About the Project
Ceteris Paribus is a Point&Click educational game aimed at teens 13 and up. Created as part of a larger, Erasmus-backed project, its purpose is to teach players concepts, terms and history of economics in a simple, approachable, easy-to-understand way.
My work on Ceteris Paribus as a part of The Future Now Association includes multiple aspects of the overall game’s development: game design, level design, environment art, sound design, event scripting and various other blueprint setup, as well as parts of the narrative process.
You will find a comprehensive list of resources, tools and assets used at the bottom of this post.
What does Ceteris Paribus mean?
According to the Journal of Econometrics, “The ceteris paribus condition in economic theory assumes that the world outside the environment described by the theoretical model does not change, so that it has no impact on the economic phenomena under review.“
It’s not exactly an easy notion to grasp at first, so simply keep in mind that it is an important concept in the study of economics and has thus been chosen as the name of both the overall Erasmus-backed project and its video game.
Conception
At the beginning of development, I created an in-depth Game Design Document and made sure to be as descriptive as possible. I know that the finished product might not follow the document to a T, but I wanted to have a solid base and not waste time in-between tasks on figuring out the details.
Afterwards I spent a couple of days searching for the assets I would most likely need – a mixture of cute and lowpoly seemed appropriate, and I settled on a warm, soft palette.
I also came across the Point and Click Adventure Toolkit (entirely powered by blueprints) and it has been a blessing while working on the game so far, as it comes pre-packaged with systems which I would have otherwise had to create from scratch, such as the Point&Click movement and camera setup, dialogues and some simple 2D puzzles.
Level Design & Environment Art
I had a ton of fun designing the layout and dressing each set. I used a mixture of three asset packs total while working on the levels, and I think I managed to achieve a nice flow throughout the garden path and living quarters.
Sound
I was shocked to find out for myself just how important sound design is to video games (and not just). Despite the environments I spent hours meticulously dressing, the game actually came to life once I added something as simple as footsteps, and blossomed once I added some basic atmospheric sounds.
Blueprints
I quickly realized blueprints might not be my strong suit. I could make small modifications to already existing systems, but developing new ones from the ground up (namely, a hidden object game, a word-matching game and a player journal) ended up being too complex for me to handle with my limited experience. After scratching my head for a couple of weeks, I admitted defeat and started looking for help.
My search led me to Fiverr. I managed to find my dream co-developer in record time, and they were extremely easy to work with, not to mention incredibly fast to deliver. Avakiin offered guidance and provided me with the blueprints required based on a document I quickly threw together for them. Their name in the game’s credits is well deserved.
Narrative
Ceteris Paribus, being an educational game, is quite dialogue-heavy. Players would not be hard pressed to find explanations, quips and various remarks while Kai, our protagonist, interacts with the environment.
The premise we decided on is that Kai, not being the best student, has forgotten to prepare their economics homework and study up for the subsequent quiz the following day. They cross their fingers and head off to visit their childhood tutor, Pavlos, who’d have bountiful stories to share on the topic back in the day.
The player would then learn all about marginality, privatization, the stock market and many others through the prism of Pavlos’ life back in communist Czechoslovakia and his later emigration.
Playtesting
Once the story was uploaded into the game, it was time for real people with unbiased eyes to finally look upon my creation. The first round of playtesting was held in Celje, Slovenia together with the partners in the EU project. The TFN team passed around a couple of flash drives containing the latest build (0.8.2 at the time) and the games begun!
There’s something very humbling about sharing your work with a large group of people. You feel a bit exposed as everyone begins clicking and searching for issues, bugs and inconsistencies. It’s as uncomfortable as it is exciting, as playtesting is an incredibly important part of any development, and the feedback you receive is invaluable to the future of your work.
While players were happy with the result so far, I did get a few pointers for things that were either too complicated or not clear enough, so we brainstormed together on potential ways to resolve remaining issues.
Conclusion
I learned a lot during the production of Ceteris Paribus, but understanding the importance of deadlines had the biggest impact on me.
A ticking deadline kept me on my toes and did not allow me to waste time wallowing in despair whenever something didn't work on the first, second or even third try. The job had to be done and I either had to figure out how to do it myself, or I had to find the right person to help me complete a given task (i.e. the mini-game blueprints).
The deadline also kept me from straying too far and spending too much time on any one given task — my initial vision had me drawing each hidden object scene by hand, but I ended up contracting a fellow digital artist to handle the paintings in a far simpler and less costly way while I focused on fleshing out other systems that required my attention that only I myself could do.
Without a proper deadline, I would have likely stretched out the development of Ceteris Paribus entirely too much, polishing and tweaking and moving things around, pushing the completion date further and further away. A deadline required me to think fast, make swift decisions, cut whatever ultimately felt unnecessary.
The very concept for Ceteris Paribus was much, much different. While brainstorming ideas with The Future Now, we initially envisioned the game as a fully hand-drawn 2D platformer, where each level was set in a different time period where a notable historical figure in economics would share their story. There was also a time machine involved.
This project had me take a good look at myself and my abilities; what I can and could achieve. I accepted some hard truths, I took some leaps of faith. Could the end result be polished even further? Heck yes! I open the game and every time I see something I could adjust a bit better, a stutter I could fix, lighting I could most certainly improve. But if you're reading this, you've most likely already come to the same conclusion as I – you can ALWAYS improve on a particular work more and more and more, but then you'll never actually get to create something new, move on and truly improve.
Creation time: 12 months
Tools & Resources:
