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Originally completed December 3, 2019
Introduction
Demon in the Circus was born from the question, "How do you make a game in which you must learn another language engaging?" I was inspired by hobby of Conlanging, or Constructing Languages, and much like how JRR Tolkien's renowned collection of Elvish languages inspired the creation of a masterpiece to show it off, I decided to design a game to show off my creation of Demonic. While I did not create anywhere near the masterpiece that is the Lord of the Rings, I feel I successfully created an experience in which a player must learn to communicate with a being who does not speak English.
What Went Well
On the whole, players thought the experience was novel and interesting. Players enjoyed:
The ambience and atmosphere creating through art and music and themeing
The sense of talking to someone that didn't understand them
The fairly clear goals, as players typically knew what they were trying to do
Inspiring players to play properly--a handful actually translated her replies
Creating something that functions in a reasonable time-frame (the assignment's time limit was 15 minutes)
In my process, I think I succeeded in:
Knowing what aspects of my language to fight for and which to leave out. Demonic as a Conlang in its original form has 6 conjugations (and not the Spanish ones) and 3 moods for the verbs, with 4 noun declensions. I decided to only have the infinitive verb--treating verbs as one might in Japanese--and no noun declensions. I also only left in one particle (of), which the player never has to use, and the VSO-word order, which all players were able to learn in the course of the 5 minutes. Some players complained that a lack of articles made you sound like a caveman but when Chinese--literally the most widely spoken language in the world--does not have those, I don't think it is necessary. I also limited sentences to 4 words max, and 3 words usually. This led to a much smaller scope than trying to build a full chatbot.
Playtesting early. Early playtesting showed that teaching the player the language ONLY through linguistics was impossibly out of reach for all but the most specialized of players which led to me pivoting to creating something more akin to a secret code.
Scoping the level down. Originally, I had a full circus you could explore planned and this became one room.
Listening to and implementing player feedback as best as I could with a limited scope. For instance, when Kyle Powell suggested I add a performance at the end, I managed to do something simple which was of equal polish to the rest of the game and players thought it was cute and basked in the applause. Another example is how I implemented an item system and a more advanced emotional spectrum on player demands.
About half my players adored my game, saying it was a rich and novel concept, albeit a little quirky. For others, however, the janky and buggy system as well as basic premise resulted in frustration.
What Went Wrong
I'd say a majority of the experience and process "went wrong". Any successes were mostly miracles. The experience itself suffered because:
Some players found the sound effects excessive and distracting.
The controls are not well tutorialized, and the art and coding is delicate so that if you lean on it, it will break.
All players found the system to be confusing, even the ones who liked it, and were never excited to have new speaking options open to them. Tutorialization wasn't good enough and the system would have benefited from a lot of resources I don't have.
Bugs in the AI and progression meant you could progress without fully understanding the things I want to teach you
Limitations in the chatbot meant that some technically correct sentences were rejected.
And in the process, I think I failed in:
Recognizing when I needed help and finding resources to help me. I often asked my friends for help (when they thought I was insane) instead of asking my teachers.
Doubting myself too much. Instead of choosing to believe in my vision, I often doubted and wavered and lost time due to just sitting and wondering if I should even bother to continue. I need to have some more faith that I will find a way to make things work.
Believing in the wrong things about myself. For instance, I stuck with the "force the players to literally be linguists" method of gameplay for far longer than I should have.
While this is a shorter list than the successes, I think on the whole, these are all more severe problems that cripple the experience, making it even more niche that it would have been otherwise.
Conclusion
I think Demon in the Circus is miraculously almost decent and I think it succeeds in delivering its fantasy. Rather than teaching everyone how great it is to talk to someone in a foreign language you do not speak well, I have left the enjoyment of the experience on whether you find that fantasy inherently engaging or not. I have not created the next Papers Please that makes paperwork fun for everyone. Instead I have created something closer to Death Stranding, which is polarizing and impossibly janky. I also think that luck, and which bugs you stumble upon, can largely shape what kind of experience you have. However, this is also the most technically complicated and most artfully polished game I have yet made. So, I am proud to have made it.
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