Week 5 Update

After adding more functions and details to the digital build as well as starting on art and sound assets, we also created more bills over the past week and began to really organize them into categories to help with balancing the game.

However, this next week is the time for us to really decide on the aesthetic of our game. The setting is inside a VR headset simulation of the presidency of a fictitious country Schrankzania, in a distant future. With that in mind, we came up with aesthetics ranging from vaporwave, neo-futuristic, Matrix-like design, etc. Now we need to settle on just one style to build not only art assets, but also shape our bills. The subjects and wording of our bills, as well as the cultural-political landscape of Schrankzania, will need to fall in line with our game's aesthetic. For instance, vaporwave's surrounding subculture is sometimes associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and pop culture, and tends to be characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology, and advertising of previous decades. If we decide on vaporwave as our game's aesthetic, we will need to model our bills around its meanings.

Along with editing current bills to resolve the above problem, we'll also need to sort bills into proper categories. This will take a long time to work out, but I think we can handle it if we just hammer each part out in a single meeting.

Week 4 Update

Things are finally about to start coming together.

After getting a reasonably good prototype up and running, with concept art and sound assets getting fleshed out, we finally have something to work on improve. We still need to have discussions on the organization and categorization of bills, but we have the basic tools set up. All that's left now is to improve on what we've started making.

In the next week we plan on improving the current build mechanics and art assets, as well as edit and create more bills to put in the game. We all have clear objectives for this week, but later we'll need to discuss how to further improve upon the game.

Week 3 Update

We've definitively decided to continue on our idea for a game based around vetoes. Currently we have a physical prototype and are making the jump this week to digital.

Playtests were positive but we've gotten feedback to simplify the cards and make consequences for decisions more tangible. We'll start experimenting with how to do this this week as well. Also, we'll continue writing cards and trying to balance them so the player has interesting, diverse choices to make during gameplay.

We have also decided to lean more into the satirical nature of our game, while keeping at our core the goal to teach players about the power and use of the presidential veto.

Week 2 Update

Just remembered we have to do this every Thursday. This is in the period of consciousness of Thursday so it counts.

As for game progress, we are still figuring out whether or not the veto game is a viable idea. I've been wracking my brain and consulting others, but so far I can only think we would just end up re-skinning Reigns in some way. We need a prototype by Tuesday so hopefully we can make a decision soon.

That's all for now.