Campus commute is a choice-based game that explores the difficulties that students who live far away from their university campus face daily. Campus Commute is a choose-your-own-path game where every day presents different choices, all impacting four core aspects of student life: energy, stress, GPA, and social life. The goal of this game is to survive the semester without burning out, failing your classes, or isolating yourself. The game’s scenarios are all inspired by our own experiences commuting to and from university, making it both relatable and realistic.

To begin with, the game was created primarily on POE, an AI website with different AI models, including a game creator. We chose this platform because it made the game much more dynamic and interactive compared to alternatives like doing it on PowerPoint or Google Forms, while also being easier to use and customize. POE also allowed for quick adjustments, easy customization, and access to different AI models that could assist in refining the game’s structure and content.

We had five questions for each of the two paths (car/carpooling and bus/uber) in the initial version of the game, for a total of ten questions. The game lacked additional depth, and the scoring system was problematic because it consistently produced the same conclusion. We aimed to improve the game and address numerous problems in the final draft. We began by expanding each path by five questions.We changed the questions to make it easier for the player and to match the precise concepts we wanted to cover. Additionally, we updated the game with a welcome message that provides users with a more thorough explanation of the game’s objective and operation. In order to alter scores and give the game a more realistic portrayal of real-life scenarios that we actually find ourselves in, we then made the decision to include random occurrences like pop quizzes, sick days, and family emergencies that happen at random during the game. Ultimately, we adjusted the scoring system to make it more fair in order to address the problem with the scores and endings. This allowed each ending to be genuinely achieved based on the choices the player made during the game.In the end, we played the game several times in all the scenarios and also had our friends play it to ensure that everything was functioning properly. We also asked regarding their preferences about the scoring system.

We would have done a few things differently if we had had more time to plan, develop, and further enhance the game because we didn’t have a lot of time to accomplish it.If we had more time, I believe we would have created more challenging scenarios to get people to reflect and consider their ability to prioritise, especially for those who don’t live far away and only need to see themselves living far from their university. Additionally, we could have added additional animations, visuals, or even actual images of traffic or situations to help people visualise more and make the best choice.If we had more time, I think we could have also included some sound effects for it or a creative system for weather and environment effects, such sandstorms or rain crashing in the background to make people get in the mood more.

While making this game, I discovered a lot of new things.   In the technical section, I discovered how to use Poe to promote a code and how to alter it according to my desired scenarios.Personally, I also learnt how to consider the perspectives of other players because my top goal was to make the game engaging and understandable for the group of players. Additionally, creating more visual effects to improve the game for the audience who are  my first priority even if I had more time. Additionally, I developed my creativity and learnt how to think outside the box to create scenarios that I, as someone who lives far away, may have never experienced. As people who live far from our university, the process of making this game finally helped us realise that, in order to consistently arrive on time and manage our stress and energy in a way that not only enables us to get to the university but also keeps us motivated and focused enough to attend our lectures to the fullest, we must be extremely disciplined.

Finally, this game is for everyone and a free space for people to believe that they are not alone or not the only ones that sacrifice time and effort in traffic on the road which will make them more discipline to continou and accomplish what they want even if they face hard situations or scenarios.Also it is a reminder for everyone living near their universtities to be grateful of tehir saved time and effort and to thrive more.