Design/development process of trilingual
About Trilingual
Trilingual was created for the final capstone project in the Bachelor's game design course at Fullsail University. It was created with a team of 5 designers/developers and two artists within a span of 4 months. My role in the project was level designer/technical designer.
Itch.io Link-https://4ullstop.itch.io/trilingual
Design Process
About- The design process of Trilingual was very unique. The way the course was structured, we had a month to design the game. Then we had a month the create the mechanics and the backend systems, then a month for asset creation/implementation. Then finally a month for Polish and artist help. Here is some documentation from that process
Documentation
IPM and Design Pillars-https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zQBEIj7ndji563EGhzMYltjEydp86LqZUXPUYacX-e8/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Vision Document-https://docs.google.com/document/d/144muniVLjXaJJ8grkbTzkXLfr2lTA_arg6cKo4GeJ00/edit?usp=sharing
What went right
I think Trilingual ended up being a very cool proof of concept for an awesome idea. The puzzle design was fantastic for some sections, and the way some of the mechanics interact with each other is beautiful. The base system we made for scanning and using runes had so much room for expansion and I'd say we pushed the limits on what we could do with the system. My mechanic turned out fun and interesting in the way it used our "rune" system in the game.
What went wrong
The structured nature of the coursework limited us in areas where the team knew we needed to pay more attention. For example, we needed to be working on asset replacement for the class but what our team actually needed to be working on was the player feedback and PFI for our specific game.
Postmortem
In the end, Trilingual was my first published title and I think we smashed it. The game is enjoyable and the systems are very solid. If I could change one thing about our design process for next time, it's that I think everyone needs to be on the same page before the work begins. Being open about what needs each individual system has.
Skills Gained
Throughout development, I learned to fail faster. Some things are just not going to work out and not to try and force systems that were not designed to function together to work in conjunction. I learned that the design process itself takes time and that some mechanics that seem fun on paper, in practice, aren't and that's why we test them.