Post Mortem

With the lack of a clock dangling over my head, there's a few design things I'd like to discuss to the aether that is the internet.

Cards

Despite this being the biggest headache, I think this saves the game's concept. Theoretically the cards are no different that an overly complicated shopping list. They could be traded out for a sheet of paper and it'd be no different. But you only get to see 1 card at a time, allowing you to focus on finding a single object at a time. I considered in the future implementing them as full flash cards you could flip over and see a small description, but there's another direction I wanna take this game. We'll go over that in the final section though.

Infinity Shelf

While the initial story concept was simple and immediate, I didn't have a plan for anything expanded until I was thinking about the background for the game. Eventually I was planning on adding a parallax background that went wild the higher you went up the bookshelf. Something ala Jump King. In the final level a unique object you'd need would only be found by reaching the very top self several hundred high. Post jam I've realized that's nothing more than a dumb prank, and would be way to much work for very little payoff. There just isn't much room for mechanical story progression in the game aside from additional difficulty.

Labeling

The puzzle of the game is discovering what items are through limited context. Despite this about every play tester complained at least once that things weren't labeled in some way. Ended up being the major reason I added the story to the instruction menu, hoping "The store doesn't label their items" would suffice for explanation. As I mentioned in "Cards" I considered adding an item description, but I never once considered adding pictures to be a viable possibility. It just becomes one of those hidden item games.

Eventually (post jam), I had the idea to have a pre-game library, where the player could peruse Bestiaries and Herbariums. This could be taken into several directions, but ultimately had 1 glaring issue. It would take time away from actually playing the game. However tossing it into the game during play time would trivialize the whole concept just as much as putting the pictures on the cards.

Finally, I reached a conclusion, there has to be more that visuals differentiating items. I'm going to have to give the player tools. However, I find my self limited in space. I had many issues related to the scrolling of shelves, and the placement of interactable. And so, in the-

Future

I'm going to have to move into the third dimension. Everything needs to be worked from the ground up anyway, might as well pick up in a medium that'll better suit the concept. Instead of having an infinitely scrolling shelf, you'll have many shelves through which to peruse. Players could then take their items to various magical tools that could explain certain features. Some educational, some mystical hullabaloo. We could even extend that into a crafting system. Maybe a card asks for a Rose thorn, but you find a rose and have to remove the thorn yourself. There's just so much more possibility in 3D.

To be completely honest, I cannot guarantee I'll get anywhere with this. I've certainly received news that it's a fine concept of a game from the several friends I had playtest it, but on the other hand I want to try my hand at more Game Jams. Explore the world of developing, and see what's out there. I think it's going to be a while before I dev Wizard's Intern 2.