Letting go

To be a good Game Dev, I’ve been taught the concept of ‘killing your darlings’. Basically, dropping mechanics or Game ideas that don’t fit with the Game even though you love them.

As a concept it makes perfect sense, but when you have a really strong idea, sometimes it can be really hard to drop it. In fact, as I have learned recently, even harder within a smaller team.

In my previous experience within larger teams (around 10+), it was easier to let a ‘darling’ die.

We would have a general consensus as a team, vote on aspects of the Game, and have discussions together for why certain concepts wouldn’t work. In a team with less people, and being in charge as I am, it is now much harder to let one of my darlings go.

In our current Game that is in production (Usagi Sekai/ うさぎ世界), I had a hard time letting go of my darling. It was an idea I had very early on, that I totally fell in love with. The idea would fit in beautifully with the aesthetic of the Game and make it more ‘artsy’.

Let me explain my concept. It was for our tutorial sections; each main mechanic would be explained within a Haiku and have some traditional Japanese music. To make it fit even more, I really wanted them to be in Japanese… Obviously I was going to put the English translations for the functionality side of the mechanic. That ironically, wasn’t the main issue with the idea. (From my initial point of view at least, it might have turned into a more serious issue once external play-testing started!)

The issue we discovered early on, was that most of the tutorial explanations were for the combat section of the game. This meant that there were 4 or 5 Haiku’s popping up in a row, which quickly became very annoying. As a tutorial in general it wasn’t great either. I only focused on the Japanese art aspect, which included no visual ques to explain exactly what was going on. A few of these in a row could really leave you confused and unsure of game-play.

Also, the text descriptions for the mechanics became too obscure, just so it would fit the Haiku theme. I realized quickly that I was forcing the pieces to fit together. Yet, I still really wanted it to work… Somehow.

I did try some different approaches around the issue itself. Just so that I might still have a chance to have it included in some capacity. After repeated play-testing however, it was painfully clear that it had to go.

I wasn’t mad about the time I had wasted composing my poetry, translating it or planning the entire thing. I just loved the idea and could not let go.

An example of one of my Haiku's. The rough English Translation would have been: 'When it's dark, the enemy is stronger, you are stronger in the light.'

In English the Haiku rules wouldn't apply, so I could try to clearly explain the mechanic in use, while still making it sound poetic.

I hope that this experience will make it easier to drop bad ideas in our future Game projects, but that will be a test for another day. I’m happy enough that I can make myself be objective for the Games sake. Even if it took me a while!

ハンナ