BBBen
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Update - Velexis fingers Twyla!
🕑 Added 2017-05-08 13:00:00 +0000 UTC tl;dr - I've been programming Let Me Out and working a little on the PAL expansion. I'll announce more about that expansion soon.Let Me Out programming
This week I've been implementing new responses for LMO based on transcripts I've received (I still need more! Send them to me, please!) but I've also been rewriting the ADRIFT engine's default library altogether. Basically, this is in order that when you type, "open door" or "examine orc" you're no longer going to get any default responses that sound like you're in a normal interactive fiction game.
Now everything you type, whether the guard understands it or not, is going to be interpreted as words coming out of Twyla's mouth. This was a little more work than I expected and took a few days, but it's done now. Now if you type "strip" then the guard is going to think you're trying to order him to strip, it's that simple.
In addition, the reprogramming of the default library means that auto complete won't be getting in the way as much as it did before. You can still turn it off, but almost nothing in this game triggers auto complete any more anyway, so it hardly matters. It's annoying when you try to type "do" and it comes out as "down", or you try to type "a" and it comes out as "attack". That's not going to happen any more in LMO, whether auto complete is on or not.
I'm also hoping that this time round the game will be a little better at picking up bad spelling and grammar. That's mostly just because I'm trying to use synonyms to catch some of the more common mistakes without overriding anything important, and also making common errors available as alternative commands. If you use the wrong one out of 'your/you're' or 'there/their/they're' then you should still be fine in LMO. If you manage to type 'yuor'e' I still can't help you, of course, :) but I have included error tips to try to encourage you to check for typos.
Puzzle design is inception
I mean that sub heading literally, the process of puzzle design, particularly in Let Me Out, is about planting ideas in your mind in such a way that you feel like you came up with the idea yourself. Some of it is about making sure there's much stimulus for you to respond to - I put little things in the frame or I drop them into conversation hoping you might pick up on them and talk about them.
An example is in LMI, I wanted an ending where you claim a snake bit you on the dick. I couldn't just suggest this, so if you say you're hurt (which people were trying anyway, thank you transcripts) then Twyla would ask what the injury was. Snakes are not immediately obvious, so I suggested the idea a few times with some throw-away references to snakes in the grass in unrelated dialogue. It worked - I don't know if people felt like it was their own idea but they picked up on it without me having to do any direct hand-holding.
In the case of LMO I've laid out more stuff to provoke conversation, but there's some stuff that comes up that I can't predict. In the transcripts I've got so far I've notices people often saying they're hungry; I didn't anticipate that but now I'm going to try to have that lead somewhere, so that an idea people naturally attempt will have some kind of a real end point. That's why transcripts are so valuable - in later versions you'll be able to come up with stuff that just pops into your head and the game will actually be ready for you.
Let Me Out writing
EFon and I have continued to advance the writing for the game as well. We're no longer thinking about 16 endings, now it's 22, although we don't have them all sorted out yet. I have ideas for paths that could lead to a few more beyond that, too, although I don't know what those endings will be yet. The problem comes in making all these endings sexy and interesting; I don't want any to be boring, unsexy or repetitious so at some point we'll have to draw the line.
We do have some pretty cool ending ideas, though. There's some really different stuff that could happen in the course of the game if we open it up to experimentation. I'm thinking of this game's design a little bit like The Stanley Parable or Please Don't Touch Anything - a couple of indie games I really like. Look them up if you haven't heard of them, they're great (not very sexy, though). Basically, they're both games about having lots of endings that you discover through exploration, and playing with your expectations as a game player.
Some of the endings are fairly straight-forward (I think the endings in the game right now are generally pretty direct) but some of them are planned to spin off in some surprising ways. Just how surprising remains to be seen. By me as well.
PAL expansion
I will announce this week, maybe tomorrow, the title and features of the new expansion. The title I like; the features are subject to change, AW and I are still working on it.
I've also done some work on a few images for this expansion; not really specific, relevant pics, just random ideas I had that I might use as new cards or something (if I make any new cards).
Title
If you're wondering, I'm trying out different titles for the updates because I realised that Patreon shows the titles to non-patrons browsing the site as a form of advertising. I thought I should probably make them a little more enticing than just stating the date.
Comments! I need comments to live! Give them to me!
Comments
BBBen
Hopefully so, although of course I don't feel that it really becomes interesting until the game is able to respond to most of what you're saying and there's a lot of interesting avenues to pursue for trying to get her out. That's my priority right now, I think it will make a difference.
Hank Rillek
I'm really looking forward to your PAL expansion. I'm still a bit indifferent about LMO. Maybe if I played it a bit it will improve.
