The Making of “Wives of Agency” (Progress Update #8)

Here is the most recent update video of WOA, this is not a trailer, and this is not the final product.

I continue to be extremely proud of this project so far, and there’s been a lot more content added over the last week. I’ve currently got everything up until 1521 programmed and with the game ending in 1533, we’re pretty much exactly halfway through the content, though I think the years 1531-1533 are going to be particularly difficult as those are the only complete path branches that will exist within this demo.

Progress:

• tons of new content, including the 1519 split that determines whether or not the player receives the canon affection debuff
• redesigned background to use a placeholder image of a Tudor home, instead of a placeholder illustration of a Japanese floor. (I think that this adds a lot of charm to the game)
• Replaced standard text font with one more aesthetically fitting (though I think it harms clarity, and is possible will be replaced again)
• Made certain scenes more dynamic with background music changes, more stat change animations, and screen shakes for intense scenes. (These are cosmetic issues, which are not 100%, but I think they help to make the game seem more polished and official).
• I sprinkled in a few vocabulary lessons for primogeniture, divine right, reformation, Protestantism, and Fitzroy, though they are dependent on certain choices being used.
• Incorporated more characters in a minimal sense: Bessie Blount, Cardinal Wolsey, and Anne Boleyn (not featured in the video, but she does exist), as well as changing Catherine to appear older after a certain point in the story.

So this project is in general aimed at students learning about Tudor social history and the English Reformation (one of the reasons why Catherine is such a great pick is that she is an excellent example of Catholic English piety and often performs religious actions that are less common nowadays.)

Sometimes I worry that the game is too niche for these purposes, and while I do include educational text about Tudor social history and religion, I’m worried it’s quite minor, at least compared to other interactive learning options.

Challenges:

Besides time, I’m not running into any major challenges. But I think I would greatly improve the product by having a couple friends or colleagues play through the game and give me feedback based on my project goals and learning outcomes (that I should probably make a nice document outlining)

Like I said, I’m very proud of how it’s turning out so far. Is it perfect? No, but I don’t think even if I spent years on this and learned a new programming language, that it would ever be perfect. I’m just happy that my vision is somewhat coming to life (though it is a bit different that my original idea, which would have included every single wife, not just Catherine and some Anne).

Moving Forward:

Moving forward I hope to continue making significant progress creating more years and more learning opportunities within the game. There’s not much more to say on it. I’ve got a small list of minor bugs I want to fix, but the game is so simple that there’s not many major bugs that can occur (though I did fix one this week of the stats screeen displaying the stat variables in the wrong order). I’ve got a little under 4 weeks to go, and I’m hoping to have the game fully programmed a week early so I can ask some people to play test it and give feedback. I think I’m gonna be a bit sad when this project is done, because it’s not only an interesting way to exercise my DH and pedagogy skills, but it also combines my love and passion for videogames, and it’s not even all that frustrating to do (I’m not the strongest coder, but iFVN does a lot of the hard work for me).