That's Not How It Happened
That's Not How It Happened from Luke D'Errico
That's Not How It Happened

That's Not How It Happened is a cross-genre game about a family's roadside inn burning down and the family's differing perspectives leading to these events. Each character's gameplay sections are a different genre. The gameplay of George, the patriarchal father, is an action beat-em-up brawler. The teenage son's gameplay is a dating simulator with the game's villain Verity. Zoey, the Brainiac six-year old, is a point-and-click adventure puzzle. These differing perspectives and gameplay sections are sequenced through interactive visual novels.


I did usability and QA for the year-long Advanced Game Project with a team of incredibly talented USC students.

Of all the works in my portfolio, TNHIH (That's Not How It Happened) is still my favorite and makes me the most proud to have worked on this amazing game.

View Website
This is the QA Test Plan for That's Not How It Happened. Hundreds of bugs, issues, and likes/dislikes were reported using Google sheets based on dozens of external and internal playtesters.
View PDF
This is the last weekly usability report, which features all of the most important, necessary-to-fix feedback and issues based on playtesters' sessions. Each report is organized by each disciplinary team and written clearly and concisely to facilitate the quickest, most effective iterative changes.
View PDF
This video is an edited playtest session occurring about a month before Beta. All playtest sessions were done over Discord due to Covid.
Cover art for TNHIH featuring the Turner family and their inn burning down!
This is the visual novel portion of TNHIH, which features the Turner family discussing how their inn burned down. This section comedically bridges the individual gameplay sections for each of our main characters.
This section is George's Beat-em-up brawler. George recounts how the inn burned down by imagining himself as a powerful action hero who beats up Verity (the game's villain) and her thugs. Only in his own section, George is powerful and respected, whereas in the rest of the game, his family jokingly makes fun of him.
This section is Alan's dating simulator where he tries to seduce Verity. In this section, Verity is in love with Alan, but in the rest of the game, Alan is the butt of the joke and Verity has no interest in him.
This section is Zoey's point-and-click mystery adventure where has to use her expert detective skills to solve the mystery of how the inn burned down and Verity's role in doing so.
After each of the three main gameplay section, the visual novel explodes into a final battle between Rose and Verity.
gLike
That's Not How It Happened

That's Not How It Happened is a cross-genre game about a family's roadside inn burning down and the family's differing perspectives leading to these events. Each character's gameplay sections are a different genre. The gameplay of George, the patriarchal father, is an action beat-em-up brawler. The teenage son's gameplay is a dating simulator with the game's villain Verity. Zoey, the Brainiac six-year old, is a point-and-click adventure puzzle. These differing perspectives and gameplay sections are sequenced through interactive visual novels.


I did usability and QA for the year-long Advanced Game Project with a team of incredibly talented USC students.

Of all the works in my portfolio, TNHIH (That's Not How It Happened) is still my favorite and makes me the most proud to have worked on this amazing game.

View Website
Available
Freelance, Full-time
Luke D'Errico
Game Designer Los Angeles, CA