Gains and Losses

Screenshots

Overview

Gains and Losses is an interactive story game which is centered around the player characters dream of becoming a wealthy stock trader. Although it is made in Twine, the game contains a repeating gameplay loop where the player chooses from a variety of stocks to invest in as well as activities to do after working. Different activities have different benefits and drawbacks. For example, staying up late to research the market will improve the chances that your stocks will go up in value but also decreases your relationship level with your family who you are ignoring that day. There are other systems as well, such as a random event system which presents the player with two choices, each providing different benefits/drawbacks for the player based on their choice. The Player also has the ability to become addicted to drugs and alcohol and can lose the game as a result of this. The game is intended to reflect the turbulent nature of the stock market as well as to allow players to have fun with some of the more illegal activities which are associated with Wall Street life.

Contributions

My role on this game was primarily as a designer and writer. I proposed the idea of the game to my team and worked out many of it systems such as stock trading, random events, and the core gameplay loop. Although Twine is typically used for interactive stories, I thought that it would be fun to have a repeating gameplay loop instead of a typical branching narrative. I tried to provide the player with a variety of gameplay choices which they need to consider strategically. The player must balance both making enough money to successfully win the game while also managing their familial relationship and stress levels.

I also assisted with the writing of this project. In general, we tried to keep the themes lighthearted (as demonstrated by the player’s interactions with Justin) but also wanted to include some more heartfelt writing for when we were discussing more serious topics such as the separation of the player with their family.

Reflections/Design Thoughts

Overall, I am happy with the systematic nature of this game and how the player’s actions are real choices that will cause them to lose if they are not thinking about the consequences. I think that the daily cycle of trading and then choosing an after-work actively is engaging, and that the random events help to break up the repetition. There are also some small touches like the blurred vision when abusing substances or the multitude of endings the player can receive which I feel greatly enhance the theming of the game.

As a final note, I will say that there are a number of other additions/changes that the team could have made with more time that I believe would have served to improve the gameplay experience. For example, not allowing the same event to appear twice without all other events having first been shown to the player. This would ensure that there would be a variety of events shown to the player for every run. Another addition would be to add information about which stocks are up and which are down to the Buy and Sell pages. Lastly, adding a few extra characters would also help make the game more dynamic. For example, adding people who you could meet at the bar or gym. These NPCs could provide useful trading advice or new investment opportunities to the player.

Overall, I am proud of the work we did for this project and I am glad to have the opportunity to work on a game with a strong story focus and on an engine I had previously never used.