A significant milestone… sort of.
December 20th, 2005Good news, everyone! This weekend, I finished the first of TGTTPOACS’s four endings. This means that you can technically finish the game, only you’ll also be able to wander into a fair share of not-yet-properly-coloured rooms and pick up a bunch of inventory items that would be of absolutely no use to you. Unfortunately, it still means I have quite a bit more work to do when it comes to the rest of the endings. I’d ballpark the overall completion of the game at about two thirds.
By the way, have I ever waxed poetic about the multiple endings thing in this blog before? No? Well, now’s as good a place to start as any. The Game That Takes Place on a Cruise Ship has four endings. Not four endings as in you choose one of four actions at the very end of the game and get a different cutscene. Not four endings as in three of them are actually death sequences. No, I mean four endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure sense. There is a part in the story where it splits off into two branches depending on what you do, and another split in each respective branch. Fun, huh?
As innovative as my idea has been, I’ve also found flaws in it as well. For one thing, since everything takes place on one cruise ship, the player will end up visiting a lot of characters and picking up a lot of items that they won’t have any use for in one story path (but will for another). Also, I get the feelings that the story paths on their own are going to feel incomplete, just because I haven’t really spent as much effort on them as I would have if I were making a linear game. For this reason, I’m expecting that at least a few people aren’t going to like the game. I say, pfft! My goal, after all, is to do something original and different, and have fun doing it. And that’s all that matters, isn’t it?
On another note, I only have one exam left. Yay!
December 21st, 2005 at 2:14 am
Couldn’t you try to squeeze in some significance in each scenario for characters that don’t have a prominent role? Expand a puzzle a tiny bit (sounds like a dirty trick if I put it like that, but from a player’s point of view it shouldn’t make much difference). Or just let them provide some info (hints? clues?).
I guess the items are a bit more trickery. I suppose you could just make an item not-pick-up-able once a certain path has been chosen. And if the item is already in the inventory at the point a path is chosen, maybe try to get rid of it in some way.
Personally, I think having a bunch of useless objects in an inventory is a big no-no — I guess it’s ok for a while, but you shouldn’t end a game with objects in your inventory that you’ve never used.
Naturally, I would forgive you, because the reason for this flaw in this case is a good enough compensation. And because I love you, of course.
Congrats on the milestone! I’m getting closer to finishing a part on my game as well, and it’s really something to look forward to
If I had a blog, I would SO announce it too! (looks like, in stead, I’m abusing the reply field on your blog… should I feel ashamed now?)
December 21st, 2005 at 11:52 am
Yeah, that’s actually what I’ve been trying to do in some cases. I’ve attempted to put myself in the shoes of the player and make sure I have dialogue options for characters who aren’t part of the puzzle in question but could be. I’m going to use beta testers in this respect as well, so stay tuned!
I’m also making it so that you can use some objects in more than one story path, and so for certain puzzles, you have a choice between several items you can use. (i.e. if you need to cut something up, you can either use the scissors you found in one place or the knife you found somewhere else.)
Really, what I have in mind is a game that’s exploratory in nature. There’s a lot you can do at the beginning that may not have a purpose to you (yet), but then again, when you first get on a cruise ship, you aren’t assigned a specific task and made to complete it right away. You explore. Perhaps you lounge around in your room and order room service. Perhaps you browse around the gift shop. You can do all that and more in this game, and eventually, after browsing around to your heart’s content, you’ll find yourself in the middle of a plot. That’s the idea.
December 22nd, 2005 at 2:06 am
I usually just sit back with a puke bag under my mouth all the time. I don’t find myself in the middle of any plot then, though. Which is sad.
December 22nd, 2005 at 2:12 am
Poor you. Well, I guess this’ll be your chance to enjoy a cruise without getting sick.
Or you could always pop in a Gravol or two. That helps.
December 22nd, 2005 at 2:31 am
Deal. Just don’t hide them too much. Or have them guarded by a woolf, or so.
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:31 pm
I think having a few spare items left around never hurts. Otherwise some puzzles are too easy, and as long as you don’t go crazy with having red-herring type items the player won’t mind. I feel weird if when a game ends I don’t have stuff left over…
And the left over items (if interesting enough) can help to encourage the player to play again to find the alternate endings…