Reap what you sow

Faced with the prompt above, I thought about lots of things (karma, HOAs, squirrels, etcetera), but I landed on the topic of cycles and plants. I often delve into the cyclical in my writing and plants, with their states changing with the seasons, fit perfectly. This game initially reflected a more cynical view on the process, where everything was certainly 'destroyed' or 'hidden' by the end of the cycle. Then the process would repeat, with the player drawing over their old creations over and over as many times as they wanted.  I was rebelling against my own self-perceived over-sentimentality and while this impulse comes up often, it doesn't often last. In playtesting, I found that I instead wanted to lean into the properties of a map as a record keeping tool.

This game was also meant to mix role-playing with personal journaling, but I didn't find it that successful in that department. As my first foray in to the genre, I couldn't figure out how to make people invested in both the fantasy layer and the real life reflection layer.  In retrospect, I think that this problem could be solved with more themed prompts or more of an explanation of how the player transitioned from their real life to the fantastical life I describe. This problem also leads into the on-going issue I have and had through the development of this game: lack of self-confidence.  The cardinal rule of playtesting is don't interfere with the playtesters unless absolutely necessary.  I broke this rule many times and even did the disservice of changing rules before players got the chance to try them as is. I'm often just too in my own head about these things and the anxiety of possible failure overcomes me. However, it's a skill and as long as I am aware of it, I can make progress on it.

Otherwise, I am happy with the final product. This project featured one of my timid forays into graphic design and I like the figures I made at the time. I like how the game has the possibility of building a fictional history along with personal history (although I'm positive that no one else has done this 😅 due to my somewhat lack playtesting). There's a lot of stuff I could have added to this project that I ran out of time for, but at the very least, it leaves plenty of room to grow.