Posted December 13, 2023 by echosphere
#devlog #solodeveloper #dialogue #beginner developer
The game I'm creating, Villainess Lifesim, is a cross between the villainess webtoon genre and Bitlife. Similar to other life simulations I want my game to have many unique events and dialogue responses. These responses to a player's action bring the game to life and makes us anticipate what random event will happen next. Without them, the in game world feels dead.
I'm working on 100-150 unique responses per interaction and currently, the main issue is time. Since I'm solo developing the game, I'm working on a lot at once and with limited time in a day. Moreover, Villainess Lifesim is set in a time period I know very little about. As a result, I'm spending time researching, creating a list of dialogue events, adding them to the dialogue tree, and adding them into the actual game.
While working on this, I decided to keep two things in mind.
Firstly, don't try to make it perfect because there's always time to change things. In fact, change is inevitable for a game. As I learn more and grow, I can update the dialogue that appears in game.
Secondly, set a limit. Without limits, we become lost. Its well known that constraints improve creativity as well. To start, I've been adding 24 different dialogue responses and only for social interactions.
<span class="NormalTextRun SCXW66054420 BCX0" <then="" <="" span="">Then I'll move on to other parts of the game that needs updating, before returning to the dialogue again. </span>
So far, this has worked well for me. I don't feel as overwhelmed, and it stops me from spending too much time on one section.
The other issue with writing so much dialogue is keeping ideas fresh. At some point I feel like I can't come up with anything original. I get annoyed. I want to give up. But then I remember the saying "Don't try to reinvent the wheel." Instead of thinking up completely new ideas, I re-use old ones and add a spin to it. For example, I would change the location, add a negative or positive reaction, add another character, or add a problem that players can solve.
In the end, creativity is taking what exists and moulding it into something different; but the core material hasn't changed.
Hope this helps whoever is reading.