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(1 edit)

Subscribed and following, looking forward to your submission! You got a pretty solid outline for yourself, which definately helps. And since your asking for criticism:

"Not all dreams are realized, not all wishes are finished. 
You play as Hope - one of those lost dreams in the world. Interact with the world around you, meet people who have lost their own hopes and dreams to fear, while trying to find out what sort of wish you were meant to be. "

From this blurb, my main worry is pretentiousness. More specificly, your idea can work, but only if your characters have some sort of grounding. Go too abstract, and they're plot devices rather than characters. If they're just ideas, then what makes them important? Why should I care about these not-actually-people? They're not real people.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Actually, it's a great idea. The catch is what dreams are being lost. "I want to be an astronaut" is a lost dream, but there's a good case for not being an astronaut (the required military experience, the ridiculous education requirements, etc.). Compare that to "I want everyone I love to be happy", or "I want to walk again", or even "I want my son's killer to be punished". You have an opportunity to flat-out declare character motivations, but what do you want to say about it? When, if ever, should we give up on dreams? Why do people give up? Where's the line between hard and impossible?

Wherever you go with this, I'm interested to experience your POV. Can't wait to play!

If they're just ideas, then what makes them important? Why should I care about these not-actually-people? They're not real people

To a degree, this is something I'm already concerned about/aware of. I'm worried about how to make such a small little blip of a game be engaging, while not overextending myself.  There are certain things I want to avoid (backtracking, useless combat), but I also dont want something that just ends up numbing and boring to go through.

The majority of the "people" you encounter are actually going to be some version of a combat encounter. I'm not going to be trying to sell anyone on anything but the titular character, and one not-supporting but also not-quite-an-antagonist character.  Everyone else, while I want to show them some love, are also are probably not going to be much further defined than a  fear for you, the player character, to witness//to build on the player character as someone for them to resonate with. It's a selfish way to treat them, maybe, to put them there for Hope to reflect back onto herself, but that is the plan at the moment.  (If I have time, the encounters are the first and last thing I would devote every minute to to improving, to be honest, to try and give you more time and choices with them, but Hope/Other are the priority.)

Your point is a fantastic one. Hopefully as I go through development, you'll be able to tell me if I'm succeeding in engaging you with Hope, or if you feel disconnected from them.


As an aside from my own attempts - this was actually my only real critique after I played LOZ: A link between worlds. Mechanically, I thought that game was near flawless. Heart-wise, though. ....I was going through hell and back for people I spoke to one to three times, if even that many. I was really disappointed in how little time I was given to care about people who meant the apparent world to me.

I'd hate to end up a victim to my own critique, laughs.