REENTRY: FRESH START

An Impactful Project with Ambitious Goals
5-min read

On this page you’ll find:

• Iterations based on feedback

• Demonstrations of prototyping abilities

• Examples of collaboration with subject matter experts (SMEs) and integrating content into the player experience

• Project documentation experience

• Visual scripting using Unity's Playmaker asset

Continue reading to learn more about how Fresh Start came to be and my role in its development.

Origins & Objectives
ReEntry: Fresh Start is part of a transformative series designed to help justice-involved citizens (those interacting with the criminal justice system) practice critical life skills necessary for reintegrating into society. The project aimed to teach:

• Decision-making

• Time management

• Perseverance

The project was heavily informed by guidance from SMEs who work with this population and understand their specific needs. A key takeaway from our research was that many individuals leaving incarceration struggle with decision-making due to a lack of autonomy during their time in prison. We needed to create a game experience that addressed these challenges by giving players opportunities to make meaningful decisions in a safe space, simulating the pressures of reentry in a manageable format.

Building on Past Experiences: JobPro Series
To inform Fresh Start, we drew inspiration from earlier Simcoach Games titles like JobPro: Get Prepared! and JobPro: My Life. These games helped players prepare for job interviews and adult responsibilities, respectively. However, for Fresh Start, we needed to shift the focus to managing the complex, day-to-day challenges faced by justice-involved individuals.

Design Approach
The game aimed to help players break down larger goals (like successfully completing a period of parole or probation) into smaller, manageable objectives.

I was tasked with creating and balancing these objectives, ensuring they felt meaningful and relevant. The process involved researching real-life tasks that individuals on supervision must handle, from keeping appointments to managing basic self-care. This research informed the creation of the objective list, which was later integrated into the game’s structure.

Prototyping & Iteration
During the pre-production phase, I worked on several prototypes to test various design ideas. One of my key contributions was creating a prototype in GameMaker Studio to test the new gameplay systems, including how to introduce time management mechanics and the player's evolving statuses throughout the tutorial.

I used this prototype to present key concepts to the team and client, explore different ways the player could track their progress, and demonstrate how their actions would impact their overall standing. This helped clarify how the game’s narrative and mechanics would come together to simulate the complexities of a reentry experience.

Objectives and Progression
One of the most important changes in Fresh Start was the shift to a more objective-driven experience. In earlier iterations of the game, the time available to the player felt more like a sandbox, with little to push them to explore or prioritize tasks. For Fresh Start, the design was focused on providing a wealth of objectives to give players a feeling of being overwhelmed, simulating the real-life burden of managing numerous responsibilities.

I designed objectives based on SME input that varied in type and difficulty, such as paying restitution fees, attending mandatory meetings, or taking care of personal hygiene. I conceptualized and designed the interface, flow, and interactions for a “virtual phone”. This feature allows players to manage their goals in an intuitive, real-world way.

It was also my task to implement and balance the objectives in the Unity editor through Playmaker. It was especially challenging to balance so many time-based objectives, player actions and stats, and outcomes. I managed this through various types of documentation including living documents, spreadsheet simulations, and storyboards.

Health and Status Systems
A crucial element of the game was the health and status systems, which tracked the player's well-being and appearance. I worked on simplifying these systems after early feedback indicated they were too complex. By refining the mechanics, I ensured that key stats like sleep, diet, and mood had a clear impact on the player’s ability to complete objectives and perform well in the game.

For example, the player's appearance was influenced by their bathing, grooming, and dental hygiene habits. A player who neglects any of these too much might appear as unpresentable at work, affecting their employment status and ultimately impacting their progression in the game.

I was responsible for documenting, balancing, and implementing the stats throughout the game with Playmaker, as well as checking implementations made by other designers.

Endings and Player Goals
Fresh Start also needed a meaningful way to conclude the experience. We wanted the player to feel a sense of accomplishment, but without the unrealistic expectation of “completing” their reentry process in the span of the game. The solution was to tie the game’s ending to the concept of earning reduced supervision time, a realistic and attainable goal for the audience.

In the final version, players can earn various endings based on how well they managed their objectives, with outcomes ranging from success (earning reduced supervision) to failure (violating supervision terms and being sent back to prison). These endings were balanced to reflect the importance of employment, health, and social support in successful reentry. I was responsible for defining and balancing the logic that determined outcomes, and hooking it all up in the editor.

Additionally, I helped define story elements, characters, settings, and themes to make player experiences more relatable and impactful.

Playtesting and Feedback
Throughout the development of Fresh Start, I was deeply involved in playtesting and refining the gameplay based on feedback. Since direct access to the target audience (justice-involved individuals) was limited, we trained SMEs to conduct the playtests. Their involvement provided us with valuable insights, helping us understand what resonated with the audience and which aspects of the game needed more attention.

The key challenges during playtesting were ensuring the game was understandable and engaging, given its complex subject matter. We used the feedback to fine-tune the objectives, interface, and overall pacing of the game to ensure it met both educational goals and gameplay standards.

Quality Assurance
On most projects at Simcoach Games, I played a key role in quality assurance. This involved rigorously testing each build, documenting issues according to studio procedures, and providing feedback during bug triages. I also worked to resolve issues when possible, recorded the process, and encouraged teammates to log any bugs or concerns.

Retrospective
Reflecting on Fresh Start, I believe the game succeeded in offering a valuable learning experience to justice-involved individuals while providing a thoughtful and engaging gameplay experience. However, like any project, there were areas that could have been improved by:

• Clarifying the effects of player actions, especially early on in the game. For example, more clearly pointing out that the player loses HP over time under certain conditions.

• Designing more explicit feedback systems for objective completion. This could make success more satisfying and guide the player to the to-do list more often. 

• Adding more depth to the player’s social interactions by providing additional ways to engage with the game world and build relationships that could impact their success.

Key Takeaways

• The value of collaborating with subject matter experts to ensure realism and meaningful player experiences.

• The benefit of iterative prototyping and visual documentation for refining gameplay mechanics.

• The lessons learned from balancing multiple time-based objectives, player statuses, and outcomes while maintaining clarity and engagement.

• The importance of clear feedback and gradual introduction of objectives to help players manage complex systems.

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