Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
(+3)

Hey Naughty Sparkle, thanks a lot for your feedback.

Here's the thing: the "name" of the Speedrunner background is completely incidental: it's an excuse to goof off. There's a lot of ideas we have for the game that end up not making the cut, but we felt like throwing in anyway. Since backgrounds are something that players pick at the very start of the game, it's a good excuse to make a separate playthrough that doesn't take the game too seriously.

Think of it like the Wild Wasteland perk in Fallout New Vegas:  https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Wild_Wasteland

Why did we go with speedrunner for the actual "profession" to give the player character for this background? I don't know, we just found it goofy. Jokes aside, speedrunning is really enjoyable to watch, both glitch runs that break the game apart and offer insight on how some aspects of the game were put together, or glitchless runs that breeze through games the way they were intended to be played as fast as possible. Shit, I've done speedruns myself on stream for friends. I don't think it's a hobby that is worthy of mockery.

So, yes, like you said, someone with experience with breaking systems apart and exploiting flaws in programming logic would probably do amazing as Master of the hotel- had we decided to take the background seriously.

Honestly, I came up with the player backgrounds idea very, very early in development and it's one of the few regrets I have with Minotaur Hotel. Out of the six backgrounds, four of them expect the player to have some sort of tertiary education, one of them flat out makes you Chad Thundercock, and the last one makes you kind of an idiot with no sense of object permanence. We could have used one or two more relatable options for average joes. I don't think I considered it at the time because I was thinking of gameplay utility first- I don't know a lot of people that are actual mathematicians, but Math makes perfect sense as a background for a gameplay perk that lets players see extra in-game variables and optimize their teams better.

In any case, we mellowed out a lot around 0.3 and decided to be more sympathetic and less mean when writing for this background. You can be a cringelord that makes crayola model magic medallions and thinks the best thing to show Asterion the moment you get internet access is Nostalgia Critic compilation videos, and still earn his heart.

(+2)

If it makes you feel any better, I have a friend who's a math professor and is also a furry.

Though if we're on the topic on backgrounds, one critique I'd have is that Math and Technology could likely have been condensed into one background as I feel you'd need some skill with math to be good with modern technology. I'm sure you could have also condensed Leadership and Humanitarian into one as well. I read somewhere (the wiki probably) that you did want more layman backgrounds. Some similar backgrounds that don't necessarily require as much schooling but are nonetheless important and require a lot of skills would be some sort of business manager (lower down the chain like retail or restaurant) or running with Naughty Sparkle's idea of an athletic background, a construction worker or a foreman. 

I can see what you were going for in terms of coming up with these backgrounds and how to make it relevant to the game, it's story and making the player more customizable in a way that isn't just an aesthetic. I also understand being too deep to make major changes like combining backgrounds and adding new ones. That might be something more to do when the story and the game is close to or is pretty much complete from beginning to end so you can step back and see what worked and what didn't. If there is an opportunity to refine Minotaur Hotel, then maybe the team can refine the backgrounds. Either way, it's a good learning experience to take if you all  work on a new project in the future.

(+1)(-1)

Fuck