SIP Blog: Off to the races – 6/9/23
Off to the races
by Henry Cecchini, Vassar College ’25
SIP 2023 is just starting off, and a gaggle of 5th graders visited us this week to see the fruits of our labor. The various teams set up booths with themed activities for playtesting their games; on team Corn Dogs, we created stations for gameplay and art critique, and awaited the invaluable feedback of children. What we found out was encouraging. Even though we’re scrapping the initial theme of our game, the kids loved our platforming mechanics enough to try to beat each others’ high scores. The inclusion of a timer in the win screen allowed a little speedrunning community to form. On the art side of things, we set out a variety of concepts for our main character and asked the students to vote on which ones they liked best. It’s important to be aware of our audience’s preferences, rather than our own biases, when it comes to design.
The biggest difficulty my team faced so far was the realization that our game’s plot wasn’t engaging or relatable enough. After thinking we were done with brainstorming a central concept, we went back to the drawing board, ditching our sugarbug idea for a game about a baby dragon. Even though most of the gameplay mechanics should be transferable, it’s hard to make such a big switch on short notice. Now is the best time for reconsiderations like this, before we all begin working on our games in earnest.
At this point, we’re moving on to preproduction after finishing our dirty builds. Everyone’s hoping to avoid issues down the line by reasoning out what will need to be done in the course of the summer; the planning process involves a lot of Kanban boards and sticky notes. We’re having meetings to discuss our visions for the future of our games, dividing up initial art and programming tasks, and reasoning out different possibilities to see what fits best.
In the midst of game nights, donuts, and toxic smog clouds, this year of SIP is revving up. What I’ve seen of everyone’s work so far is imaginative, well-considered, and enjoyable. We’ve got an ambitious assortment of talented developers here, and I think we’re going to knock it out of the park.
