past CS 377G TA) and Noe Chicas-Aranda (designer)

Source: Zoom's automatic audio transcript, copied from the recording page. It is unedited: names, words and speaker labels can be wrong, and some lines are garbled where the recording or audio dropped out. 'Butch (shared audio)' is the audio shared from his computer while he played. Timestamps are hh:mm:ss from the start of the recording.

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[00:00:00] Butch: Get ready for that. Let me F11. One second. Upton. Can I… Not full screens. I should be able to, but I think Zoom might be messing up… messing with things. F11, no!
[00:00:40] Noe: I don't think so, actually. It's something… To give our bread and share loud.
[00:00:45] Butch: Okay.
[00:00:46] Noe: So that's a good node.
[00:00:48] Butch: Yes, I love fullscreen. Okay, Do you have any questions for me before we begin?
[00:01:00] Butch: Alright, sounds good. Do you want me to read out loud or anything, or can I read my mind?
[00:01:06] Noe: Do whatever's comfortable.
[00:01:08] Butch: Okay. We'll see. I'll probably, like, mumble to myself, occasionally. Whatever. Hi, Christina! Well, I don't have headphones, so, oh well. I do have headphones, I just don't have them plugged in. Better be password. There we go. I hope it doesn't… you can type literally anything and it works, but whatever. Frog. Whoops. I had to. I pressed shut down. Okay, let me open the keypad. I love that. Exactly what I wanted, exactly what I expected. Hope that doesn't mess with your,
[00:02:16] Noe: Yeah, it's not occurring, I was hoping it's… Recording the right thing. Yeah.
[00:02:25] Butch: Maybe a confirmation, button. Back we go. I'm gonna try something else. Okay, anything works. That's just as I thought, just as I thought. Okay, settings… Oh, I like that. I like how it's actually in the settings. I love the, integrated UI a lot. fast… As someone with a Windows computer, this fills me with joy. Oh no, it's empty. Okay, great. This is filling, as Christina would say, my voyeuristic needs. To go through a device. This is, like, what I wanted, her story to be. And I am the type of person to literally open all these notes so I don't have to go through it later. this is the intended playing experience, trust.
[00:05:02] Noe: Oh, gosh.
[00:05:06] Butch: I definitely don't need any of the tabs on the left, right? There's Craftopia, which… I'm excited for, but I'll hold off before I open it. I'm literally not even reading these right now, I am, prepping them so I can read them later. Oh my gosh, a diary, that's gonna be a lot. Okay, great. Oh, Okay. Winter break heat. I love the, the embedded storytelling right now, where I can start deducing things, even though I literally haven't done anything else. I'm sharing my screen… Recording… Record video during screen. During screen sharing.
[00:07:28] Noe: Okay, it's not too important for me. But thank you for checking.
[00:07:31] Butch: Shared computer sound… Stereo, high fidelity.
[00:07:35] Noe: There you go, okay. That's regret.
[00:07:46] Butch (shared audio): You can hear, like, my lips now, right? Yeah. In suburban America.
[00:07:54] Butch: Snowman.
[00:07:55] Butch (shared audio): Gotcha. And that was Winter Break 2013. You have everything. I see. Right. I'm… Oh my gosh, it's a tree. Og. Not a problem. I'm using telephone.
[00:10:01] Butch: 13. Wow.
[00:10:09] Noe: Are you still here? Oh, give me a second. Okay, good guy, I'm back.
[00:10:32] Butch (shared audio): We're closed off. No, I can't open my respective bin. All the obstacle. Oh. I'm gonna wait. I look up photos.
[00:10:48] Butch: But that's setting…
[00:10:52] Butch (shared audio): I like how there's multiple accessories, like an actual computer. Very, very… Okay, so photos as camera roll. Different than photos and documents, which is… Navy life. This first, but it's, it's fake reviews. They're not trunking. Exactly what I expect. Let's photos. 50s. Oh. And driving. Just give them an actual flash drive. Which, by the way, if you made a game where you actually put in a flash drive and it changes the game, I would love that. I love the, Interface interactive stuff. Oh no, I just denied. Local disk stuff being accessible in future is pretty cool. pop up. Time to actually find the Wi-Fi. I always say something about it. Password 1 key. Internet time. Actually… Wi-Fi in Nexus 2. I'm reading polegram in my room. Oh, I hope this isn't useful.
[00:13:38] Butch: Let me see… I don't need anything.
[00:13:42] Butch (shared audio): Summer? Barbecue place every Friday. Craftopia. Pitt's birthday is August 9th, I'm gonna need that. Barbecue place every Friday is done, but the other two aren't. What's the date? August 19th. Frog ideas. Surprise, frog. Gus needs a jaw. Riley says Frogs can't do the mail. Riley's being very negative about Cuss's future. Yeah, Riley, get your shit together. Gus.txt, Gus the Frog, Scared of Thunder, where's a tiny scarf? It's on the left side of the board. Of the board. Never says anything, just looks. Okay, so you're creating… Young character. Lives on the left side of the board, I don't know how to interpret that yet. But we'll see. I agree. That just doesn't do the job. Why can't frogs deliver mail? Why can frogs become an accountant, or an astronaut but not deliver mail? Lost my pen, went to the barbecue place, ate too much. Also, I'm pretty sure my Wi-Fi at home is literally Netgear 47, now that I think about it, so that's, funny. Anyways…
[00:16:12] Noe: It was the same for Crystal.
