This Time Around
2015
Game designer/Game developer
Summary
The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Alden Nowlan's quote makes up the backbone of the narrative for This Time Around. The inspiration for the story is actually a personal one. As someone who has trouble remembering their childhood, the idea of discovering it all again (essentially, for the first time) was fascinating to me and I wanted to pursue the idea that by revisiting your past you can learn and see things in a new perspective.
As a player, you adopt the characters you play. Often times, players don't know the characters' history or background and you discover these things on your own, in your own time. Much like if I were to delve into my own childhood, most of which I don't remember; and that's how This Time Around came to be.
Gameplay
Players (re)discover memories as Rachel Daniels in This Time Around, learning things she may have forgotten or have never revisited through letters and objects throughout the game world.
We often forget to look at things from someone else's perspective, and we forget that everyone that comes and goes in our lives leaves behind a part of them within us. Good or bad, we learn from them, and This Time Around aims to be that reminder.
Responsibilities
This Time Around was a yearlong solo project. This included being the game and UI designer, writer and programmer. The models and audio used in the game however were sourced from Archive3d and Freesound.
The project also included writing a thesis and recording the full process of the game development from an idea to final product, marketing the game on social media and working with playtesters.
Experience
The project was invaluable in terms of the things it taught me about game development. Not only did I learn endless ways of problem solving and how to code practically through hours of researching and experimenting. I also learned how to develop a game from ideation to completion through playtesting and endless iterations.
The project was iterated using a design-build-test cycle and that was the biggest learning experience of all. The cycle allowed me to understand user needs and the importance of playtesting and refining accordingly. In order to create a game for the target audience, this cycle is vital. There is no doubt that the things I learned from this project can and will be carried forward to all future projects.