DRAGNFLY'S PROFILE

A bit ago I took a flashback cutscene and switched it to an interactive segment. This gave the chance for a character who had very limited development before to get lots from interacting with objects and the flavour text in their equipment/skills.

I have another flashback scene involving a different character that I want to give the same treatment to. The drawback with this one is that they spend the entire scene chained to a wall. They'd be able to move, like, 4 spaces and that's only if I can get the money for omni-directional sprites. Otherwise, they won't be able to move at all. They could just accept, cancel, and bring up their menu.

The bonus to this is that I could put extra character development in their equipment/skills and make actions they take require player interaction (something I've always been a fan of). Invisible timers would be added for the next scene to start, or they could start by selecting a certain thing option.

The drawbacks I see are that, first, lots of people are absurd levels of impatient. Freaking out over a 30-second delay isn't uncommon. I don't understand, but of course, I don't want my players to have a scene ruined for them because of that (even if, to me, it adds to the gravity of the scene). Secondly, I'm worried that people may feel it's pointless or a waste of time to have control of somebody who can't really move.

So is this a good idea or a bad idea?

I'm starting to get some puzzles into my project and it dawned on me that, for various different reasons, the characters shouldn't be struggling with these puzzles.

Example A involves character/player knowledge separation. In this example puzzle, you get the answers by talking to the party, looking at the character art in their status screen and some in the gallery to align tattoos on a mural. I thought this was a fairly innovative Kojima-esque puzzle that would have the players think outside the box to solve it.

The problem is that the character should have no problem solving it. It's her body. It's her tattoos. She should know where each different one goes.

Example B involves character/player intelligence separation. One of the characters is very wise and I noticed that any of the puzzles where they are in the party would be a snap for them to solve. But some of these puzzles are likely going to be difficult. I foresee many players turning to the guide for answers. I've been through these sections with a fine-toothed comb and I can't simply remove the character for those bits.

So my current stance is to just let it go. Games have us do illogical stuff all the time. Especially puzzle adventure games. They even often poke fun at why you need to go through so much just to open a door, or what you need all this random junk for.

But a part of me is worried that the players won't accept it as easily as I do. If that number is too high I'd consider it a problem.

While working on parts of my project that aren't the maps and sprites I've been working on for ages (LOL) I came to realize that the drastic size difference between my characters presents a problem with busts. So here I am with another poll to get a feel for preference in different game communities.

The pros and cons are pretty much opposite to each other. Depicting character sizes accurately will cause small characters to be buried behind the text box. But making everyone of equal size affects the player's perception of their sizes (even if to-scale sprites are right there on screen most of the time).

Asdivine Hearts handled this in a most awesome manner with one of its small characters jumping up and hanging off the text box. We love ya, Felix, but none of my characters are quite that small.

An old on-hiatus game of mine dealt with the issue because the one small character was floating, which made her essentially average "height".

I've also seen other games start the bust at the chest or waist rather than the more-common knees. I can't use this method because one part of the game actually relies on the busts being from at least the hip up.

jRPGs and Japanese visual novels that have large differences in size between characters seem to fudge it a lot. I didn't see any common industry trend to it.

Sorry for forgetting this important info. In my case the sizes are like this.
smallest = 145cm (57")
tallest = 233cm (92")

(NOTE: This isn't a topic for if games should use busts or not. There's already topics for that. This only pertains to games that use busts.)

The horror game I've been making has 35 (that number keeps changing) collectible Bad Ends. You get these when you die and receive a death scene. In the options it can be set to Always Skip, Never Skip, or Only Skip if Seen Before. You also have a gallery menu where you can re-watch them if you so wish. These death scenes are brutally violent or just ultra dark in nature. I'm really trying my hardest with them.

Although they're untitled when you get them, in the gallery menu they need to have titles and will be greyed out until obtained. And I'm stumped on what style to go with for naming them. Here are my ideas:

1) Make them funny. The drawback to this is that while the game does have some comedy it's not in any of the dangerous areas and with how brutal some of these deaths are it feels odd to joke about them with funny titles. The plus side is that it's a bonus menu so you won't be seeing it alongside any of the areas in the main game.

2) Name them what they are. The drawback is that "Fell off a ledge" "Burned alive" etc just feels kind of bland and unrewarding. The plus is that it can help people remember what ones they've got and haven't gotten.

3) Name them hints on how to get them. The drawback to this is that the game already has a system for hints on how to AVOID dying. So naturally doing the opposite will get you killed, making these hints moot. The plus side is it will help people easier track any deaths they've missed.

4) Name them after horror and ultraviolent movies/games/serial killers/etc that relate to the Bad End in some way. The drawback is that referencing out-of-game media or events might make me sound like one of those pop culture goons who can't talk without referencing some movie or game. The plus side is people will look up the references they don't get and will learn something new, which I'm all for.

Thanks to everyone who votes and to anyone who comments.