[00:16:13] Butch: Yeah, I think it's the default of the routers, so… Respond.
[00:16:20] Noe: Hang on, I.
[00:16:23] Butch (shared audio): Wi-Fi's gone by.
[00:17:45] Butch (shared audio): Things pip lights.
[00:17:49] Butch: So I'm still not 100% sure of the difference between.
[00:17:51] Butch (shared audio): Like… significance between Pip versus… The main character. Maybe there isn't. I'm just trying to avoid opening Craftopian at this point. I'm good at the end. Or even Stargate. Riley, okay. at Harvard. Home, 2014. systems. What kind of favorite. Oh, I love that. I love how the back and forth really work.
[00:18:50] Butch: Yay.
[00:18:51] Noe: You're the second person that's done that.
[00:18:54] Butch: Well, you have an address, you have to look out for stuff. I love this, I love this.
[00:18:59] Noe: Like, it's been Google, too. Something different than rain if it's that intense, but… Maybe not… maybe this isn't that area, because this is supposedly local weather. Oh, wait, let me go back, Paul. Food on weather. I already looked at newspactin. That just leaves email and scribble room. Danny at Hollywood Creek. dot org do.
[00:21:07] Butch: Oh, this one's long, okay.
[00:21:11] Butch (shared audio): Chip.
[00:21:25] Butch: Also, Cryptopia, we should actually finish our house. I just wanna, like, talk about this as every single time anyone ever makes Minecraft plans, is we should do this, we should actually finish this, and then it never happens.
[00:21:33] Butch (shared audio): Yeah. Gus is a drawing, and he deserves property.
[00:22:02] Butch: Before your birthday is the most important.
[00:22:20] Butch (shared audio): Image attachment, image, 060. I don't remember that one, so… I don't get how the cone relates to using that. Is that right. It is locked until someone opens it. Oh no. Oh, it's online. Oh no, now it's Emily is away. Oh my gosh, no. This is not gonna be hunky. Okay, Here, I'm gonna avoid this conversation and hop on Craftopia really quick. Never mind, it's busy with shit. Only thing I can do is the thing that I'm expected to do in this game.
[00:24:28] Butch: It only took 20 minutes.
[00:24:30] Butch (shared audio): Which is… My fault.
[00:24:33] Noe: I've gotten here, like, in 3 minutes. It's really interesting to see the difference.
[00:24:38] Butch: Well, no, no, I like exploring literally everything I can until I do what I'm…
[00:24:41] Butch (shared audio): quote, supposed to do. So, in my mindset, I've explored everything I possibly can before this, so yeah.
[00:24:49] Butch: Scroll or drag things around, controller plus to zoom. It's a frog. I have to click the frog. Gus is still holding down the coin. He's had a long summer. The grass looks like tiny crap. Yep. Let this turd in the corner. The dialogue was shame. Sleepy one's still here, too. He has the right idea.
[00:26:26] Butch: That's a bush for a very ambitious capital.
[00:26:33] Butch (shared audio): Huh, that's a fish. I feel like the way the dialogue is giving. If this ends up being just a pig… like, a figment of my imagination because they're dead, that's… that's what this is leaning towards. He's like, oh, let's reminisce about all this stuff. Cause it is very strange that Pip would be online at this point if I've missed a week of school. And that pip just isn't talking about it in the slightest. One star, he's doing his best. Oh, nothing for the cloud? I decided that's a hurt. I can agree. Remember these. Oh yeah, totally. Yours is supposed to be the little… I'll take them. The Hustle doesn't have a roof. Oh my gosh, the… Change.
[00:30:04] Noe: I believe in you.
[00:30:06] Butch: Okay, well, here's the thing, you never told me that Jerry has to be…
[00:30:09] Butch (shared audio): your Jerry. The Jerry that you're thinking of.
[00:30:12] Noe: That'd just be great, again, I'm like, I have 12 different charities from past playthroughs.
[00:30:17] Butch: And are they all dogs?
[00:30:19] Noe: No.
[00:30:22] Butch: This is so much pressure, I can't draw, period, much less on a mouse. I can add a label.
[00:30:37] Noe: Okay, but you should also drop.
[00:30:44] Butch (shared audio): Boop. Oh.
[00:30:54] Butch: Nope. Get rid of it, delete it. Can I not delete it? Oh, ungroup, ungroup.
[00:31:02] Noe: Be careful with the debug menu, by the way.
[00:31:30] Butch (shared audio): Got it.
[00:31:34] Butch: This is what you have done. This is what I'm drawing.
[00:31:37] Noe: You should still lease a pen.
[00:31:40] Butch: I will use the pen, I will use the pen.
[00:31:41] Noe: Okay.
[00:31:42] Butch (shared audio): But this is… this is part of, of the… Butch Jerry, experience that you have requested. Christina's gonna have so much fun grating this fever dream. of a playtest, or Crystal, but I hope Christine agrees, I think it would be fun even. Okay, I actually don't like these class. Can I… okay, so I can't color… that.
[00:32:06] Butch: What do I want to draw? What do I want to draw?
