In the early stage of the project, my role mainly focused on Mechanics Design, especially dialogue, reputation, objectives, and progression. At first, I wanted to understand how The Verdant Trail could connect NPC interaction, item collection, exploration, and story outcomes into a playable loop. Because of this, I made early attempts with the Ink dialogue system, portrait feedback, and a Reputation Manager prototype.

However, during the actual implementation process, I gradually realised that these systems were much larger than I first expected. Reputation is not just a value system. It needs narrative writing, Ink tags, inventory checks, story flags, UI feedback, and visible NPC reactions to support it. Otherwise, even if the system works in the background, it is still difficult for players to truly feel that their choices have created consequences.

After several playtest feedback meetings, the team’s priorities gradually shifted towards scope control, polishing the first level, fixing bugs, and creating clearer player-facing feedback. This also changed how I judged my own contribution. Instead of continuing to expand large systems that depended on many unfinished parts, I needed to focus more on feedback mechanics that could be implemented, tested, and directly experienced by players within the Vertical Slice.

This was also why I later shifted towards Wwise and interactive audio. I did not treat audio as simple decoration. Instead, I understood it as a feedback layer: it can help players understand their actions, spatial position, environmental atmosphere, and interaction results. Changes in footstep sounds, UI sound effects, spatial ambience, and river sounds can all make the game world feel clearer and more responsive.

Looking back, this was not a complete change in my role direction, but a production decision. My work shifted from large narrative systems towards smaller and more testable feedback mechanics. This helped me understand that Mechanics Design is not only about creating systems, but also about judging which systems can be completed, tested, and understood by players within the current scope.