- Jun 5, 2017
- 68
- 58
Designing game with Female protag and events with Male NPCs.
I was initially designing with the thought that the Player would like to name the Male characters, as many games allows the Player to name all the female characters in a Male Protagonist/Perspective game.
But I am running into the first road-block of Design where there are going to be elements in the game that are based off the "placeholder" name I have given to all my male characters and realized that if I give the player the option to change the Male character names, it may throw plot and certain elements out of wack or add confusion for the player.
So I wanted to ask for a consensus on the Option to change NPC names ?
I started designing with Player Choice being the star of my show because I would play many games where I always had that lingering thought of "I wish I could do this or that instead" (main reason I got into developing) but over the years of playing games of all kinds, I have adopted the mindset that "decision fatigue" exists and when you are given too much choice you tend to sit there waste more time Deciding than actually Experiencing. So now that I am getting back on the horse and working on my own game, the stories I had already set with placeholder/temporary names are now causing me a dilemma, because I want to give players that Choice but at the same time it limits my design. Encouraged by Ren'Py, I can set the Custom Variable and in everything text related it will use the Player's chosen names but as I develop the story and elements of my game further, I cant use those placeholder names in anything Visual because that isn't as customizable.
Over the years I have been playing games instead of developing and noticed that the usual trend is to allow the player to have that ability to create their own fantasy, which I totally understand and can get behind, but now that I am trying to focus on getting back to developing, I wanted to ask the Dev community if you guys have gotten any pushback or am I just being too ambitious and overthinking things.
Would be great if I could get feedback from any female VN players, do you like naming your Males? as a Player myself, I do like to name my female characters, is that the same for ya'll.
I was initially designing with the thought that the Player would like to name the Male characters, as many games allows the Player to name all the female characters in a Male Protagonist/Perspective game.
But I am running into the first road-block of Design where there are going to be elements in the game that are based off the "placeholder" name I have given to all my male characters and realized that if I give the player the option to change the Male character names, it may throw plot and certain elements out of wack or add confusion for the player.
So I wanted to ask for a consensus on the Option to change NPC names ?
I started designing with Player Choice being the star of my show because I would play many games where I always had that lingering thought of "I wish I could do this or that instead" (main reason I got into developing) but over the years of playing games of all kinds, I have adopted the mindset that "decision fatigue" exists and when you are given too much choice you tend to sit there waste more time Deciding than actually Experiencing. So now that I am getting back on the horse and working on my own game, the stories I had already set with placeholder/temporary names are now causing me a dilemma, because I want to give players that Choice but at the same time it limits my design. Encouraged by Ren'Py, I can set the Custom Variable and in everything text related it will use the Player's chosen names but as I develop the story and elements of my game further, I cant use those placeholder names in anything Visual because that isn't as customizable.
Over the years I have been playing games instead of developing and noticed that the usual trend is to allow the player to have that ability to create their own fantasy, which I totally understand and can get behind, but now that I am trying to focus on getting back to developing, I wanted to ask the Dev community if you guys have gotten any pushback or am I just being too ambitious and overthinking things.
Would be great if I could get feedback from any female VN players, do you like naming your Males? as a Player myself, I do like to name my female characters, is that the same for ya'll.
