Posted October 01, 2024 by PowerOfSin
So, I reached a point where I can post the first prototype of the game for people to try. I decided to polish it to a working prototype state before continuing production by making a different prototype.
Why?
This took too long to make, and art isn't even in it yet.
I did spend quite a bit of time on writing, but a lot more was spent on covering for all the variations in the story flow, including completely scrapping certain event directions and minimizing choices after big overlaps. And I am not too happy with my writing either.
One of the core ideas I had to follow for the game was to have meaningful choices and a good variety of them. Turns out, if you have a choice that requires a dice roll, that is a choice that has two outcomes that both need to be written, but the player only sees one choice presented to them. So, some in game choices appear to only have 3 choices but I have to write 6 events to cover their outcomes. Some lead to similar results so I can reuse the flow, but a lot of them are completely different, and it takes a lot until the flow returns back (if at all).
This on it's own is not that bad, but the exponential complexity really leads to a lot of work that cannot be anticipated in advance. And I am uncertain if readers will even appreciate the effort put in for all the little nuances and variants. And if you are lucky with your rolls, you will entirely miss most of the meat of the story, which is not the best way to 'reward' players.
Here I only made a single event (technically 3 successive ones) and it took me several weeks to put together, and I do not feel like I made enough content to make it worth the time invested. And the illustrations haven't even been started xD
So, I want to try a different type of prototype once I finish the art for this one. One that is a lot more neutral and 'gamey' in it's presentation of events. Minimize words and focus more on showing than telling.
What shape it will be is yet to be decided.