Player Character Presentation
Russell "Coconut Daemon" Bailey
settle on certain aspects of player character presentation. It's a
graphic game, but will rely heavily on text... especially in the form
of dialogue. Dialogue is menu-based (because of the limits of keyword
speech).
My question comes in with the dialogue: despite plot branching (and the
consequent branching of the dialogue... or is it the other way 'round?)
there are certain ways the hero _must_ act and feel. So, what's the
best way to present those? Should the player character simply speak out
without warning when a non-negotiable situation comes up? Should a
short passage of text describe the PC's reaction appear before the
on-screen character says something? Should the user have multiple
choices that provoke the same reaction? I want the game to be about the
player, and that's important... I don't want users to think of the guy
on the screen as a separate person, but as themselves. So what do you
all think?
Russell
Russell "Coconut Daemon" Bailey
> the character can feel. If you give a list of choices then you may (if
> you're a *really* good writer) fool people into not realizing that they're
> all the same.
>
It's the one I lean toward, myself.
> My advice is to rethink the "_must_" part.
Here's the problem with that: a plot can only be so flexible. The player
can't, for instance, go off and abandon the path completely. They can only
make a certain number of choices in any instance. Sometimes, that's going to
be one. Otherwise, the plot gets exponentially bigger. So when there's no
choice, how does one simulate it? For the overall plot, as well as
dialogue, I'm thinking I'll try to provide a lot of extra branches which get
pruned quickly by re-insertion into the main tree. Thoughts?
Russell
Joe Mason
<cctd...@erols.com> wrote:
>
>My question comes in with the dialogue: despite plot branching (and the
>consequent branching of the dialogue... or is it the other way 'round?)
>there are certain ways the hero _must_ act and feel. So, what's the
Careful with this. You must be extremely subtle. The best way to do it
is if nobody ever notices.
>best way to present those? Should the player character simply speak out
>without warning when a non-negotiable situation comes up? Should a
>short passage of text describe the PC's reaction appear before the
>on-screen character says something? Should the user have multiple
>choices that provoke the same reaction? I want the game to be about the
The third. The first two make it obvious that there's only one way which
the character can feel. If you give a list of choices then you may (if
you're a *really* good writer) fool people into not realizing that they're
all the same.
Don't bet on it, though.
My advice is to rethink the "_must_" part.
Joe
jdb...@my-dejanews.com
> can't, for instance, go off and abandon the path completely. They can only
> make a certain number of choices in any instance. Sometimes, that's going to
> be one. Otherwise, the plot gets exponentially bigger. So when there's no
> choice, how does one simulate it? For the overall plot, as well as
> dialogue, I'm thinking I'll try to provide a lot of extra branches which get
> pruned quickly by re-insertion into the main tree. Thoughts?
How defined is your player character (PC)? As discussed in length here and
elsewhere (Old Xyzzy news articles, etc...), one aspect of any game is just
that. Is the PC an ancient, impotent, vegetarian teddy bear from New York or
a cipher hero like the Zork PC. The more defined the PC, the more the author
CAN specify how he/she/it feels and what he/she/it might act in a given
situation.
Using those two examples, you would be able to justify steering the former
PC in his quest for the Fountain of Plush Herbal Viagra since that's an
important issue to him. For the latter, forcing such an undefined character
to charter a plane to Nebraska because suddenly he has a longing for
cornfields is unjustly manipulating.
Of COURSE you must employ "tricks" such as all branches leading to the same
ending for the reasons you mentioned. The art comes in with how you
integrate PC and story, and how satisfying you make the experiences along the
way. I recommend reading about IF design issues (again, check the Xyzzy
page). How you choose to define your world isn't nearly as important as the
creating. But once you've built your foundation, the house must go up
accordingly or you will fail.
JDAB
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