Post by st33d in Death and Rebirth comments

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I'm going to switch to numeric soon, it would look a lot neater in the corner on the map. The side by side layout is just for PC, I need to set up adapting to different screens.

A bullet point means an option is being executed. The arrows are actually options and have the same currency as a choice, so they must have a bullet point near them. Without the word "exit" the player has no context for the arrows - do they scroll the text or move the player within the room? Some rooms don't use the word exit, giving further context to how you leave. I understand the problems with it, but if I redesigned it there would still be the need for a bullet and text.

There is no stamina "check". It is a resource you spend to solve rooms. If an option says it costs stamina points, that is the maximum amount of stamina the action will cost - that is the rule. The reason is that there are many ways in which an option could cost less:

The game might spend your luck for you to remove the cost.
The option might be a trick, to convince you the option is more dangerous than it appears.
The option may lead to a purely random outcome (costing the amount of sp or less).

Therefore if the game says 2-4sp, it may be mitigated by luck, it may be a trick, or it could even be a series of costly actions (eg: the chugging the barrel of beer challenge in the drinks room).

Vasilis Chonianakis5 years ago

Excellent choice about the numeric stamina! This would be my choice also! As far the different layouts are they really necessary? After all there are max 2 different layouts needed for a game. A desktop layout and a mobile layout. The current layout (desktop layout) can easily be used for the mobile version in landscape mode. As a fellow developer (I know the cost of different layout for different devices all too well) I think it is best to stick to one (current) layout.

Maybe I didn't explains correctly about the "exit" bullet (sorry, English isn't my native language). Let's me give you an example instead about the "action menu":

* do action 1
* do action 2
or choose a exit to move
[directions icons here]

if no actions except exit are available simply show "choose a exit to move" and the icons

In any case the exit bullet is a minor thing so...

As far the stamina cost it look to me like too many variables outside the player control that can affect the actual cost. I personally don't like at all the second reason you refer (the one about being a trick). Since this is a text game with minimal graphics how the player can deduce it's a "trick" cost instead of an actual one? In the first version of your game (which now that I remember it has a few of those trick costs) I always consider myself lucky of passing some check instead of realizing that is a trick cost.

I hope my questions/suggestions haven't offended you in any way. I really like your game.

st33d5 years ago

Most people don't like using a phone in landscape mode - we make mobile games at my place of work. Offering a choice is best.

Stating "choose exit to move" conflicts with the exit text not always being "exit". Sometimes it needs to say other things. I'll need to ask others how they feel about the exit option.

Stamina is meant to be a boring cost to exit a room. I describe that cost in many ways, but it's basically what it says on the option. If it costs less, you were lucky. There is no strategy, you are meant to treat it as a timer. Sometimes I try to make the timer go down slower because I want to tell a story. And ultimately, telling a story is all I want to do. I don't know how to make a room sound scary or telling surprising encounters without the ability to misdirect. If a particular room feels unfair, then maybe that's something I can address, but I don't want to create an RPG system that you can pull apart and cheese. It's just meant to be a hunger clock, I don't want to write a deep system for this particular game.

itch.io

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