Reflections on: Hello Neighbor!

Hello Neighbor! was my second fully developed game and was made for an assignment in my class. The assignment was basically just to fully create (involving) coding a game by yourself. The development time of this game was less than a month, starting about end of september and releasing in mid-october 2010.

The game was made in the AGS-engine, as it was the only programming experience I had and I didn't feel like I wanted (or could) learn a new programming language in the short amount of time, I had to make this game.

It's a very short puzzle-exploration game about making the residents of a small apartment block interact with each other.

Positives:

• Complete. By which I mean that I am happy with the completion level of this game. The artstyle was consistent (although again, not very pretty, and also kept in the same vein as The wife who wasn't there in order for me to save time and recycle some interface elements) and also every single action in the game had a unique feedback. This took me quite a lot of time to think of all the different reactions but I'm happy that I did, rather than just copy/pasting the reactions. I like to think the player will be more tempted towards playing again, knowing that all the reactions are different from each other.
• Within scope. This is the first game, I've developed with a deadline, so I am happy I managed to set up scope for the project that I allowed me to complete and polish the game. Instead of just barely managing.
• From scratch. This was also the first game I created from scratch (coding wise) as I used a template for The wife who wasn't there. This boosted my confidence slightly in the coding department and also makes me willing to try and learn other programming languages rather than being afraid of coding, as I was before.

Negatives:

• Lack of motivation. The game lacks a motivating factor. When I conceptualised the game I thought: "Of course, people will play and find this game interesting." However this was based on the fact that I thought the different reactions of the residents would be enough to entice player to explore the game. Originally there were also far more residents rather than just six, which of course makes the amount of unique solutions even bigger, but as I scaled the game down and tested it myself, I realised that reading the responses might not be that great. So I introduced the cheap solution of a trophy/achievement system, which actually did the trick and afforded multiple plays, which had been my goal.
• Lack of sound. There is not a lot of sound in this game, and sounds and music in general are not my strongest points. The lack of sound makes the game rather "empty", although the little sound I did have in the game, I was happy with, as it conveyed the theme and simplicity of the game, I was especially happy with the whistling my brother did for me in the main menu. However the lack of sound is still a bit disappointing, and I probably should invest a bit more time in this department in the future.
• Consistent (but yet slightly boring) artstyle. I was very happy with the consistency of the artstyle, but yet with such a simple game as Hello Neighbor! is, it comes off as a bit boring. But I stuck with this artstyle due to the fact that it is fast and also because it allowed me to recycle art from The wife who wasn't there. However I feel now that perhaps I should have tried a different artstyle for this game, as it is so simple and consists of not that many assets. A more exciting artstyle would probably have improved the experience of this game immensely.

Overall I'm happy with this game. It's not very big or very beautiful, but it is complete, simple and easy to get into and also it afforded some replayability (not much though) which I am happy with. Also I was within scope which is good and this also gives me some sort of insight into my ability in regards to the time I need to finish games.