Hello, thought I'd make an update post about my current project The Midnight Room. I'll keep this post spoiler free, but I will discuss some of the technical stuff about the game. My primary goal is to improve the way I made Next Door Girl April. There were a lot of lessons learned making that game, and hopefully I will be able to make better games because of it.
NDGA stat system
The first thing I thought about improving, was the stat system in NDGA. So stats, or stat, in NDGA was really simple to manage for players and me developing the game. With just one thing to keep track of, there wasn't much difficulty in playing the game. Every choice that you made had a single effect on this stat, raise it, lower it or do nothing to it. The problem with this is it was just too easy, especially since I didn't prevent using the back button to change your mind. In order to add challenge, I put in a few tricks that rewarded following up on 'bad' choices with higher gains than you would have gotten had you made 'good' choices. The tricks worked, but they were only bandages to cover up a structural problem. So for Midnight Room, I knew I would need more stats.
MR stat system
One option is to just break down sex appeal into different stats, like attraction, physical attractiveness, mood, etc. The problem is some of those things are difficult to change with player choices, or just mundane like taking a shower. The addition of taking a shower in NDGA v 035 was kind of a joke, and I don't think it added anything to the overall experience of playing the game. What follows is my new approach, so don't continue reading if you'd rather wait to see it in the game.
So what I've decided to do is create a trio of stats, each of them a balance between two different personality traits. For example, kindness and aggression. How it works is actually pretty simple. You start with a neutral position, neither kind nor aggressive, and the choices that you make in the game change the stat, either moving it towards one direction or the other. Slapping someone on the face for example would move your personality towards aggression, while giving a compliment would move you towards kindness.
Implications with choice
The system is really interesting because choice by choice you are actually shaping the character into someone very specific. The importance of these choices grows, because since I can tell exactly what kinds of choices you make, I can then add more specific options, only available if a stat has enough weight to it. For example, say you are in a position where you need a ride somewhere and your friend has a car but you don't. If you have favored kindness, it makes sense that you would be able to ask your friend for a ride successfully. If you have favored aggression maybe you can coerce your friend to give you a ride. And if you haven't really favored aggression or kindness, maybe your friend will decide if they want to give you a ride. This is just a general example of how the system works, but there is more interesting stuff to it.
Implications with interactions
Since personalities do matter, and you are shaping the personality of the character you control, I can use that information to better match how NPCs (non playable characters) react towards you. In the previous example, if your friend dislikes aggression, trying to force them to give you a ride might back fire resulting in an argument. If they dislike kindness and you politely ask for a ride, they might take advantage and ask for money for the ride. The system adds a lot of depth that just wouldn't have been possible in NDGA without lots of guesses and variables to try and keep track of the value of choices.
Game play style experimentation
Aside from just changing stats, I am also breaking some of my 'rules' for the format of the game. In NDGA I followed a two paragraph, two choice rule, but it was limiting, and I'm not sure as to how successful it was. In Midnight Room I am trying to just make passages as long as necessary and add as many options as I think fit the passage. I would hope that longer passages don't lose the attention of players, and shorter passages don't feel incomplete, but I'll wait for feedback about it. I am also experimenting with different passage setups. NDGA used what I think of as Multiple choice styled links at the end of passages. I've used this style in Midnight Room, but I've also added what I consider a Twine style of links, embedded within passages, where it makes sense. Twine style fits well with exploratory sections of the game, where you can enter different rooms for example and interact with different people by your own choice. I am hoping the jump between styles is smooth enough where it won't hurt the game.
Multi-perspective gameplay
Finally, I've gone back to my original intention of including multiple perspectives to my stories. With NDGA I changed my mind about the game at some point and wanted to just make Donald's story stronger and I abandoned April's. My ideas about how to approach having two perspectives are different in Midnight Room and I think it works pretty well. There are two playable characters a male and a female. Hopefully players won't mind switching roles, but it really is key to the game.
So with all of that said, where am I at with the project? Well, I've decided to spend more time on polishing the game before I release it. With NDGA I shared the game without much thought. This time, I'd like to have something really good to share before I release it. It is kind of a large project, so I've considered releasing it in volumes just to get it out there faster. I believe I can use cookies to save game play data so that you can continue the game without a hitch, but I have yet to test the cookies with different systems/browsers. I you have any interest in being a guinea pig for a test version of the game, shoot me an email.
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