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The Heist Will Fail
Set against the neon backdrop of a cyberpunk city, The Heist Will Fail takes players through an interactive crime thriller where they are the only ones who can prevent their heist from ending in disaster.
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Platform: Twine
Date: June 30th 2023 - July 10th 2023
Role: Project Lead
Designing for Replayability
The design of The Heist Will Fail focuses on detail and inter-character relationships. I was deliberate in letting the player explore not only the details of their heist but also their relationships.
I designed for replayability by both providing many branches to explore, but also this choice at the end of every "failed" playthrough.
The game begins with a message from the player's future self stating that "the heist will fail."
This is the catalyst for the player's actions, so I wanted to bring it up again as a satisfying bookend to a failed playthrough. Whatever they end up typing will appear at the start of their next playthrough.
Another reason I did this was to reinforce the central ideas of time travel and insider information.
The core of the game is playing as someone who knows what's going to happen in the future.
During a second playthrough, this feeling is enhanced because now the player has a meta-knowledge of what will happen later in the game.
I adore crafting interactive narrative fiction, so toying with replayability in this project was extra fun. I received several comments from players about how they picked up on new details during their second playthroughs. It was incredibly rewarding to see the core ideas of my game manifest in the player experience!
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