From Rejection, Comes Introspection

I remember applying to a role at Netflix that I thought I would be a good fit for based off the job qualifications. I hit every checkbox they wanted... I prototype all the time, I am technical enough to create stuff on my own, and I have the ability to design compelling content and systems (at least I think I do). But the recruiter and hiring manager didn't want to give me the chance to meet the team because they thought their game was not in my wheelhouse. Their game was a cozy game. I had never designed or worked on one, so what could I do to refute that?

I'm not one to argue about my capabilities to people I hardly know, and perhaps they were right about me being a bad fit for their team because I've never made a cozy game. I've played a few, but I wouldn't consider myself a core cozy gamer. This rejection really made me think about the role of game designers, and how they are met with a distinct challenge in development: sometimes you have to aim to design for games you don't play yourself. It's a strange parallel to programming. It's like asking a UI programmer to make Combat systems, or ask a Network programmer to make content authoring tools. To me, the lines are way more defined.

This whole interaction got me thinking about how I put myself in a bubble by designing and playing the same type of games. So I made an effort to expand my knowledge by venturing into the cozy game space. I picked up a few obscure mobile games in the space, played several hours of popular games like Stardew Valley, and even tried to cross reference some cozy design elements from my current library - like Valheim's building and farming systems.

And I watched a TON of Good Pizza, Great Pizza content. There's so much out there. The game really resonates with the calm, relaxing, cozy side of the gaming world. So, I went forth into creating a game in this space. That became Lil Laundry Lane.

Prototype to Steam Demo

The next 3 months that followed my decision was a full pipeline of game design, prototyping, iteration, and ultimately a Steam ready product. This is definitely the fastest timeline I've ever made Steam product -- okay well to be fair there haven't been many -- and I'm quite proud of the result. This is the first time I've aimed to create a game that wasn't meant to be finished quickly or gamed to get the most out of it in the least amount of time possible. It was made to reflect what I was seeing in the cozy game design dive I had recently been going through.

Sadly I did not make a good record of my progress, but I did find a few videos I kept to show people progress along the way. The earliest video I have is on April 8th of this year. I believe this was after the first full day working on the project. I had barely gotten some of the UI in place (non-functional), a skeleton version of a dialog system, and the start of the minigame in place. It's not much but making progress always feels good, especially in a dark time like post layoffs.

A week later I had fleshed out the design document for the core minigame enough to implement it out and playtest. I found some random art pieces that would work to sell the idea and slapped it all together. It looked quite basic but a lot of the foundation was in place. Being in 2D really helped because I could get away with using colored planes for most of the art. The exception being the T-Shirt... but I found a good temporary artwork that let me experiment on shaders to make the dirtiness + lint mechanics I had envisioned.

Another few days and I started thinking about longer term game progression, which is how I designed a shop system to unlock more items and eventually customization options. Still a lot of temporary art, but that's to be expected. Around this time, an artist I had been in contact with began funneling in assets that I worked into the game over time. It's always nice to see something shape up from squares and boxes to materialize into what you have in your head...

Even for simple games like this, game feel and iteration are key. I went through so many trial and error iterations on how the clothes shader would work, which tools to add to the game to add as features, and even how to load the washing machines/dryer. I think I had 4 different versions of that until the artist and I nailed the final implementation. That's the kind of work I live for -- and it doesn't matter if its about a washing machine, or lint roller, a fireball's thrown arc, or the feel of an axe going through enemies...the collaboration to improve a game... there is no better feeling.

3 Months Later

I've been working on this project and and off for 3 months while I search for work. I can honestly say that it's let me express my design skills in a way that my professional projects usually don't let me. Working 1-on-1 with an artist, creating mechanics and systems from scratch, cutting things that didn't feel right -- these are all things that I want to keep doing in a professional setting.

At any rate, at the very least I have another product I can point to and say that I created. I'll leave this blog post with a the first trailer for the game I made. It's quite bad, but hey, I'm also learning to edit videos and make blog posts too! It shows how far the game has come, but the video is already an old version... that's what's so great about building a project, it keeps changing! Please go check it out on Steam!