[00:32:10] Butch (shared audio): And what is the boot? Oh, I'm actually re- I'm actually only recently. the lines. Okay, time to draw a Jerry. What do I think of when I think of Jim? Okay, I'll accept.
[00:36:31] Butch: I hope this is what you wanted out of your playtest, it's just me drawing.
[00:36:34] Noe: That's beautiful.
[00:36:37] Butch: MS Paint for 20 minutes.
[00:36:40] Noe: Kristen's gonna love it.
[00:36:41] Butch: Chris, hi, Crystal, hope you're having fun. Grading this- no, that's racist. Grading this experience…
[00:36:54] Butch (shared audio): Nope. No. Wait, why is the mouse moving? What? Wait, wait, why did Pip just scroll over?
[00:37:30] Butch: Is it because I… the debug button?
[00:37:34] Noe: He's so healthy. What do you expect?
[00:37:38] Butch: But why is it that I was able to draw for, like, 15 minutes, and Pip didn't move, and now Pip moves? Okay. Did I break something?
[00:38:53] Noe: No, you just skipped on their section, but it's okay.
[00:38:56] Butch (shared audio): Oh, I didn't want to do that. That's a shame.
[00:39:07] Noe: If they're a case, I mean, they're, yes, like, to move on.
[00:39:10] Butch (shared audio): Oh, that wasn't clear. Oh well. Is there a way to go back with the debug menu?
[00:39:20] Noe: There is, but it might break stuff.
[00:39:22] Butch: Okay, okay.
[00:39:29] Butch (shared audio): I need to wait for Pip to stop, so I can look at what I missed in my despair. Just one second. Yeah, best dog, you gave Murph before you gave us one. Well, he's a very important dog, and it's a little goofle. Remember how he pronounced straightforward every single time. Look at this. how we all started, then I skipped. I wonder if this world even opens anymore. Why wouldn't it? Remember how many times it crashed? That was one time.
[00:40:55] Noe: Yeah, I sort of forgot about the frog image.
[00:41:24] Butch (shared audio): Oh, I just dragged, okay.
[00:41:49] Butch: Yeah, I wanna go back to this part of the story. Well, I guess I'll do it on the loop behind.
[00:41:54] Butch (shared audio): What a shame. Show me some more. Oh, wow. True. Nasser mom, and we'll sleep. Wild Thor. Let me actually look at the images, cause… Not all of them are interesting. What happens if I try to put an image that isn't… One from Maple Hollow. Here, I'll just…
[00:43:08] Butch: Someone's always with him.
[00:43:15] Butch (shared audio): I'll see you, see you later. forward… As someone who wants to explore literally every single dialogue option. This is gonna take a while. But also… If I don't explore it.
[00:47:10] Noe: It's why I take longer than 30 minutes?
[00:47:12] Butch: It's already been longer than 30 minutes, what are you talking about?
[00:47:17] Noe: Both Lucas and Chris will finish the game, like, in 20 to 30 minutes.
[00:47:20] Butch: Well, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're built, they're built wrong.
[00:47:23] Butch (shared audio): If they're not exploring everything, they're not playing right.
[00:47:27] Butch: This is my… see, I'm upset that I missed that… the old dog story. I wanna go back.
[00:47:31] Butch (shared audio): to that.
[00:47:32] Butch: Let me open the debug menu, Noe? Let me explore it.
[00:47:43] Butch (shared audio): Because, because if I, if I don't see… of the dog. How am I gonna be super sad when it's revealed that Pip, like.
[00:47:50] Butch: died in a storm.
[00:50:06] Butch: What?
[00:50:07] Noe: All of your drawings are evil. They're not…
[00:50:11] Butch: They're just misunderstood.
[00:50:19] Butch (shared audio): See? He has eye problems and needs glasses.
[00:50:25] Butch: you're discriminating.
[00:50:28] Noe: I'm sorry, Gus's friend.
[00:50:38] Butch (shared audio): And he has… 3 toes. 4 toes, 3 toe lines. Ma'am. Not the flower? What did I do? To the foul. The wind. What's the Rapider? Oh, that makes you happy. 84 degrees is pretty hot for a thunder. At least heck. Last time.
[00:54:14] Butch (shared audio): Done.
[00:54:22] Butch: I'm not sure there's anymore.
[00:54:32] Butch (shared audio): Hots?
[00:54:35] Noe: I screwed a second.
[00:54:41] Butch (shared audio): Loading.
[00:55:00] Noe: Can you click the plus sign?
[00:55:02] Butch: The what size?
[00:55:03] Noe: Yes, sign.
[00:55:05] Butch (shared audio): Again.
[00:55:09] Noe: And again.
[00:55:16] Butch (shared audio): Click the back. I'll get there, betcha, I need to see this. I'm gonna put the speed to times 4 for the sake of time, and also because I can read pretty quickly. This is where all we started. Who's going to be taken on that? I really didn't miss much, I should… I didn't need to get.
[00:56:50] Butch: Wanna just hang out?
[00:56:51] Butch (shared audio): for a bit.
[00:56:52] Butch: Was this before Apple?
[00:56:53] Butch (shared audio): this one. prefer. Watch up?
[00:57:00] Butch: Speed running.
[00:57:05] Butch (shared audio): I'm not sure what happened, by the way, I haven't seen that it's gone for…
[00:57:09] Butch: Yeah, I think I just clicked done drawing before the new email.
