Introduction

"Stick It" started as a simple concept: a game set in Greenridge's serene yet shadowed countryside, where players navigate through levels to escape with food amidst a fierce legal and moral battle. The game mirrors the real-life Vonsanta scandal, focusing on Pedro's struggle against the ruthless Farmer Kyle.

Objectives and Key Changes

Significant enhancements marked our development journey:

• Better Levels: Originally, levels were straightforward but lacked depth. We introduced more complexity and variability, ensuring each level presented unique challenges that tied back to the narrative.
• Revamped UI and Post-Processing Stack: The initial user interface was functional but uninspired. We overhauled it to be more diegetic, intuitive, and visually appealing, alongside a post-processing stack that gave the game a more polished look.
• Enhanced Lighting: We upgraded the lighting to make the game world more immersive, using it to set the mood and highlight the stark contrast between the tranquility of Greenridge and its underlying darkness.
• Redesigned AI Enemies: Earlier, AI enemies were predictable. We reprogrammed them to be more cunning and challenging with a whole improved hiding and stealth mechanic and how the AI will still detect you if it sees you trying to enter a bush to hide.
• Additional Mechanics and Tutorials: New mechanics were introduced to enrich gameplay, accompanied by comprehensive tutorials to help players adapt to these complexities.
• More Levels and Level Selector: We expanded the game with additional levels, each advancing the story. The level selector was a new feature, allowing players to revisit completed levels and explore alternative outcomes.
• Diversity Update: Recognizing the need for variety, we diversified enemy types. This enhanced the gameplay and aligned with the narrative’s theme of facing varied challenges.

Challenges and Solutions

With a 1-week time limit, this undertaking was very challenging, and throughout development, balancing the narrative with gameplay mechanics was a challenge. We wanted to ensure the story of Pedro's struggle was compelling without overshadowing the gameplay. Regular playtesting and feedback loops helped us find this balance.

Outcomes and Reflections

The enhancements significantly improved player engagement. Levels became more than just stages to complete; they became chapters in a story. The revamped AI and diversified enemies added depth to the gameplay, making each encounter a unique experience.

Community Response

Player feedback was very crucial and critical to the changes and polish that we have reached, it has been overwhelmingly positive after the changes and we tried to address as many issues as we got from the past feedback rounds. The community appreciated the narrative depth and the improvements in gameplay. The diversity update, in particular, was praised for adding replayability and challenge.

Conclusion and Future Plans

"Stick It" has evolved from a simple concept into a rich, narrative-driven experience. We've learned the importance of balancing story with gameplay and the impact of continuous improvement. Looking ahead, we plan to move on to another project, for a game that took 1 week and 3 days in a game jam with restrictions we believe we have performed well but as with any rapid prototype project, it is time to put the pen down and start our next journey and take our lessons from this project over.