Iteration Final

Documentation

Changes I would make to Dilemma would be creating character illustrations to show how the characters would look instead of having animal symbols to represent who they are. The same would go for the different locations, having a rough quick drawing of how the world would look like to gain a sense of immersiveness because the world is set in a divided country, one high-class, high-tech modern city while the other side of the country an old steampunk style. Thus, having the images right now doesn’t necessarily fit that theme but rather serves as a temporary solution to replicate the feeling of division and difference.

Another part I would change is the font size, I do admit I underestimated the size when converting the cards to the instruction paper, it was a lot smaller than I like but was too sleep-deprived to notice until the next day looking back I couldn’t read without zooming in (I fixed the font size afterwards). In terms of graphics intention, I didn’t have a lot of time to separately create each character and location thus I resorted to replacing character design with symbols of the character and locations the feeling of the general area. For how the cards and instructions looked I really liked and wanted to try out a modern simple futuristic version of The Great Gatsby with the gold lining and dark background.

When inputting and reading over the text I wrote on Google Doc for character/location cards and instructions I knew there was gonna be a lot of add ons and changes as I moved forward while at the same time juggling back and forth between different teams to spot out flaws, mistakes or imbalances. This game was supposed to be played in the physical world but online would work as well because the cards and chips needed to be placed whenever the round was over or to draw a new card.

Reflection Essay

When reading The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games, I felt I can relate to failure and the pain of playing video games because whenever I play a game in the beginning, I’m always looking to fail within the first 1-2 weeks to test, experiment and learn how the mechanics' works even if it leaves me frustrated or unmotivated. 

Those are normal human emotions wherever somebody fails, it's in our human nature to reject, be sad and frustrated at ourselves for failing but it is also part of being human to fail and try again. Hence why I created Dilemma, it's a game about this one character that tries their best to help but continuously lets their teammates down ultimately failing them but their determination is strong to get this one thing right and prove they aren’t a failure. Through the hardships, emotional rollercoaster and frustrations it can defeat mentally and say “It’s just a game” but that's just an excuse for accepting defeat and failure. Nobody can succeed without failing first or reaching your goal without falling down hard, it's a natural cycle one must go through and it’s no different from real-life applications and video games (creating and playing one). It’s like a challenge for people to overcome not on their first try but through multiple tries because it's like an adaptive test where it forces you to experiment or try something in order to complete the challenge. If we use an example, a tutorial it’s like a practice room to get used to the controls and mechanics of the game and later on it puts you into a real environment to apply those mechanics in real-time. It may not go as smoothly but over time it’ll become second nature to the players.  A great example would be the difference between running and gunning vs precise gunplay (Apex and Valorant). The movement and gunplay are completely different, Valorant is less forgiving for run and gun plays because of the recoil and movement error applied which prompts you to hold angles or stop and shoot the enemies while Apex you can still run/walk while shooting with perfect accuracy. And it's the difference between the movement and play style people will have to learn and adapt but that's just one example of failing until you get it. There are tons of other games where there might be a learning curve and its curved players are able to climb over with time and perseverance. 

I can also say the same for game design because I’ve never designed a game before thus I wanted to throw myself in knowing I will fail and get stuff wrong and change/adapt how I made Dilemma. Dilemma was my 4th draft of TTRPG in an attempt to slowly make progress on how I should create this game and it's no different with Unity. Using failure, trial and error to learn and make progress to achieve and do what I want and need to do.