[00:57:13] Butch (shared audio): I think the issue is I'm a fast reader, so I, like, the second it popped up, I was like, oh, I'm done.
[00:58:56] Butch: Now I get to play with my own little AI.
[00:59:01] Butch (shared audio): You didn't.
[00:59:02] Butch: Why? Why, why didn't you ask?
[00:59:04] Butch (shared audio): Technically positive.
[00:59:05] Butch: Boat up like Minecraft.
[00:59:06] Butch (shared audio): Wait, so, click your minus.
[00:59:11] Butch: I am.
[00:59:12] Butch (shared audio): I clicked this,
[00:59:14] Noe: spectrophy And this level where we haven't Oh, yeah, you can also do ask.
[00:59:29] Butch (shared audio): Okay, that works.
[00:59:31] Butch: How do I make it?
[00:59:52] Butch: Honestly, when it was on fast.
[00:59:53] Butch (shared audio): and fast tick speed, I probably would have liked that more as an individual. Another thing, this is a, walking sim. I'm not following the path. See, this is how I would play literally every single game.
[01:00:09] Butch: while I was grading it.
[01:00:10] Butch (shared audio): And half of it was because it was my responsibility.
[01:00:12] Butch (shared audio): It's just because…
[01:00:13] Butch (shared audio): this type of person. So, if I break your game by.
[01:00:18] Butch (shared audio): That's kind of your fault. Wait, the missile wall isn't stopping me anymore. Oh, now it's the fog. Okay, that's fine. Lathe entity moment. Okay, I'll go back to the path. I'm just. Is that the start of a forest fire in the distance, I see? There's the…
[01:03:09] Butch: Power was power. So I'm assuming this is the same pattern.
[01:03:18] Butch (shared audio): I just don't remember at all. That was the part that I slept. I didn't.
[01:03:27] Butch (shared audio): I hope the booth shows up. Wonderful. Yes, the booth. What is this? Oh, a Rakuten has booth. I don't know what's happening, but I'm.
[01:03:47] Noe: Thank you, please.
[01:03:48] Butch (shared audio): But, like, 5… 5 frames.
[01:03:51] Noe: a second.
[01:03:56] Butch: I think because I put debug mode and so I made it.
[01:03:58] Butch (shared audio): slow, so…
[01:04:15] Butch: So even for a walking.
[01:04:16] Butch (shared audio): Sam? Great.
[01:04:17] Noe: You just have an X1 for now.
[01:04:19] Butch: Okay, I'll put on.
[01:04:20] Butch (shared audio): X13.
[01:04:22] Butch: Oh, is it just lower speed because you're watching.
[01:04:23] Butch (shared audio): Zoom? Is that what's happening? Yeah, it's like… Okay, I see. I said 5Hz per second, it's like…
[01:04:29] Butch (shared audio): Bro, why did you code fucking Minecraft water physics? This is not the best usage of your time.
[01:04:38] Butch: too.
[01:04:39] Butch (shared audio): This is insane.
[01:05:30] Butch (shared audio): The path of lookout.
[01:05:33] Butch (shared audio): Oh, this is where you always ran ahead, I'll try and keep it. Okay. What did I want to… I want to look at the booth. There's Jerry. And then there's the booth. I drew stuff for the booth. Is this, like, a representation of what I drew, or is this just…
[01:05:50] Butch (shared audio): There's just an unfinished houses in the book, just right there. The book is also unfinished. But…
[01:06:06] Noe: Now you can share.
[01:06:07] Butch (shared audio): Oh, that was not communicated. It didn't say fresh ship at the sprint.
[01:06:12] Noe: Idiot in the top left.
[01:06:13] Butch (shared audio): I guess then you start… yeah.
[01:06:16] Butch: It wasn't. You're laughing.
[01:07:31] Butch (shared audio): A dehas silhouette. Do you have some appeal? It is on fire, yep. I like how it's off the ground.
[01:07:56] Butch (shared audio): Like, you have to look out for it. I think crafting table… I think I'm now not going anywhere. The fog is too.
[01:09:09] Butch (shared audio): It's really funny. Gold.
[01:09:13] Butch: I'm just walking.
[01:09:14] Butch (shared audio): and then you add a gap. Oh, you get the space to jump right at the.
[01:09:18] Noe: bridge.
[01:09:19] Butch: No, no, I jumped over, and then I went back.
[01:09:20] Butch (shared audio): the other one. Oh, yes.
[01:12:33] Butch: Okay, now time to do the process of looking at everything again, like the beginning. June 9th, 2018.
[01:12:41] Butch (shared audio): That is 4 years later, indeed.
[01:12:46] Butch: I've already looked at that stuff.
[01:12:52] Butch (shared audio): Okay, yeah. So you can see the old room stuff. Oh, is this, like, a… Yeah, before and after.
[01:13:00] Butch: You know… Wild. How you can actually, like, expand the entire room. College questions on TST. Okay.
[01:13:26] Butch (shared audio): Change the WiFi password.
[01:13:32] Butch: Definitely, like, Still talking to Danny.
[01:13:42] Butch (shared audio): Yeah, prepping for calls.
[01:13:49] Butch: Oh, it's all crypto, there we go.
[01:14:03] Butch (shared audio): Okay, so now this is new. So the second object gets hidden, or abstracted.
