Unwritten

A Collaborative Mobile Writing Game.
March 2022 - April 2023 (1 year 1 month)

Unwritten, a creative, social, and imaginative mobile game, was an exploration into the fascinating concept of collaborative writing. I singlehandedly developed this game throughout 2022, leveraging this project to hone my web development and full-stack skills. In early 2023, Unwritten made its debut on the Google Play Store, followed by further updates and fixes throughout February and March.

Concept

Unwritten is a collaborative storytelling mobile game that provides a platform for players to weave engaging stories together, each contributing their unique ideas. The game aims to nurture a sense of community among players, rewarding them for enriching the game's universe with their creativity. In the vein of sandbox games, Unwritten's mechanics are designed to support and inspire players in their creative writing journey.

Game Mechanics

The mechanics of Unwritten are intuitively straightforward. Players can embark on their creative journey by starting a new "story camp," which involves crafting a compelling title and an intriguing beginning to a story. Once a story camp is created, it's an open field for others to join and contribute a paragraph to the unfolding narrative.

To aid their creative process, each player is provided with an AI-generated prompt, serving as a guide for their next paragraph. With a limit of 600 characters per paragraph, the game ensures that the same player doesn't add two consecutive paragraphs, maintaining a dynamic and diverse storytelling flow.

As the story matures to 30 paragraphs, any player has the opportunity to draw it to a close by writing a final paragraph. The story's maximum cap is set at 40 paragraphs—if reached, the subsequent player is obligated to craft a concluding paragraph.

There's no limit to a player's participation, as they can contribute to as many stories as they wish, thus fostering an endless world of collaborative creativity.

Development Process

It all began with an experiment in December 2021. I conceived a prototype for a player-driven, choose-your-own-adventure game, which elicited positive responses from playtesters. This served as the conceptual launchpad for Unwritten's development in 2022. A detailed description of this experiment can be found here.

The first nine months of the project were dedicated to constant experimentation. A series of game prototypes were built and evaluated by a group of players. Unwritten went through three major iterations, and several minor ones, with each prototype built on a distinct technological framework with a slightly different core design system. The prototype I iterated and tested the most is still available for access here.

Emphasizing rigorous testing, each iteration helped glean essential insights to make the game compelling. By September 2022, I had a clear understanding of the game's fundamental aspects, including the target group and core experience. With this knowledge, I embarked on designing the final version of the game intended for the mobile app market.

The latter months of 2022 were dedicated to designing the game mechanics, UI, and aesthetics, and implementing the front-end and back-end systems. On December 25, a beta version was released onto the Google Play Store. Feedback from the beta release was crucial in the continuous improvement and final release of the game in March 2023.

In sum, the project's key design principles were rapid prototyping, playtesting, user interviews, and iterative cycles.

Skills & Tools

The project saw the application of my proficiency in design and project management. This included:

Project planning and scoping
Game conceptualization
Playtesting and gathering insights
Agile iteration

Additionally, I acquired new skills, primarily in the field of software engineering:

Web development
Full-stack development
Knowledge of various frameworks and scripting languages, including Javascript, HTML, CSS, Firebase, Node JS, Postgres, and React Native

Lessons Learned

The development of Unwritten was an enlightening journey, affording me insights into the nuances of game creation and self-growth. The three pivotal takeaways were:

The Time-Intensive Nature of Indie Game Development: Indie game development demands considerable time due to exhaustive testing, reiterations, and discarding of old ideas. This is particularly true when you're venturing into a new genre devoid of established standards. Each game iteration introduces a new set of problems that surface during playtesting, making the end goal of a launch seem elusive. Deciding when to say "this is good enough, let's finish" is a crucial milestone towards launching the game.
Deriving Reward from User-Centric Design: The genuine reward is derived from creating for people. The most exhilarating moments of Unwritten's development were when players shared their exciting experiences with the game. This underscores the importance of identifying a target group and incorporating regular feedback from potential users in the development process. Their experiences and responses serve as motivation and inspiration to keep refining the game.
The Crucial Role of Marketing in Successful Launches: Launching a successful game involves not only creating a compelling product but also effectively marketing it. As a solo developer, the responsibility of marketing falls on your shoulders. While challenging, this taught me the importance of marketing and solidified my passion for the design and development aspects over the marketing and launching aspects.

In retrospect, Unwritten facilitated significant personal growth and equipped me with an arsenal of skills, tools, and understanding that I can leverage to create and launch more successful games and products in the future.