HTML Blue Swallow [v0.7.3,1] [Blue Swallow]

[AelphysTerra]

I have to admit, the sex positions in which Claire was conceived in actually playing a role in her personality kinda feels, I dunno, counter-intuitive. I do like that later choices are more intuitive since that's when Claire becomes an adult, or close to one, and gets to make decisions that she can own up to.

 

[Sammie]

They do? I had no idea. What are the effects? I guess it’s sort of an indicator of her mom or her dad’s personality and what they’re into.

 

[169134]

This game makes me feel like anything I do is meaningless. If I don't know the effects of choosing something over anything else, how am I choosing?

I liked the game at start, but it's become an obfuscated mess. We're on 0.3 and we're already supposed to spend a long time trying to infer what each choice does. How long will it take to have a satisfying playthrough on the finished game?
It's not fun.

 

[ShiftCognit]

just played it, it looks good so far. A wiki could be useful some day. How much until the next update? i want more content of this. (also there is the rape tag but i havent seen any related content to it yet, anyone nows how to get it?)

 

[CassieBare]

This game makes me feel like anything I do is meaningless. If I don't know the effects of choosing something over anything else, how am I choosing?

I liked the game at start, but it's become an obfuscated mess. We're on 0.3 and we're already supposed to spend a long time trying to infer what each choice does. How long will it take to have a satisfying playthrough on the finished game?
It's not fun.

Sorry you don't like the game.

I want to dispel this thinking, hopefully, once and for all.

Think of Blue Swallow like the CYOA of the 80s and 90s. You, the player, make the choices for Claire and you aren't always sure of the outcome. You might do something trying to achieve a certain effect, but just like life -- maybe the cause and effect aren't what you expected. You went down the clear and open path to avoid the bandits of the forest and, welp, they were off in a tavern that day and not in the forest, and instead you got caught in a storm with no cover.

Now, you can brute force it, figure it out, try again and again for your 'perfect' playthrough if that's your cup of tea. And if not, then you get a story. May not be the one you were looking for, but you get a story. No bandits, but the effects of weathering the elements. Maybe earlier, if your character had taken a trait of Meteorology there would have been a hint that there was a storm coming, or a Scoundrel trait that you heard the bandits take off Thursdays from marauding. But if those weren't your paths, you just made a choice.

And there will be a later event where your choices *will* matter and give you a hint, choice or path that others don't have access to. Maybe because of that storm you're inured to the hardships of weather and can push on through brutal elements to make it to your destination quickly.

Not what you expected, but certainly a better result than the CYOA random 'Game Over' passages. And even those still were the conclusion of your story. So, in some ways, they should have been satisfying. Like the thrillers where it turns out the bad guy was the one you let get away. The 'bad ending'. They were the story being told, and you brought yourself to that conclusion, willingly/brute force or not.

TLDR? Please don't come into Blue Swallow looking for god-like control.

You have control over the immediate choices that Claire is making, but not on the outcomes. Some will be absolutely opaque, some will be obfuscated, some will be -- apparently -- counter-intuitive. Others will be clear as day. You won't end up with control over what happens, but you will have a story, your Claire's story.

 

[CassieBare]

for specific examples I’ll use the high school clique options

for example if you pick “popular” it gives a number of options but it’s not clear from a story perspective what those mean. Same for “Rebel”. Maybe it’s just me, but they all sound rebellious but it’s hard to figure out what they mean. I had a similar problem with Nerd choices. Especially some of the ones I don’t see often like “scarlet letter”. I really couldn’t figure out what that one meant. Did it mean Claire was a school slut like in the movie “Easy A” or that she was a stereotypical nerd and treated like a geek? Two very different outcomes and Claires. I ended up going all the way to graduation to try to figure out the difference and to see if it changed some things and still couldn’t really tell.

An example of where this is done better is earlier in the game where you pick “fear,” “excitement,” and “confusion” and whether you love boys, teachers, learning, recess etc.

In that sequence the choice you make is followed by a paragraph that makes it clear what the choice you just made means.

hope that helps.

Now this is important to me. I will look back at these choices and try to make them 'fit' more understandably within the narrative of the game. What they do? Well, telling you now that those specific choices have very narrow and (relatively) inconsequential effects.

 

[Nulldev]

Sorry you don't like the game.

I want to dispel this thinking, hopefully, once and for all.

Think of Blue Swallow like the CYOA of the 80s and 90s. You, the player, make the choices for Claire and you aren't always sure of the outcome. You might do something trying to achieve a certain effect, but just like life -- maybe the cause and effect aren't what you expected. You went down the clear and open path to avoid the bandits of the forest and, welp, they were off in a tavern that day and not in the forest, and instead you got caught in a storm with no cover.

Now, you can brute force it, figure it out, try again and again for your 'perfect' playthrough if that's your cup of tea. And if not, then you get a story. May not be the one you were looking for, but you get a story. No bandits, but the effects of weathering the elements. Maybe earlier, if your character had taken a trait of Meteorology there would have been a hint that there was a storm coming, or a Scoundrel trait that you heard the bandits take off Thursdays from marauding. But if those weren't your paths, you just made a choice.

And there will be a later event where your choices *will* matter and give you a hint, choice or path that others don't have access to. Maybe because of that storm you're inured to the hardships of weather and can push on through brutal elements to make it to your destination quickly.

Not what you expected, but certainly a better result than the CYOA random 'Game Over' passages. And even those still were the conclusion of your story. So, in some ways, they should have been satisfying. Like the thrillers where it turns out the bad guy was the one you let get away. The 'bad ending'. They were the story being told, and you brought yourself to that conclusion, willingly/brute force or not.

