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Dialogue Choices

Just thought I'd share the goings on with regards to my project with my two suscribers. Love you both. <3

As I've mentioned on my game page, I'm putting more emphasis on dialogue, cutscenes and exploration than the battle system. Currently I'm working on the many NPCs scattered across the town the game is based in, and was wondering how you guys feel about NPC dialogue. Note: by NPC I don't necessarily mean non-playable characters that have a serious effect on the game's proceedings, but rather the type who'd repeatedly proclaim "WELCOME TO _____ TOWN" with mashing of the 'A' button.

So, dear reader, I ask you how much emphasis do you prefer on this type of NPC?

Would you be generally hit 'A' more than once to see how many responses the character comes up with, or are you more of a press-and-run player? Input much appreciated!

Posts

Pages: 1
ivoryjones
75
07/31/2012 01:36 AM
It really depends. I mean, if the 'hero' is someone who has lived in the neighbourhood for god knows how long, then it'd make more sense to talk to "Mrs Smith" rather than a nameless stranger. And since you've mentioned more emphasis will be on dialogues, NPCs shouldn't be excluded too, right?

Well, RE your second question, if the dialogue has 'hints' that the convo would change, I'd hit more than once; otherwise I wouldn't bother pressing them again.

If you want an example of NPCs well done, check out this game. You don't have to play the whole thing, just enough to control Ryan and go around the neighbourhood.
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
07/31/2012 01:50 AM
I tend to check if the NPCs have more than one line, but the problem then is that you can just read all the lines in a row, which doesn't make much sense, there has to be some kind of trick to avoid that.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
07/31/2012 02:39 AM
Personally I prefer this type of NPC to not even be interactive. They stand there, and make the town look more lively, and maybe a few of them talk to each-other, but anything they might say to you is instead said by fewer, more important NPCs.

Aside from being more realistic, I feel like this has the added bonus of giving your more important characters extra characterization. No one is really going to come to life with two or three dialogue boxes of text, right? But you can combine five of those characters' worth of yammering into one guy, spread out across a few different points in the game and maybe a minor cut scene, and suddenly he has a lot to say and seems a lot more like a character instead of a... sign.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3229
07/31/2012 10:27 AM
Thanks for the input, guys. For some reason I was under the impression that most people would have preferred more detailed 'filler' NPCs but clearly I'm in the wrong.

With regards to hinting at one than more line/box of text, I could always allow the player to prompt the character for more details if they wished.
Pages: 1