🧭 Current Objective
Refine Level 1 of Judgement Day through client feedback, team coordination, and narrative improvement.
📬 Client Communication & Feedback
Over the past week, I shared our team’s current progress with our client, Professor Iva Youkilis, to gather feedback on both the structure and narrative direction of the game.
The response was very encouraging—she noted that the project is “shaping up really nicely” and highlighted the strength of our overall concept. However, she also provided an important suggestion that helped guide the next phase of development:
The narrative should emphasize the human stories behind each sin, rather than presenting souls as simple examples.
She specifically referenced Francesca (Circle of Lust) as an example of how Dante portrays sinners as complex individuals with emotions, motivations, and personal struggles—not just moral categories.
🤝 Team Coordination
After receiving this feedback, I shared a summary with the team to ensure everyone was aligned moving forward.
Key coordination steps included:
- Communicating the importance of stronger narrative depth
- Encouraging consistency in tone, structure, and dialogue
- Continuing to collect and organize each member’s Twine files for integration into a unified experience
At this stage, our workflow is becoming more collaborative and streamlined, with clear direction on both design and narrative goals.
✍️ Level Revisions & Improvements
Based on the client’s feedback, I revised my Level 1 passages to enhance emotional depth and player engagement.
Key Updates:
- Replaced generic or unnamed souls with recognizable or character-driven figures
- Expanded dialogue to reflect internal conflict and human motivation
- Strengthened Virgil’s role as a guiding voice, reinforcing moral reasoning
- Improved reflection passages to encourage player self-evaluation
🎭 Example Improvement – Francesca (Lust)
Previously, the case focused primarily on identifying the correct circle.
Now, the interaction emphasizes emotional complexity:
- Francesca expresses her story in her own voice
- The player must evaluate emotion vs. moral responsibility
- The reflection challenges the player’s reasoning:
- Did you judge her based on her feelings… or her actions?
This shift transforms the experience from simple classification into meaningful ethical engagement, which better aligns with the learning objectives.
🧠 Instructional Design Alignment
These revisions strengthen the connection between game mechanics and learning outcomes:
- Narrative → Understanding (learning the structure of Hell)
- Choice-based decisions → Application (classifying souls)
- Reflection → Deeper learning (evaluating moral reasoning)
Rather than just testing knowledge, the game now encourages players to interpret, analyze, and reflect—which supports higher-level learning.
🚀 Current Status
- Level 1 structure: ✅ Complete
- Narrative refinement: ✅ In progress (significant improvements made)
- Team integration: 🔄 Ongoing
- Client feedback loop: ✅ Active
Overall, the project is in a strong position. The focus has shifted from building core functionality to polishing narrative and learning experience, which is exactly where we should be at this stage.
🎯 Next Steps
- Continue refining remaining cases for narrative consistency
- Integrate all team levels into a unified Twine build
- Prepare for final playtesting and iteration
💬 Reflection
This phase of development highlighted how valuable client feedback can be—not just for validation, but for pushing the design to a deeper level.
What started as a structured classification task is evolving into something more meaningful:
👉 a simulation that asks players to think critically about human behavior, not just categorize it.
XP Gained: Narrative Design + Client Communication + Iterative Development
