This sounds like a lot of fun in theory, but there is a big problem with this and it's the reason I've been pessimistic about this game since the dev doubled down on the Lifepath material. The concept being proposed here -- a game with a branching story AND a character with an infinitely variable backstory -- will be backbreaking to write, and effectively impossible to write well.
One of the keys to good fiction writing is detail. The early parts of this game are a great example. The scenes involving the agent's recruitment and her initial forays into the mission are excellent because of this. But having an infinitely variable backstory will grind that detail out of the writing. Every scene will have to be written around a dozen variables. There's a reason Triple-A RPG titles have maybe a half-dozen backstories you can pick from.
Thanks to the lifepath, you can now have an agent who's nearly a virgin, or you have an agent with dozens of notches on her bedpost, and everything in between. OK, great. Except now, once you start writing a scene from that agent's perspective, there is a VAST difference in the internal monologue of those two characters -- not to mention every variation between them.
So now the writer faces a choice -- either write multiple scenes, or write around that internal monologue. Writing is a hard business as it is. Putting those kinds of handcuffs will make the work *extremely* difficult -- especially for one person working mostly alone.
Or take another example -- maybe you'd like to have a scene about what happens when the agent runs into a college friend while she is working in Bangkok. Fun, right? But this scene can not be effectively written in this game. The agent has hundreds of possible alma maters, and dozens of different "paths" -- different concentrations, cliques, jobs, etc. Now any conversation between those two characters must be written in a generic way, to provide for that variability. That puts a heavy burden on the writer and it will tend to strip the liveliness right out of the text.
The dev has built an impressive character generator with a fun paper doll system. But it's going to be incompatible with telling an engaging, compelling story about a female agent on a secret mission in Bangkok. If Crushstation doesn't already know this, I feel like he will soon.
I agree that this is one of my biggest worries about the game, but I also disagree that it necessarily
has to be a backbreaking problem. Obviously, if the results are mostly ignored then it's a waste, and if the results are followed too in-depth then it's going to fractal into absurdity, but there is plenty of middle-ground; Not every scene has to rely on Variable X and Y and Z, but could have a chunk of text that changes on Variable X, another on Variable Y and a secret option for Z. Or we aggregate them in different areas - whether you went to a "good" or "elite" uni, what your
bodycount was like in uni compared to before. So long as enough events do reference the different stats altogether, and we do get some specific/unique/combination events, I'd say it could keep up the illusion. Plus, there are a fair few fixed points to base her viewpoint on - she's still a beautiful, university-educated secret agent on a dangerous mission, not a complete blank slate.
That said: I'm not saying the game will definitely achieve this, just that it can be done, especially with that monetary backing.
For my two cents about the game, seeing as everyone seems to be chipping in: I kinda agree with both sides here.
Personally, I find the lack of forward progression frustrating, because I was looking forward to where the story was going... a year ago, or more, I don't remember the timeframe.
I'd be lying if I said I saw no work go into it though - the mechanics have expanded and there is a fair bit of story content, just not outward, but wider. I definitely see the benefit to preparing this stuff now, rather than waiting until we're halfway through Bangkok to redo everything.
Frankly, I feel better about this project than a certain other "female" MC TWINE game that seems to have been in development for forever - this one seems to have made tangible improvements since it started. Not that I'm saying X being worse makes Y better... but, for the most part, I'm just sitting back and seeing whether the game lives up to the hype.