[01:16:53] Butch (shared audio): After the first black card.
[01:16:56] Noe: But then reverts back to original state.
[01:16:59] Butch: AIC. Wouldn't it be funny if it's just random people you found online?
[01:17:32] Noe: This is mine, just now.
[01:17:34] Butch: Yeah, well, I figured that, but wouldn't it have been funny if you just got random.
[01:17:37] Noe: Hell yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll try to be very careful about that in the first phase.
[01:17:58] Butch: Let's see if they're…
[01:18:00] Butch: Their music taste has not evolved, what a shame. Even though they joined band and everything.
[01:18:11] Noe: That also hasn't changed. and everything like that. I'll look at the credits really quick.
[01:23:04] Noe: Are they just, like, images of online and such?
[01:23:07] Butch: I mean, that's fine, I would just look at it while we're talking. Yeah, I mean… Do you want to ask questions first? Do you want to ask for my thoughts?
[01:23:16] Noe: Yeah, what are your thoughts?
[01:23:17] Butch: Yeah, no, I liked it. I… I enjoyed exploring. I'm a huge fan of linear visual novels, kinetic, just the idea that Like, the story is… the authors to be told, and in this game, like. ultimately, the choices don't change the ultimate path, like, yeah, I understand that what you draw will be funny in the future, that what you, choose sometimes will, like, show up at the end in the Minecraft section, but, ultimately, like, no matter what you choose, it's gonna have a similar impact on you, and I think that's powerful. I think… did you play, Urgone?
[01:23:55] Noe: I didn't.
[01:23:56] Butch: You didn't? Okay, yeah. This is… reminds me so much of You're Gone, and I'm happy that you didn't play it, because if you had played it, I'd be like, wow, it's way too similar. But You're Gone is very similar, it's one of the games that I recommend for the read and play, where, think very similar to this, where a husband is texting their dead wife's phone, the ending where you look at the chat logs and it's one-sided was very good as well. It definitely got to the point. and the whole Craftopia walking sim sequence, even though it was, like, in theory, a different gameplay loop, I'll say, because you need to, like, do WASD, it's still the same thing, where you're doing an action which doesn't really matter while you're letting the text control, and I think that's very good. As a narrative, this, was… It was impactful, it was effective, Yeah, I won't say that, like, I was surprised, if that was the intent, but I'm much more investigative, as you saw, than I think your average playtester. But I think that's good, because I think… it changes the game for certain people from, oh, I wonder what the gimmick of this game is, to, oh, I wonder how you're going to represent this grief. There wasn't really a point in the game So, essentially, what I'll say is, when I saw like, August 9th, Pip's birthday, and then Danny's email of, like, August 19th, I just… or 18th, hey, I just want to check up. To me, it was pretty clear that something went wrong, approximately around Pip's birthday time period. So for me, it was, like, two documents before anything else, I knew something was up, which is great. instead of me saying, oh my gosh, I want to hang out with my friend, it's… how are you going to represent this friendship, which clearly means a lot to the player character, and then how are you going to tell the player character that what they are experiencing isn't real, right? So, for me, while I was playing, it WAS that type of experience. Like I said, it gave me her story vibes. Have you played that?
[01:27:24] Noe: I saw Lucas play the finale, like, the last few videos. it was very clear that, unfortunately, like, because I couldn't explore all those things the first time in the Minecraft world portion of the MS Paint area. It wasn't until I went back for the debug mode, that I was able to explore all those, little facts. So I think maybe… I rarely say this, I feel like… I would have liked probably even more railroading to the point where you physically are incapable of missing the emotional impact. But I still got the emotional impact, even though I, like, went back to it, and I think… the fact that I encountered Stuff like that, like, slight bugs, and still… God, the emotional impact is extremely impressive, so yeah.
[01:29:43] Noe: Yeah, thank you. That's really interesting, because a lot of my iterations have been just railroading. It used to be very open, and, like, where… what you could do and such. But yeah, players got lost frequently.
[01:29:56] Butch: I, I think, I think there's two things. One is, I think, it's kind of… if all your playtesters are in 377G, I think, Christina and the teaching team pushed the idea of, P2 is interactive fiction. Interactive fiction, historically, I'm trying not to lecture here, but is about your choices mattering. And nowadays, interactive fiction is more of telling a story through the medium of game, or of your screen. And so I am a huge fan, and I fought Christina on this a bunch, so fight me, Christina, while you're grading this. I'm a huge fan of caring about the story more than the player agency. Because when I play interactive fiction and there's player agency. but it's, like, fill in the blank and someone's name changes, or it's choose location A or B and the story doesn't change. I don't see that as actual player agency. And so, like, at the end, it doesn't really matter, and it's kind of like, oh wow, you didn't realize that you were playing with your dead family members, ha ha ha. But… It… it… Somewhat works in the sense that, oh wow, there was foreshadowing through it, there was a lot of story elements to make you come to that conclusion. And I think you did it better than that game. That game, it's not the best, obviously, really scathing reviews on that front, because a lot of people were like, how was I supposed to come to that conclusion? You need to investigate literally every single corner of the game to come to that conclusion. And this game isn't the case, and I think that's better. I think it's better to allow the player to arrive at the, quote, proper conclusion of the story, Just from being… being investigative and being creative, and I really like games that reward players who play differently in different ways. So for a player like myself that wants to explore everything, they look at the game different than a player who just wants to cruise through and experience the talking with your friend moment. And then the game hits differently, but it still overall hits with the idea of grief and, Yeah, just experiencing this story and getting to feel it. Firsthand. I think that's true.
