It is way more fun to play and replay when everyone has their own story too
Viewing post in Devlog - Reuben's Route (Progress 2) comments
I sometimes like getting to see different characters reacting to the same situation - which you don't always get to see when everyone has a unique story.
But for the same situation/different characters thing to be engagement, the reactions and vibe of each character really have to differ substantially. I think that's the weakness of the overlapping route structure. It has the potential to be quite engaging, in my opinion, but it's really hard to execute that. (Speaking from experience, my "overlapping route" game has been SO hard to write. It's way, way harder than I thought it would be!)
I could ramble on about game structure for a long time, but that's more suited to Discord. LoL! I have a lot of thoughts about what makes the different structures fun to play and also what makes them fun to create, though.
I do prefer giving everyone their own story, though. So this one project will be the only one with overlapping routes. I'm glad I'm trying it out but I don't think it's my writing preference. ( •̀ ω •́ )✧
I should clarify. I do like some games where routes overlap! I think a great example of this is the game Reverie Ebon Light. They allow the MC to have vastly different personalities and still achieve favorable outcomes and have enough variation in routes to have high replay ability. It is also free and has an extensive glossary! I think I've just played too many recently that have been not as fun to play. It can definitely be a great and different way to tell a story and yes seeing different characters reactions (especially where they interact with each other) is always interesting.
I love Ebon Light! It's one of my favourite games. ╰(*°▽°*)╯
The dev did such a great job of making it interesting to replay. That is definitely the style of experience I'd like to create too - something where people look forward to replaying to see how other characters act in their unique character moments.