Everyone is Happy

So, I completely fell into the trap of feature creep. This is particularly annoying because I KNEW it was a risk and first games should be kept simple. Despite this, I ended up spending so much time trying to figure out and implement new features that I wasn't actually progressing.

So I have had a good talking to myself, reminded myself that this is my first attempt and "This would be great" doesn't necessarily mean "I should add it". I've also told myself to just relax about using the character generator, it's fine. It's not a commercial game, and trying to design art was detracting from actually working on what is important, the story.

(I totally understand that the community likes custom art. But I need to decide where to focus my time. I may or may not go with a pixellated effect for the characters later, depending, but I am going to stop letting it distract me from this.)

I also have to stop wasting time trying to get the mapping perfect. It's a dialogue based game, that and the storytelling are more important.

In a way, it was easier when I assumed no one would ever play this but my wife. :D I got caught in the trap of wanting to please people too much, because I was so touched and pleased (and still am!) that people showed interest. I just have to be realistic about, while I want this to be as good as I can possibly make it, I'm a newbie and it's always going to be a learning experience.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is, once I'd decided to drop all the "they would be awesome" features and strip it down to the basics (storytelling), I suddenly started making progress again! I got more down in two hours yesterday than I have in ages. :D And it's fun again.

My current goal is to get the first act playable as a beta demo ASAP. All the variables for later in the game may not necessarily be in place, as I need to play with weighting, but the first stage of storytelling should be there ASAP.

The only thing I want to mention is that my little nine year old cousin told me he wants to be a game developer when he grows up, so I got him RPGMaker in the Humble bundle. :D He has been working on a Game Maker Pacman clone for the last year.

Also, I'm continuing to learn to code, if not for this project, for later, because it's fun.

I'm finding this blog really helpful in keeping motivated. And it means a lot to me to have people interested in the game and where it is going. I really didn't expect that, and you guys have been great. A special shout-out to BurningTyger for all the help!

Not much to report this week, as I've been starting to put a webpage together in my limited computer time. Game wise, it's mostly been going on in my head and in my notes. I've been figuring out mechanics, such as they are, and researching minigames.

I made a decision to scrap the relationship scores, as I want relationships to be purely narrative choices. Instead, I'm working out spectrums for attributes as perceived by the audience, e.g. compliant<==>rebellious. I always intended for certain conversation decisions to be made to have repercussions in the end-game of the main route, but rather than switches for several major decisions, I think it will be more elegant and far easier to implement using variables for traits. Also, it might be fun to be able to check how Connie's personality is shaping, at least in the eyes of her viewers!

It would have been easier to do it from the start, of course, but the sooner the better. Shouldn't be an overwhelming task, just creating the variables and inserting changes at certain key choices.

For my own reference and for anyone who finds it helpful, I'm providing a short list of links I'm finding helpful in planning and writing my game.

What's prompted this is that I'm currently working on one of the most complex early events in "Everyone", the first time Connie (potentially) encounters Lance, Mimette and Elaine. While the conversation should be fairly short to play through, it's a pain in the neck to write because of what it needs to take account of: Does Connie already know Lance is playing the Game? If so, how did she find out? Does she know his Caste and Career assignment? Has she encountered Verity? If so, what choices did she make in their encounter? Has she investigated the photo?

And then there's the choices she can make in this event...

Some of these choices affect the plot, then or later in the game. Some merely affect flavour. But it's important to me that the player choices, even if it's just the decision of what order to do things, are reflected in conversations.

And it's also important to me that if the player wants to skip all this talking and exploring and looking at things, they can do that, too. So this encounter might not even happen in a play through. :|

A note on resources: Twine, while intended as an interactive fiction engine in itself, is an absolutely invaluable and free) way to plot and imagine branching dialogues and plots without getting confused. I wish wish wish I'd started using it earlier. Preferably from the start, but definitely before I embarked on this event.

Now, the list:

By the numbers: how to write a long interactive novel that doesn't suck--aggressive merging and delayed branching.

Writing branching game conversations the easy way – approach from my indie game--planning and narrative beats.

New challenges in writing meaningful game dialogue--further considerations to above

Developing meaningful character arcs in branching narratives--recontextualization.

The storytelling secrets of Virtue's Last Reward--letting the needs of the story and interpersonal conflict create characters rather than vice versa

Teletheory: grammatology in the age of video--post structuralism :| Not immediately helpful, but does affect how I think of non-linear writing.

Also, Rules for writing interesting choices in multiple choice games--what it says on the box

In the final article, I REALLY disagree with with the "fake choices" bit.

Example: "Choice of Romance" has way too many fake choices. There's nothing like agonising over a choice only to look at the code and realise that, no matter what you chose, NOTHING changes. For instance, you get the exact same text and no stat or event changes depending on whether you go to the tournament dressed sexily to please the monarch, practically to compete, or attractively but modestly, despite the fact that there are stats for reputation and relationship for the monarch already in the game.

That kind of fake interactivity leaves me feeling cheated and irritated. Even if the only change is flavour text, there should be some result from asking the player to make a choice, even if it's only a change in flavour text.

Not much to update over the weekend, as I was flat with a migraine and the heat wave didn't help, so not much done. Also the baby is magnetically attracted to the power button on the laptop, so I don't get much done when he's awake!

I did get a fair amount of feedback that the default text wasn't working. I agree, but I'd left it for later, thinking it was a last minute job. Given the concrit, I bumped it up a little and went on a font hunt. Thanks to BurningTyger for getting me started, and for suggesting dropping the subtitle.

I've also been fiddling around with the face and emo sets, and changing their character generator selves to look more pixelated to fit in with the general look. After that, just generally playing through and catching oddities (like Verity changing back to her original hair colour if you have a bad conversation with her, oops.)

I always thought I was meticulous in this kind of thing, so I'm alarmed at how many little errors there are!