Talk Title: How We Almost Wrecked Our Second Game, 'The Wreck'

Effective talk: Postmortem of ‘The Wreck’

Year of Talk: 2018

Video Link: How We Almost Wrecked Our Second Game, 'The Wreck'

Making the vertical slice:

When making a sequel or another game after releasing a successful game, teams can start wanting to increase the scope and create a larger game.
The team already has experience making a game and assumed it would be easier next time.
The team was able to obtain initial funding for the game and cover half of the planned cost. With this, they hired the necessary developers.
Acquired a separate partner who would invest the remaining money for the project.
At this point, the team realized that the game had grown substantially and needed many mechanics, which made storytelling harder for the team.
This gave the team a vertical slice that could be shown to players to test out and see if it might be a worthwhile game for them to play.

The feedback:

The gameplay didn't work well with the story and took away from it.
The art style didn't feel unified, and there was no clear direction.
Nothing from the writing or story was memorable when playing the game.
This was more because the art style and gameplay took away from the player's ability to immerse themselves in the story.
A more experimental game (Not in a good way).
Initially, the presenter didn't believe the feedback was correct, but slowly realized some things could be improved.
The feedback was also very specific on areas that needed improvement and was written to help make a better game.

What to do now:

Using the C.R.Y. method.
Consider: Consider all the areas that worked in the game and made it interesting.
Refocus: Refocus on the areas the team does best. If the team has great artists, then make sure to focus on the art and not on puzzles.
Yield something better: Create a better game with a tighter experience. Make sure everything is clearer for the players.
This can be risky, as the team had already spent a lot of money making the initial slice of the game. So they needed to somehow get past the finish line with whatever was left.
Which forced the team to be reduced to a 2-person team instead of the 7-8 person team initially.
When overworking on the project to get it updated, it meant they had to let other things slide.

Second vertical slice:

The risk of a second game:

There was a combination of issues that caused the second game to have a lot of complications.
The team wanted to reach/surpass their first released game.
While also proving they could make more types of games.
And not having a lot of experience making every type of game.
This can cause misery for you and the rest of the team. While likely tanking the success of the second game.
Make sure to remember what made your previous games a success, and be more realistic about how you can make future games successful, and the progress of the game.

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