Can you devs stop with the One "choice option" you give us?!

[Deximay]

Devs that give us the illusion of a choice by giving us ONE "optinon" like it's us making a meaningful change in the story, like wtf? If random Joe is gonna make a statement regardless of our choice, don't put it there for us to "derp, let's click it", it's annoying.

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

I get where you're coming from but I disagree. Unless you're overdoing it and using this constantly, it can be a neat way to put some interactivity in your game at certain points. Yes, it's not a choice, but it's a way to make you more engaged at critical moments.

 

[Niv-Mizzet the Firemind]

To be kind of fair, at least for some renpy games, the rest of the options could be very well hidden if you don't have the necessary stats or have made the wrong choices beforehand etc.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

To be kind of fair, at least for some renpy games, the rest of the options could be very well hidden if you don't have the necessary stats or have made the wrong choices beforehand etc.

That's terrible design too tbh. Potential options shouldn't be hidden. If spoilers are a concern, then don't say what the option does, just indicate that it exists and you need X stats for it to be available.

 

[morphnet]

Devs that give us the illusion of a choice by giving us ONE "optinon" like it's us making a meaningful change in the story, like wtf? If random Joe is gonna make a statement regardless of our choice, don't put it there for us to "derp, let's click it", it's annoying.

I can also see where you are coming from and also disagree, I think alot of the time they are a great hint to remind you to save the game. There are alot of games the ask that you "start a new game" for the update and some of us skip through the content only stopping at choices.
It can also be used to build up a moment in the story telling, "follow her" only choice given and the player if they are invested in the story can stop and wonder "is she going to be naked on my bed?" or " did she find out i told her secret to X and is now going to confront me?"
Other times it can be a great time to roll back and pick a different choice if you want to see all the content and not mix up your route saves.

 

[Dagoth Urgers]

some of us skip through the content only stopping at choices.

That's on the player, not the developer. If the developer is concerned that too many players will skip past their amazing story then they should concentrate on editing it down. Brevity is the soul of wit.

 

[AdventAnyx]

To be kind of fair, at least for some renpy games, the rest of the options could be very well hidden if you don't have the necessary stats or have made the wrong choices beforehand etc.

Yeah... And since it's not in a standard Renpy kit to show the hidden options and their requirements, some developers had to spend a few days figuring it out and then asking for help around this forum

 

[Deximay]

I can see where you're coming from when the hidden point system is a thing; can't say I love it, but here's the thing, good games that have that system in place, they show the options that you can't choose grayed out, aka Leap of Faith, Being a Dik, etc.

I'm talking about the shitty ones, that I can 100% garantee you that they just put one "option" as if it's an option at all. If you're gonna continue with your narrative, don't condescend us into thinking we have a say in the matter.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Yeah... And since it's not in a standard Renpy kit to show the hidden options and their requirements, some developers had to spend a few days figuring it out and then asking for help around this forum

Oh yeah... it's so difficult to read the documentation page regarding menus and see there that there's an option that will automatically show hidden options for you. As for the conditions, there's tons of example regarding the use of menu arguments.

 

[Rell games]

I think it can be quite a good thing in the right hands. The first thing that comes to mind, this can be a great way to increase emotional response from the player by giving him no choice in some crucial scene in your game, pointing out the inevitability of consequences of actions made previously.

 

[kristijanEX]

To be kind of fair, at least for some renpy games, the rest of the options could be very well hidden if you don't have the necessary stats or have made the wrong choices beforehand etc.

this

 

[ChaosOpen]

I get where you're coming from but I disagree. Unless you're overdoing it and using this constantly, it can be a neat way to put some interactivity in your game at certain points. Yes, it's not a choice, but it's a way to make you more engaged at critical moments.

It says a lot about the quality of the writing when the only time you're engaged with the game is when you have to make a decision. It is a visual novel in the end, not a choice simulator, a well written visual novel should be able to keep you engaged with the story. It's like if someone said about a book "well, turning the page kept me engaged with the work."

 

[Winterfire]

In my old game (Overlord H), not possible choices were hidden because it was the easiest and quickest way for me to handle them (a beginner with renpy at the time).

In my current project, not possible choices are simply greyed out and not interactable.

Other than that, some "single choice" prompts are there to make a narrative point... The character could be stuck and only have a real choice or maybe he is under control by somebody and the single choice is there to show that you cannot move the way you want.

 

[Fatalmasterpiece]

One choice options serve the purpose of role playing. You get to choose how your character responds to the world, but it may not change the world regardless. For example, if an NPC asks what color is the MC's favorite, if they like an outfit or not, what subject they enjoy in school or if they prefer cats or dogs... these things may not effect the game world, but they allow the player to decide what kind of person they are playing. As time allows, a good game dev may add subtle reflections of these choices in the MC, but they may not have the time or resources for that.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Other than that, some "single choice" prompts are there to make a narrative point... The character could be stuck and only have a real choice or maybe he is under control by somebody and the single choice is there to show that you cannot move the way you want.

