I was both surprised and disappointed when I reached the end of this chapter, as everything up to that point had been at the level of polish and quality of a much more mature game. If this level of quality can be maintained, this will be an excellent game.
That said, I have some gripes. TBH, I had similar misgivings about Animus non Grata, and it may be because I am not a fan of linear stories.
I would prefer for that the character to be given more agency, choices that offer the illusion of choosing their destiny, even if it is pretend-agency that fortuitous "circumstances" force back to the same outcome after a few pages.
And I feel that the consequences, or character personality / status changes, that result from the few decisions that can be meaningfully taken (i.e. aren't an immediate game-over), should be more clear, or at least hinted at.
Thank you for your feedback! Regarding the status changes, would you want the dialogue option to display the outcome before clicking, or a pop-up (like the journal icon) showing up after picking an option?
In my games I've usually tried to keep the player in the moment, and forget they're playing a game that tracks their stats. Even showing the stats page is breaking that to some extent. That said, this game is so early in development that I can easily incorporate any changes to the system.
On an unrelated note, did you get a chance to try out the combat? Sound effects and music are in the plans, but nothing else major is changing there at the moment.
I actually think that indicating the outcome directly in the option / choice is immersion breaking, as you seem to fear. So the exercise is more to try to telegraph (without directly telling) the consequences of the choice in the writing and language. It definitely is more difficult, and it's a balance between too little and too much information. If it feels you do have to be more explicit, then giving insight into the character's thoughts as to what could be the consequence of the decision is a way to allow yourself to say more without too much immersion-breaking.
I did try the combat. It was... honestly very confusing, I had no idea what I was doing, nor what the outcome was predicated on. But it was short enough in the overall story that it didn't feel game-breaking. This is probably not the outcome you were going for, though. My advice would be to simplify the mechanics drastically, if you want the game to remain story-oriented. If on the other hand you want combat to be an important element, then... this will need some rework.
Right, adding thoughts hinting at the outcome is definitely a good idea. I'll keep that in mind.
And the combat certainly seems to need more explaining, so I'll work on a tutorial with screenshots to explain it step-by-step. The combat is actually very simple, but requires a bit of thinking. (You can get lucky on lower difficulties by just testing things out, but not higher difficulties).
For anyone confused about the combat, please check the rules for the classic game "Mastermind". I've reused the mechanics and repurposed the concept to thematically fit a melee fight, rather than being about cracking a code.
IMO, if the minigame is inspired by Mastermind, then the rules are going to be much too complex for the type of interaction comfortable in an RPG or VN. Games either draw players because of emotional involvement (caring about the characters and their story) or intellectual involvement (trying to solve a hard problem). Those two motivations tend to be antagonistic, and attempting do do both in the same game tends to push back both categories of players, and turn the game into work rather than pleasure.
Let's not forget that the level of combat complexity of most acclaimed RPGs or even action and FPS games is at the level of multiple rounds of rock-paper-scissors. And you can in fact get to very interesting game dynamic using such a simple [ A < B, B < C, ... Z < A ] set of rules (like rogue vs warrior vs mage builds, or elemental magic combos).
In the end, the minigame *is not* the game :D It's not why people are going to play this, its only role is to add to the immersion in the game itself.
That's a bit what I was afraid of, but at the same time chose to take a risk by adding it. I'll keep the Skip Combat button, that's for sure, so you don't have to engage with the combat. Might even add an option to auto-skip it in the config menu.
Thing is, I want the player to feel clever and that it took a bit of effort to defeat an enemy in combat in the game, rather than it just happening automatically. Let's see how players feel about the combat when the proper tutorial is added to the game.
![Taru's Infernal Pledge [Chapter 1]](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE1ODYzNTczLnBuZw==/original/ojwFc0.png)
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Very elaborate and well-written for a v0.0.1.
I was both surprised and disappointed when I reached the end of this chapter, as everything up to that point had been at the level of polish and quality of a much more mature game. If this level of quality can be maintained, this will be an excellent game.
That said, I have some gripes. TBH, I had similar misgivings about Animus non Grata, and it may be because I am not a fan of linear stories.
I would prefer for that the character to be given more agency, choices that offer the illusion of choosing their destiny, even if it is pretend-agency that fortuitous "circumstances" force back to the same outcome after a few pages.
And I feel that the consequences, or character personality / status changes, that result from the few decisions that can be meaningfully taken (i.e. aren't an immediate game-over), should be more clear, or at least hinted at.
Thank you for your feedback! Regarding the status changes, would you want the dialogue option to display the outcome before clicking, or a pop-up (like the journal icon) showing up after picking an option?
In my games I've usually tried to keep the player in the moment, and forget they're playing a game that tracks their stats. Even showing the stats page is breaking that to some extent. That said, this game is so early in development that I can easily incorporate any changes to the system.
On an unrelated note, did you get a chance to try out the combat? Sound effects and music are in the plans, but nothing else major is changing there at the moment.
I actually think that indicating the outcome directly in the option / choice is immersion breaking, as you seem to fear. So the exercise is more to try to telegraph (without directly telling) the consequences of the choice in the writing and language. It definitely is more difficult, and it's a balance between too little and too much information. If it feels you do have to be more explicit, then giving insight into the character's thoughts as to what could be the consequence of the decision is a way to allow yourself to say more without too much immersion-breaking.
I did try the combat. It was... honestly very confusing, I had no idea what I was doing, nor what the outcome was predicated on. But it was short enough in the overall story that it didn't feel game-breaking. This is probably not the outcome you were going for, though. My advice would be to simplify the mechanics drastically, if you want the game to remain story-oriented. If on the other hand you want combat to be an important element, then... this will need some rework.
Right, adding thoughts hinting at the outcome is definitely a good idea. I'll keep that in mind.
And the combat certainly seems to need more explaining, so I'll work on a tutorial with screenshots to explain it step-by-step. The combat is actually very simple, but requires a bit of thinking. (You can get lucky on lower difficulties by just testing things out, but not higher difficulties).
For anyone confused about the combat, please check the rules for the classic game "Mastermind". I've reused the mechanics and repurposed the concept to thematically fit a melee fight, rather than being about cracking a code.
IMO, if the minigame is inspired by Mastermind, then the rules are going to be much too complex for the type of interaction comfortable in an RPG or VN. Games either draw players because of emotional involvement (caring about the characters and their story) or intellectual involvement (trying to solve a hard problem). Those two motivations tend to be antagonistic, and attempting do do both in the same game tends to push back both categories of players, and turn the game into work rather than pleasure.
Let's not forget that the level of combat complexity of most acclaimed RPGs or even action and FPS games is at the level of multiple rounds of rock-paper-scissors. And you can in fact get to very interesting game dynamic using such a simple [ A < B, B < C, ... Z < A ] set of rules (like rogue vs warrior vs mage builds, or elemental magic combos).
In the end, the minigame *is not* the game :D It's not why people are going to play this, its only role is to add to the immersion in the game itself.
That's a bit what I was afraid of, but at the same time chose to take a risk by adding it. I'll keep the Skip Combat button, that's for sure, so you don't have to engage with the combat. Might even add an option to auto-skip it in the config menu.
Thing is, I want the player to feel clever and that it took a bit of effort to defeat an enemy in combat in the game, rather than it just happening automatically. Let's see how players feel about the combat when the proper tutorial is added to the game.