As I was mostly finished with the research phase I began to work on my game loops and systems. It’s important that I have an idea of what I’m doing overall before I get lost in the details. This is where a mini games design document would come in handy. I found a sheet online that covered the basic considerations when making a game and filled it in Photoshop.

This is only a barebones version to get me started. At the time of writing this I’ve changed and refined a lot of the gameplay details but the core loop remains mostly untouched. Since game projects can get really big in theory, it’s important to stick the the pillars to avoid something that is incoherent and directionless.

Using the website Miro, I drafted up my first flowchart of the gameplay loops. Once the ideas are on paper it’s a lot easier to tweak anything that doesn’t quite fit.

I also had two other extensions of the game that I ended up discarding as they were too big for the current scope. They weren’t inherently bad ideas, they just weren’t necessary for the final product. The bear extension is a nod to the inspirations of the protagonist and the sanity meter is what I outlined in the mini gdd which I later ended up scrapping.

Yet I still wasn’t satisfied with my flowchart. After some feedback from my teachers I went to making a second one. It’s a lot more distinctive with the colours and shapes and I’ve organised it more cohesively. I wanted to stay truer to giving players more meaningful choices so the endings are more directly based off of specific gameplay choices.

The next thing I need to do is to work out the narrative. From there I can lay the finishing groundwork for the gameplay and polish as needed.