[01:34:00] Noe: Yeah, no, I'm really happy with how this has turned out. Because, you're definitely in my attended audience, having players explore and, like, gather these context clues to, like, know that Pip is dead. But also seeing players just… like, not opening any of the documents, email, news, etc. Despite, you know, still getting notifications from them, they still just, like, beeline it, and they, like, also come to realize that pips that never rally delighted. yeah, I was hoping, and I was very delighted that there would be a reason for this old OS software, and there was. It was because you want them to be thinking about the past, you want to allow the time for that time jump, And it just… it gives a feeling of nostalgia and thinking of the past before you start living and enacting the nostalgia and living in the past. So I think that was very good, very strong. Same thing for, like, honestly, just Minecraft. I know Minecraft is still, like. a thing that gets updated, but having the Craftopia, having the MS Paint, makes you think about the past, and makes you think about, like, oh. all the nostalgia that you have, like, all those old Minecraft servers that anyone who's played Minecraft has experienced, and they eventually die off, and you don't really know how they died off, but, you know, they did, and now you just think about, dang, I missed that server. And then also the mixture of the text, Yeah, it was nostalgic text. It definitely made me… it was, like I said, very similitude, it felt really real, and so it was very easy to place yourself in, yeah, this is a real conversation that I've had, and so it is more impactful when I think about This individual, and the conversation that you've had. with someone. And how you maybe wish that you could keep having those conversations. Yeah, I feel like… I really, like, like I said, her story, every… Emily is away, and you're gone. in… the most flattering way, I think this combines the best features of all three of them in a very, excellent way. And those are games that I really like. Like, Win… Win?
[01:39:16] Noe: Yeah, but, I guess I did want to ask, if there is anything he would have liked to see and they didn't, what would it have been?
[01:39:24] Butch: Like to see, like, story-wise or just in general?
[01:39:27] Noe: Story-wise. Or even mechanic-wise, or aesthetic. Something I did want to do, that I didn't have time to do, was to update the, like, bios. For, like, the P… the Phase 3 section. so whenever you go back to your computer, I want it to be, like, more modernized, as in, like, you know, you've… recovered a bit more, and no longer traveling than, like, old, retro. Computer.
[01:39:59] Butch: For that last part, I don't think it's necessary. Four years really isn't that much, like… Right? That's, like, when…
[01:40:07] Noe: Yeah.
[01:40:08] Butch: my sophomore year of college, right? Like, my OS hasn't changed that much. And this was, what, like, 2018 to 20… 2014 to 2018, right? Yeah. It… not… it wasn't as severe, like, it kind of really didn't go. I feel like… The OS update is… is… exaggerated for that purposes, like, it didn't go from MS98 to Windows 10 within 4 years, right? But yeah. What else? So, I'm gonna talk about mechanic changes before story changes, because I think those are things that stand out to me more, or, like, I love talking about mechanics and what to add. As I said, I think you have the core mechanics of, like, the… the Windows interface, the, the Minecraft section. and the investigating really, really well. These are mechanics that I love. The shame of these mechanics is that if you don't do them well, it really stands out, because there are games that have done them well. There's Her Story, there's Inscription, and they've done them really, really well. And you've done… you've done them well. I felt like they were… they… did exactly what I would have wanted, and did not miss anything that I wouldn't have wanted. Like, yes, the shutdown button actually forced quitting as opposed to giving a warning, that's, like, literally my biggest complaint about the game. And it's not even a big deal, because it's funny. But that's, like, that is my biggest complaint with the game, honestly.
[01:42:48] Noe: That… Turns off after the first blackout, by the way. And, the shutdown? Disabled after the first blackout, and for the last phase. Because I had a playtest circuit at the end of the game, and then… She hopped on the computer. I was like, okay, great.
