About:

Neurotype Cafe is a 2+ hour visual novel, coded in Ren'Py/Python, that follows Nia, a neurodivergent barista, as she handles her first week at a new cafe job. Players develop relationships with characters, prepare drinks, and manage their social energy in a thoughtful story about self-accceptance, expectations, and perfectionism.

Neurotype Cafe won a WPI Provost's Award! One project is picked by faculty each year to recognize the best senior project in each major!

Development details:

Roles: Programmer, Designer, Producer, Writer
Languages: Python
Tools: Ren'Py engine, Visual Studio Code, GitHub
Team size: 9
Development time: ~28 weeks
Developed: August 2022 – May 2023

My role:

Programmer

• Found ways to work around a restrictive game engine
• Scripted dialogue, character appearances, text effects, sound, and portrait movement
• Programmed menus
• Managed version control, resolving conflicts across code of peers
• Ensured consistent distribution of work among 3 programmers

Designer

• Clarified experience goals and ensured all parts of the game reinforced core themes.
• Chose deep mechanics that could be pared back if necessary
• Decided on various "juice" effects to improve user experience
• Created multiple vertical slices of the game for asynchronous & sychronous playtesting demos
• Created survey materials for gathering feedback on intuitivity, usability, stability

Producer

• Facilitated team discussions, fostering enthusiasm
• Carefully managed and readjusted project scope
• Onboarded and met weekly with a team of asychronous artists, readjusting and clarifying goals
• Kept meeting notes, team agendas, asset charts

(I was also a writer and audio designer!)

Lessons learned:

Have confidence in your vision.

I often found myself struggling with intense perfectionism, wanting so badly for this game to be all that I imagined it could be. The more I worked, though, the more I found that what I made was compelling! If I'd spent more time believing in myself, I would've achieved more — I won't be making that mistake next time!

Plan intensely. Plan specifically.

One of the greatest challenges of the project was organizing the work schedule in such a way that would allow us to write and code a lengthy story that thoughtfully represents neurodiverse experiences. We could've never made what we did if not for a lot of up-front planning work. More specific, intense planning, such as including precise artistic goals for those story beats, could've made for an even more cohesive piece of art.

Find the scenarios where your team thrives.

Part of what made Neurotype Cafe so successful, I feel, was continuous attention not only to the needs of the project, but to the creative and life needs of the team. People do their best work when they are allowed to express their passion; as a producer and team member, guiding that passion and directing it where it can flourish is critical. The project plan was also designed to be flexible to allow us to cut back scope should life get in the way.

Links:

Download the game on itch.io
Read the complete project report here
Download the complete project report here