Outcome Snapshot

What shipped: Launch Day placed **2nd overall (8.41)** in the Arcweave × IGDA Game Writing SIG 2025 Game Jam. The project was awarded perfect scores from 2 of 4 judges and the "Excellence in Game Writing" award, recognizing its clarity of language, tonal cohesion, and overall replay value.

When: 2025-11-24

Under what constraints: 72 hours

Producer Responsibility

Accountable for scope control, narrative cohesion, and on-time delivery. Owned production planning, dependency mapping, and UI/UX implementation.

Constraints & Non-Goals

Time: 72 hours

Team

  • 1 Game Designer
  • 1 Narrative Designer
  • 1 Lead Writer
  • 1 Producer
  • 1 Composer
  • 1 Artist

Tools: Arcweave, CSS Style Editor

Known Risks

  • Brand-new team
  • No AI-assisted audio/visual assets
  • High scope risk due to four writers contributing

Non-Goals

  • Overly complex branching
  • VN melodrama
  • Deep mechanical systems beyond narrative delivery

Key Decisions

Framed as inputs to the outcome:

Results

A polished, replayable VN experience centered on small, human moments of care and resilience, delivered within jam constraints. Scope was reduced from a multi-day narrative loop to a focused single-day slice-of-life structure to preserve intimacy and ensure on-time delivery.

Retro Notes

What Held

  • Early SSOT creation for teams larger than two
  • Explicit requirements for MVP
  • Lightweight daily stand-ups to maintain alignment

What Changed

  • Formalize the art and audio asset list immediately after narrative lock to reduce timeline pressure on contributors

What Scales Forward

  • Creative projects evolve continuously. A producer's role is not to control that evolution, but to create the conditions—through structure, iteration, and communication—that allow a team to succeed within constraint.

Systems Informed or Updated

Evidence

Launch Day gameplay screenshot showing the visual novel interface with character dialogue and choice options
The final VN interface displaying our slice-of-life narrative structure and NPC memory system in action. The UI prioritized readability while maintaining sleepy, atmospheric immersion.
Launch Day gameplay screenshot showing the visual novel interface with 'DigiScroll' interpolation
An interpolation of our UI structure made to mimic the effects of a modern digital tablet.
Launch Day gameplay screenshot showing the visual novel interface with character dialogue and choice options
Cohesive and unique visual, sonic, and narrative identity across all narrative spaces.
Play Launch Day ↗ Jam Results ↗

Production Plan

Core goal: Deliver a tightly scoped, tonally coherent VN-style narrative exploring resilience, using NPC memory to support replayability without introducing complex mechanics.

Dependency highlights: Narrative development was the primary dependency driver. Art and audio functioned as supporting pillars, while UI/UX implementation depended on the completion and stability of narrative-facing assets.

Workflow & Communication

Channels Used:

  • Discord (primary)
  • Arcweave comments (secondary)

What worked: Discord enabled fast feedback routing and rapid clarification during active development windows.

What broke: Arcweave comments were occasionally missed or duplicated in Discord, resulting in redundant communication and minor delays.

This case is complete.
Decisions made. Outcomes shipped. Learnings captured.