[01:43:08] Butch: Yeah, especially without saves, like, or to use the debug menu, I can see that being an issue. That may be, like, another thing, is, So I would have liked something like… forcing the player to press Sprint in order to, like, do something. And making it very clear, like, maybe, maybe Pip tells you to, like, press Sprint to make the jump, right? You may get into an issue of, oh, is this not accessible, can you not beat the game without pressing sprint? But I think that's a sacrifice you can make. I don't think the game needs to be playable just with a mouse, and you can do the Minecraft section with one hand, without your mouse, if we're being honest, and it's still pretty accessible. Don't be concerned about accessibility on that front. So that would be a mechanic change I'd like. I think… It's hard, because… your game… benefits a lot from its simplicity in each individual section. You force the player to not have a lot of options, the simplicity helps lean into the immersion. And so, making it more complicated, I don't think is the best thing. I think what I would have wanted was a… like… more… when it's in the MS Paint area, more explanation that, like, you're free to do whatever you want, and then press the button to continue. But alternatively, also make it so that way you can go back to the old section. And that's, like… there's pros and cons to it. The con is it makes it less railroadian. I think the railroadiness of this game was super good. But I think the pro is, like. I experienced where I was forced to move on early, and I wanted to go back. And I dislike when choice-based games force me to move on. Especially if it's a game where it feels like exploration is rewarding. It's fun through discovery, but the game stops you from discovering, then that is inherently less fun for the player, because I'm no longer able to discover. So maybe it's as simple as just adding, like, an arrow between, like, each of the screens, that way you're not, like, forced to the screen, but you explore the screen. And eventually, like, there's nothing left to explore, or you press the button to go forwards, But I feel like if a player skips through that section, then the ending climax will not be as impactful. So I think forcing the player to explore more in the Minecraft section, or alternatively, just having more there. will make the climax section more impactful. In the sense, like, in the clip that I see, I saw the fountain, or the pond, I saw, Jerry's house, and I saw, like, the tower, or whatever it was called, the, outpost. And those are, like, the 3 things. There was also the bridge, kind of. Those are, like, the three… the booth, like, 5 things that I saw in that same paint world that made me think, oh my gosh, I remember this. And I got nostalgia for something that I saw 15 minutes ago. And so I think it would be even more effective if there were more things. To the extent to where, like. I clicked through each of those things and it was one sentence. I kind of wanted more than one sentence for those areas. And in my opinion, I felt like the… the MS Paint. Craftopia area was much more impactful to the emotional resonance of the game. than the MS Paint area with the frogs, and all the drawings, and where you upload the images. I feel like the… at the time that I was playing the MS Paint section where you drew Jerry, it didn't feel… as… as important as the images, but afterwards, it felt much more important, because then I saw it again. And so, that was… that was very pleasing to me, was like, oh my gosh, it's the Minecraft… it's… it's the… it's the drawings that we saw earlier. Because then it makes me feel like, yes, I contributed to this, yes, like. I only was introduced to this 15 minutes ago, but I still feel like this is super impactful, or I still feel like this is something that I missed out on And want to see more of. maybe even small amount of movement. Like, think, like, pan. would have been more effective for me personally. And then when it, like, lifts up to the sky, that was fine, I liked that. It was, like, very traditional ending. But when that moment happened, I think one thing that I was thinking of or two things I was thinking of was, one, the color of the background, I don't know what it was about it, but it just… it turned me off, I don't know why. I felt like… it doesn't really feel, like, super-duper sad, it doesn't feel really super happy, it kind of feels like it was an afterthought. And typically, I wouldn't care about something as simple as the color of the background, but for, like, an emotional climax that's more of, like, a movie area, that's when I start looking into those things a lot more intensely. What else? There was one other thing at the end. Oh yeah, for the ending cutscene where it's raining. I feel like, you have the potential there to get really creative? this is a part of the story where your player is forced to sit and watch, and you have full control over them. And in the game, you could take full control over them earlier, but this is a part where the player, like, accepts that they're going to be watching a movie for about, like, 5 minutes, or however long it was, 2 minutes. And so… You can get really creative with your, like, directorial decisions, like, During the walk up, it's kind of… Milkoast? And it's not super sad until… Riley reveals, like, oh yeah, Pip's dead and gone, and I wish you could be there. And I feel like you could have a lot of freedom to reflect the change in Riley's perspective of, like. joy and sadness a bit more gradually within the entire Minecraft world. like, I know it was raining while you're walking up, like, at least past the bridge, because it's, like, raining in real life. almost.
[01:55:48] Butch: Yeah. And now Crystal or Christina will have to watch the… Entire thing.
[01:55:54] Noe: Look at this here real quick.
[01:55:56] Butch: fire. What was that?
[01:55:59] Noe: Look at this skirt. really quick. I sent you an image, which I just think is, like, really cool.
[01:56:11] Butch: Did you? I don't see one.
[01:56:16] Noe: I see you offline.
[01:56:18] Butch: I see. Okay, I see it, I see it.
[01:56:22] Noe: Yeah. Okay, I'll… Lucas showed me your sketch note, and I'm like, what is that?
[01:57:19] Noe: Oh my god. What is that supposed to be?
[01:57:21] Butch: I had to Google it. I had to Google it. So that's why, knowing that you have a proclivity towards a certain Jerry, and it said, doghouse, like, one bone, I'm like, okay, I see what's happening here. so here, I'll add this to the collection of, like. 377G Games.
[01:57:48] Noe: Wait, no, that was unintentional. I was just thinking of what a magdark dog would be, and the first thing that came up was Jerry.
[01:57:55] Butch: Totally, totally, yeah. You just randomly thought of a dog, and it just so happened to be Jerry.
[01:58:04] Noe: I think somebody else wants to try to drive Jerry.
[01:58:18] Butch: Yeah, all those Jerry's are very funny. That's gonna be… Yeah, no, it's.
[01:58:23] Noe: I'm doing a copilation of everyone drawing Jerry, and then… Again, with the humans, frogs, etc, all of them had these same reactions, like, wait, he was supposed to be a dog?
[01:58:35] Butch: Well, I knew that. go out in the opposite corner, and that would break the game somehow, so that's okay. I see, that makes sense, yeah, that makes sense, yeah.
[01:59:36] Butch: I'm the only one that used text. Hmm.
[01:59:38] Noe: Yeah.
[01:59:39] Butch: They didn't think… they didn't think outside the box enough.
