Through the eyes of beginner game designers: An experience report on the pre-production of our first commercial game

Digital games are one of the most prominent forms of entertainment in the contemporary world. For those that are inspired by such games, there's the possibility of a career path in the production of digital games. In this work, we aim to report on the pre-production stage of our first commercial game, which is "Meu jardinzinho" (Portuguese for "My little garden"). By briefly describing our ideation, design and prototyping process, we intend to discuss the results from what we learned from Scott Rogers' book, "Level Up! The guide to great video game design", through our lens as beginner game designers. Our results tell us that, even by following the steps proposed in the book, the execution is not straightforward, requiring more experience and rework than anticipated.