Didn't single choice have the opposite effect ?

They force a pause in the action... Everything was going smoothly, one dialog line after the other, and then boom, "excuse-me an instant, can you please, mister/miss player, move your mouse and press the only button that appeared in your screen ?"
And when the action come to a pause, what it produce is the feeling that everything is under control ; the MC can take his time to act, the game can take the time to ask for your input. A lack of control is shown through an acceleration of the action ; the MC do not think about what he do, he just do it. This while a lack of choice should be shown through the reluctance of the MC ; while doing it the MC still weight his options, with the hope that he'll found something that he missed so far.


But single choice are generally used to compensate a lack of imagination, or a lack of CG.
How do I show that someone is knocking to the door ? Oh, I know, I'll put a "open the door" one choice menu. How the hell can I represent the MC undressing ? Oh, I know, I'll put an "undress" one choice menu.
By itself it's not necessarily a bad approach. There's things that are effectively difficult to represent on screen. Showing the MC undressing when everything is in a first person point of view... well... yeah, better pass. But you can easily replace those one choice menu by a timed text:

screen timedText( txt, delay=1.0 ):
    text "[txt]" xalign 0.5 yalign 0.5
    timer delay action Return()

label whatever:
    call screen timedText( "Hearing someone knock, you opened the door." )
    MC "Oh, it's you my fuck meat. Just in time"
    show girlStripingAnimation
    girl "Oh MC, I so want you, come fuck me !"
    call screen timedText( "You quickly undress." )
    girl "Oh, I see you're already hard as rock, I can't wait to be used like the cum dump I am."

And it's done. Same lack of imagination and CG, but without the annoyance that a one choice menu can add.

 

[recreation]

I tend to use a single choice as "action-button", in one game I use it when the MC has to break a door open (push), in another it's an attack button in a fight. Perfectly fine imo.
Then I also have a choice that goes:
choice 1: "yes"
choice 2: "of course"
that simply exists to make fun of some people who constantly cry for more choices.
Don't forget that a VN is not a dating sim or whatever, it's a story told with pictures, and everything else is an addition.

 

[Winterfire]

Didn't single choice have the opposite effect ?

Not really.

In a game where you learn from the beginning that every choice has an effect (minor or major as it may be), and suddenly you are given a single choice because of reason x, it will throw the player off. It is actually really common in Yandere games, or other "mind" games.

Take Doki literature club for instance, at some point your only choice will be "Monika." although to be fair, there are like 4 choices, all of which say the same thing... Which is basically just 1 choice.

 

[TheAmazingRolandder]

While I understand this isn't universal, I'll say that in the game I'm still working on, when you hit a choice and there's only one option - it's because all the other options have requirements you didn't meet for whatever reason. Maybe you never asked about Alice's cat, maybe you never discussed Bob's job, whatever the reason - you're given the "I missed things and don't get to expand on that knowledge" choice.

So what I'm saying is - in a RenPy game - if you're given one choice, it may very well be because your earlier choices are affecting the story, locking you out from any other option.

I understand presenting greyed out options is an option. Greyed out options have the side effect of telling a player "You missed something" - which may or may not matter. If the extra option involves a relationship with Alice and you don't want that, I don't think you should even see the option.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Take Doki literature club for instance, at some point your only choice will be "Monika." although to be fair, there are like 4 choices, all of which say the same thing... Which is basically just 1 choice.

Except that no, having choice, all the same, and having just a single choice it's not at all the same feeling.

So what I'm saying is - in a RenPy game - if you're given one choice, it may very well be because your earlier choices are affecting the story, locking you out from any other option.

It's mainly because the devs don't care enough about the game play.

If they wanted the player to know that there's other options that he missed, they would have set config.menu_include_disabled to True, to show those options. Therefore, it's just laziness, they didn't made the effort to search if there's a way to change the behavior of the menu when there's only one option that meet its condition or, in case of multiple successive option relying on the menu set property, when there's only one option left.
And seriously, the solution is easy to find when you look at the code for the "choice" menu:

screen choice(items):

    if len( items ) == 1:
        timer 0.015 action items[0].action
    else:
[the screen as actually defined, just with one more level of indentation]

 

[Winterfire]

Except that no, having choice, all the same, and having just a single choice it's not at all the same feeling.

no, no, it was literally
"Pick Monika."
"Pick Monika."
"Pick Monika."
"Pick Monika."
Just one choice, but repeated four times.

More often than not, in such games where you are forced, it is just one choice.