[01:59:41] Noe: Again, I… there are a few artifacts at the text. I was just picking up, like, how this replay into the game and such. When I first made this prototype, it was just… it was… it was the whiteboard. And then I, like, added the tools, and I was like, okay, where am I going with this?
[01:59:59] Butch: Yeah, and the text is a great affordance, like, it doesn't matter, but it makes the player happier, right? And so, like, if you think, like, okay, it doesn't… it does not go to a mechanic, but you can talk about just the sheer joy that a player got from something that was unessential. And I would talk about that in your write-up.
[02:00:18] Noe: I can hide it, thank you.
[02:00:20] Butch: Well, yeah, I'm trying to give you… I'm not… I'm trying to give you advice in the same way as if I didn't know the rubric. Right? Or… I'm giving you the same advice that I would give if I were a TA, where I can tell you, put things to write it, but I can't tell you why. And she hated the character she was playing as.
[02:02:08] Butch: Yeah.
[02:02:09] Noe: Yeah, so it's one you'd be a bit careful of, like. Not really wanting to put people's names associated to a character in case they… didn't like them. Although I was told it was, like, harder to, like, see yourself in that scenario, because originally the setting was also different, instead of it being after midnight, missing the first week of school. Decided was a computer lab.
[02:02:37] Butch: Yeah.
[02:02:38] Noe: Brand has moved away, instead of dying.
[02:02:42] Butch: Yeah, I don't like that as much.
[02:02:44] Noe: Yeah, it's gone through a lot of iterations, so I have a lot just to write from right up.
[02:02:49] Butch: Yeah, I mean… Yeah, but, but… And it's good. Oh, even if you have a lot, make sure to synthesize and don't make it go too long. Yeah. Don't, don't blab, burr on. Yeah, I think, good changes. I agree with Sabrina entirely. Sabrina also played Dragon, I saw. And I think… wait, maybe that wasn't Sabrina. Instead of playing a choose-your-own-adventure, because I think your story works well as a book, and not as a choose-your-own-adventure.
[02:04:55] Noe: Yeah, thank you. You're cutting out a lot right now.
[02:05:03] Butch: of P2…
[02:05:06] Noe: Wait, sorry, give me a second, the Wi-Fi's pretty bad.
[02:05:08] Butch: Lucas is… Amazing.
[02:05:12] Noe: Okay, they're good. I see you again.
[02:05:14] Butch: It's also mine. My wife… my Wi-Fi's also pretty bad, so it might be mine. My internet was unstable a few times during the playtest, so it might not even have been you.
[02:05:25] Noe: Yeah, I will say, I don't think the Cryptopia section is watchable, because unfortunately, back on Terra Thing was, like, one frame rate per second.
[02:05:36] Butch: That's a shame. Maybe I could have recorded… I probably could have recorded locally using OBS, if you wanted, but whatever, bit late.
[02:05:45] Noe: Nothing's okay.
[02:07:36] Noe: So much AI games. It's funny.
[02:07:40] Butch: Yeah, I saw the tag, and it's like, dang, but hey, as long as you cite it, yeah. There's that, yeah, the… you really did not have to do the whole Minecraft section, what, what…
[02:07:58] Noe: Okay, so, I was gonna do a very minimal 3D world, Having a few keystone landmarks. And still trying to give it, like, the general story, like, oh, here's your house, here's XY, etc. But as I was looking for these assets, I found, like, Minecraft, like, rip-off assets. Like, I was, like, against going full-time at this.
[02:08:22] Butch: Yeah, I think it's funny. I guess, theoretically, if I were to give advice, I don't… this is not good P4 advice, it's like, if you're gonna publish it yourself, I think it would be more impactful if the game isn't just Minecraft, like, it's really its own thing. obviously, that's not the core idea of your game, that's not the core purpose, so… don't… don't try to do that for P4. But I'm like, yeah, after P4, if you bring… if you revisit this for P4, that's what I would say is the next steps, is making the… Craftopia, not just Minecraft, not just a joke, and making it feel like a better experience. Because that's one thing about, like, inscription, is every phase is its own experience, it's not just a gimmick. And yeah, in Craftopia, the thing is mostly a gimmick, because you only have two weeks to work on this, but if it felt like its own experience, then that's a game that people will talk about. For so many reasons. Like, this… this has the potential to be publishable if you keep working on it for months, and really flesh out everything. And that's not something that I would say for every single game, from Stanford, period, but from, like, 377G, right? It's like, My… Yeah. I think, like, from a P2 grade perspective, where, oh, I'm worried about the narrative, it's 100% there, and then, like, my selfishness is I would want it, to be a better game outside of the narrative, which isn't the point of P2, and that's why I'm not giving you that feedback. To the same extent. But it's like, yeah, if I were to think of this just as, like, compared to literally every single game that exists, here's the changes I would make to make it competitive. And it's close to competitive already.
[02:10:20] Noe: Yeah, thank you. Okay, well, I think I should probably finish my write-up.
[02:10:27] Butch: Alright, good with that. Lucas and I are complaining. About Pete. Right now, so… I'll yap with him for a bit, it's kind of funny.
[02:10:37] Noe: Yeah, sounds good.
[02:10:39] Butch: Alright, good luck, we'll see ya. Thank you so much, Butch. Yeah, let me know how it turns out.
[02:10:44] Noe: Yeah, I…