Andy the Avocado

I was brainstorming several ideas and being an avocado lover myself of course one of them revolved around the fruit. I wanted to make something that was cute and cartoon-like but still funny and something that people of my age could enjoy. Guacamole is the one of the main things that avocados are used for here in the great state of Texas so I figured that would be relevant to include. His name is Andy because I liked the alliteration. The idea of a small avocado rolling himself out a window or through a backdoor just made me laugh because it’s so ridiculous; that’s why I wanted to base my game around this character. As I began making the game I knew I needed something more than just a funny little avocado. It was at this point in the process that I thought about how lonely and difficult it would be to leave everything you’ve ever known in order to simply survive. Andy’s want is clear from the first passage of this game; he wants to be free and does not want to be guacamole. His needs are more complex than that and I purposefully wanted them to only become clear towards the end of the game. Andy seems to run into problems at every turn and he pretty much always conquers them by himself. However, as the game continues it becomes clear that he does need family of his own. Andy must fill the void in himself not with freedom, but with family in order to be truly happy. That is the point of this game, to not just survive or be content with others, it’s to become his own man- or avocado if you will, and create a family that is all his own.

            The want for freedom verses the need to have family. Andy can achieve freedom on his own, but he will never get to his own family if he does not learn to give and accept help from others. While creating this game I did not want it to be overtly obvious that every time the player makes a choice to be on their own something bad happens. I tried my best to make this subtle so that it becomes clear the more that the player goes through the game. It may seem like the right thing to do to not burden others but it ends up hurting Andy in the end.

            If Andy decides to not take the chipmunk’s hand it leads him to the bluebird, which is another opportunity to engage with someone. If he does not do this than he ends up back on the farm that he was originally collected from. This is obviously the worst outcome out of the three possible ones. If he does take the chipmunk’s hand shortly afterwards he is presented with the opportunity to live with them. If he accepts he is given a family and is not unhappy but there is opportunity for better which is why I included the option to go back to the start of the game. If Andy makes the decision to decline and wants to be by himself, he ends up back at the farm. I think that these dilemma choices in particular define Andy’s wants and needs.

            In reference to the dilemmas discussed in the previous paragraph, there were several story beats I had to come up with so that they made sense. The hawk character was a key player here. It doesn’t really matter what choice the player makes, the hawk will pick up Andy and then drop him regardless. I needed a funny way to move the story along and make Andy meet the bluebird. I liked the idea of the hawk because they are constantly trolling for prey and are known for picking up small items on the forest floor. The bluebird was added because I wanted Andy to have the chance to do something good and make a friend. A bluebird is a cute harmless creature who could also be found in a forest so that’s why she was selected. Even though this choice is a dilemma Andy was rewarded for helping and making a connection with someone and ended up with a less than pleasant fate if he passed up this opportunity and continued with his solo mission. The chipmunk family was also added because I wanted a dilemma for another branch of the story and I also wanted to present the player with a sort of “in-between” ending, not the best but also not the worst.

            For me the most difficult part of this story was making sure I gave the player enough choices that actually affected the outcome of the game. Typically, if I am writing a story I have one ending in mind that I like the most and that’s what I go with. This game presented the challenge of having multiple outcomes and some choices that I wouldn’t pick. Although this was hard for me to adapt to and I wanted to just force them to make the choices I liked, it is the beauty of a choose your own adventure game. The player can shape the character as they go.  

            In order to make sure that the player or reader of my game enjoyed it I tried to make my characters likable. Andy is the main one and the rest don’t get too much screen time, but they are all cute woodland creatures. I think this automatically helps with their likability. I wanted some passages to be funny and silly and others to be more serious, like a story book. I tried to balance the cuteness with comedy so that people would be entertained and still find Andy adorable. I also think it’s very funny to play this game as a devil’s advocate and make the “wrong” choices. An itty bitty avocado trying to fight off a hawk with a stick is just funny. By making the characters inherently cute it allowed me to make the passages that suited Andy’s wants or needs because I knew that either way people would find it funny or adorable.