- Jul 11, 2021
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I don't know if removing the thing that makes this game special would be the solution, after all having two main characters sounds amazing...but you got a fair point on the whole "playing chess against yourself" situation...people like to feel they win at the end of a VN, if you control both forces in the story winning also means losing...Ker_
Thanks for addressing our criticism. Personally I came here to the comment section cause of the dual protagonist issue, which I really cannot see how you will be able to solve as long as they are set up against each other, and not like GTAV where the 3 protagonists are a team.
If whatever will be the best choice for one MC, also will be the worst for the other MC, you end very quickly up in a situation where you are playing both white and black in a chess game. Sure, some people like to play against themselves, but the vast vast vaaaast majority prefer to play against someone (AI/other player).
But maybe the suggestion from Zero the Shadow could resolve the problem?
It would give us players a reason to play the game more than once.
It would be easier to immerse oneself into the story.
Hopefully you would still be able to make the story more complex and show it from different angles.
Must admit I don´t remember how it worked in Detroit become human as I let my waifu have the pleasure of playing it first, and I decided to wait to play it myself until I had forgotten the most of the game. Seems like I have, so I will end this comment now and go pretend I am an android going rogue.
Wish you all the best with the further development of the game.
Maybe the 75%-25% separation could be made PER chapter, in one chapter you control mainly the undercover cop and in the next chapter you control mainly the double agent.Now you should be careful on what you show on each perspective, we shouldn't use information from one perspective to determine the best outcome in the other one because that would be kinda like "gaming the system" to get the best outcome and that takes people out of the experience. But there are ways in which one can influence the other in cool ways.Thanks for the feedback!
Yes, I agree that the two characters create a problem. To be honest, I'm still thinking about how best to play around with this feature.
The Zero the Shadow option doesn't work for me, as it doubles the development and doesn't give me what I want - to show events that happen to other characters without the main character being involved.
For now, I'm leaning towards emphasizing narrative from one character (75% of all content), and leaving only those scenes for the second character that are necessary to reveal the plot. So it's more likely to end up with one main character and a second side character.
By example:
Playing as the double agent you want to get rid of one cop who is sniffing on the business of your boss, so you got a few options on how to get rid of him. You could set him up with a scandal to get him fired or you could organize a raid in a warehouse of the rival gang and decide to send him as a scout, but also leak the information to the gang so they are prepared and get rid of the cop for you. In both cases you will succeed and the cop wont be a problem anymore.
Now in the next chapter, you play as the undercover cop, trying to get up in the ranks of the organization but one of the lieutenants wants you to prove your loyalty by torturing a new prisoner...and what would you know?...if you choose the raid path the prisoner will be the cop who the double agent set up to kill, if you chose the scandal path the scene will still play out but with a random person instead of the cop and maybe afterwards you will go to a bar and see the former cop drunkenly complaining about losing his job and how the police is corrupt to the bone. That way we can see the effects of one path change stuff on the other and I think that would be pretty cool.
Another example of a more meaningful effect:
By playing as the undercover cop, the boss sends you to intercept and steal a shipment of a powerful drug from another gang. During the mission you end up beating the organizer of the operation and he surrenders leaving you with 3 options, kill him, beat him up so the cops can capture him or let him escape unharmed. If you kill him your boss will be very happy and you will rank up in the organization, if you let him be captured by the cops your boss will be happy but wont let you rank up just yet, and if you let him escape (maybe he offered you a deal?) you will get whatever you got from the deal but your boss will be mad at you and you will have to do other missions to earn his trust back.
Now in the next chapter you play as the double agent, and you need to bribe a judge so you can cover one mistake that put you in hot water. In order to do that you talk to your boss and ask him for money to bribe him, but your boss wont be in a good mood since he just discovered a rival gang just stole a shipment from him. Now, if you as the undercover cop, chose to let the organizer leave, the boss will be in a better mood and be more receptive to help you with the money since not everything was lost in the raid. If the undercover cop chose to let the organizer be captured by the police he will task you to release him in order to get the money from him but If the undercover cop killed the organizer the boss will be furious and wont give you the money so you will have to deal with the judge by yourself.
That way you can meaningfully affect the events from one protagonist with the other without even realizing it. I believe a structure of alternating protagonist in a per chapter basis has a lot of potential.