I don't often push my games past the early stages of development so this project has been quite difficult for the most part. Pushing myself was the point though and I feel It's made me a more rounded developer as a result. I've had to do more testing than I usually would and consider higher concept things like marketability and demographic. My design decisions have had to be more focused on what I think would sell, improve the game for a wide range of people, rather than just what I would want in a game. I've had to more carefully plan what I'm gong to do and when because I can't really afford to implement random new ideas any more without fully thinking them through first, as I'm focusing on finishing the game. Although admittedly I have done a bit of that in response to player feedback.
I'm happy with how my essay has turned out. I spent a lot of time reading relevant articles and books; watching videos on the topic and gathering research generally on the subject of meta-fiction. The essay itself went through a fair few revisions as I learned more about the subject. For example, I realized that ordering the essay into Meta-fiction for comedy vs meta-fiction for suspense was too limiting as there are games that use it for both and which use techniques from both. It was also a bit limiting since there are actually a fair few more avenues that I hadn't explored.
I feel like I've done some good analysis in my research report of both my game and other games. I've applied some techniques from specific popular games in the same genre that help to bring the game in the direction I want it to go. I've taken feedback on the game and determined whether it's beneficial to make those changes to the game or not.