TLDR? Please don't come into Blue Swallow looking for god-like control.

You have control over the immediate choices that Claire is making, but not on the outcomes. Some will be absolutely opaque, some will be obfuscated, some will be -- apparently -- counter-intuitive. Others will be clear as day. You won't end up with control over what happens, but you will have a story, your Claire's story.

I understand this. and it's ok. I got more than 20 Fighting fantasy books

My problem is that currently, using your example, I don't know which choice take me to the forest or the open field.

For example, after multiple play, still have no idea, how the prom victory works. I tried to make char to win it and failed, and made average nerd girl with school focus, who won it, to my total suprise.

 

[CassieBare]

I understand this. and it's ok. I got more than 20 Fighting fantasy books

My problem is that currently, using your example, I don't know which choice take me to the forest or the open field.

For example, after multiple play, still have no idea, how the prom victory works. I tried to make char to win it and failed, and made average nerd girl with school focus, who won it, to my total suprise.

Well, that's because of a random factor at that passage. It could be a low bar, could be a high bar.

The Claire's that get the highest scores must go through the Popular route, but it doesn't ensure victory.

But, again this is an example of looking for control of a result rather than not understanding a choice. So, your Claire may or may not win Prom, but you can choose whether or not she's trying to compete.

 

[dzd1121]

Not sure if this was already found, but if you manage to get to invite your best friend to prom, the passage just calls them "Friend" rather than the name that was entered.

 

[Sammie]

Now this is important to me. I will look back at these choices and try to make them 'fit' more understandably within the narrative of the game. What they do? Well, telling you now that those specific choices have very narrow and (relatively) inconsequential effects.

Thank you! Glad that helped. This game is great

 

[AelphysTerra]

Now this is important to me. I will look back at these choices and try to make them 'fit' more understandably within the narrative of the game. What they do? Well, telling you now that those specific choices have very narrow and (relatively) inconsequential effects.

Yeah, honestly I'm fine with not being able to "control freak" the game by making "gamey" choices rather than letting the narrative play itself out. I do concur on making the consequences of our choices a bit more apparent rather than some seemingly inconsequential things actually matter.

 

[Sammie]

I think some more narrative after a choice would be nice. I also think it would help replay ability if it showed you a stat check took place. I don’t need to know what my stats are, just one happened. Then I would probably try to see if I could unlock the content on another play through.

Like the car wash. If it wasn’t for this thread I never would have realized that there was so much depth and hidden content. Knowing it was there got me to try all sorts of things so I could see it and got me to love the game more.

 

[CassieBare]

Not sure if this was already found, but if you manage to get to invite your best friend to prom, the passage just calls them "Friend" rather than the name that was entered.

Fixed in next version

 

[CassieBare]

I think some more narrative after a choice would be nice. I also think it would help replay ability if it showed you a stat check took place. I don’t need to know what my stats are, just one happened. Then I would probably try to see if I could unlock the content on another play through.

Like the car wash. If it wasn’t for this thread I never would have realized that there was so much depth and hidden content. Knowing it was there got me to try all sorts of things so I could see it and got me to love the game more.

A future feature is calling out certain choices are affected by traits/skills. Not implemented yet.

Glad that the depth is fun for you!

 

[PeanutGallery]

The real problem for me, I think, is how you end up losing access to certain events and scenarios for what feels like arbitrary reasons. With the example of the incest with the MC's dad I wanted my character to experience that with an abusive father, because I liked that version best, but apparently that's just not possible because the necessary events to trigger it only seem to fire with either a present and loving father or a stepfather.

In order to have sex with her father, the PC needs to come from an abusive home (hurt flag set), be adopted (adopted flag set), or have a missing father (dad=0). She can also go for her best friend's dad if she has at least one point of Risky score.

I’m pretty ok with the black box design and different outcomes for different choices. I just wish I knew what some of the choices meant. Like if I’m trying to create a smart, confident free spirit, I don’t always know what choice would be the smart or confident one.

This is my primary objection. Sometimes it's not clear from the text what the intended tone is, although the developer has been fairly good about taking feedback when a specific option doesn't really make sense or isn't clear about its tone.

Maybe I'm entirely wrong and it's actually purely user error on my end or something, but regardless, I feel like the game is overly rigid with its flags. It feels like every choice I make effects my ability to do something else further down the line which then locks me out of potential content.

It simply isn't possible to see every possible permutation in a single run, because there are permutations on success and failure - and while one might push the bounds of believability by having a character capable of anything, it's pretty much impossible to see both the consequences of failing and succeeding the same choice in a single playthrough.

Or, put differently, a choice cannot be meaningful if it carries no consequence for making it - and this game is about making meaningful choices.

 

[riadhloch]

I have to say -- having only recently discovered this game -- that the developer interaction, responsiveness, and patience is beyond impressive.

 

[Samuel Hidayat]

Would it be that hard to add an option that just told you what stats/choices are needed for specific paths? You could call it an Immersive Mode toggle or something.

That would be an absolute opposite of CassieBare's immersive design philosophy.

 

[LEET]

Yes, with the dad.

How does that even happen? Afaik she's only fucking her principal regarding old guys.

 

[Samuel Hidayat]

How does that even happen? Afaik she's only fucking her principal regarding old guys.

In order to have sex with her father, the PC needs to come from an abusive home (hurt flag set), be adopted (adopted flag set), or have a missing father (dad=0). She can also go for her best friend's dad if she has at least one point of Risky score.

 

[LEET]

What sets it for abusive family?