HTML Shadows Over Solomon Falls [v0.4] [Wendythered]

[slavegal]

4 jobs actually. Maid, Undercover cop, secretary and waitress into something more, but that part is not in the game yet. Just the boss telling you to come in for that on Monday.

four? wow, four separate stories...which need restarting four times to read ...

 

[slavegal]

I probably should not have gone for a sandbox style game and my next game will have branching paths but not be a sandbox. That said, all the jobs can offer some hints about things and insight into Lisa's life with the diner job, arguably, being the one that most closely follows her actual path which I tried to hint at when you first arrive in town. As for quitting jobs, that becomes available during the next Monday.

just personal opinion: why not integrate them into one story? For example, the city hall job offers a clue leading to the maid job, and the police rescue us from the blackmail with a condition of cooperation on the drug case, then we find out everything points to restaurant, followed by the club. this structure would significantly extend the gaming time and experience without restarting the game. well, just saying, I don't know how to code a game, after all.

 

[Ranma]

I believe you have a good story here; what happened to Lisa dramatically intrigues me. I love good stories. However, you cut the interesting story into pieces by dividing the timeline into three "jobs." I can not read these three parts of the story unless I restart the game. Do you know how badly it ruins the pace and integrity of the story? I tried the jobs at the city hall and the restaurant, but neither provided explicit instructions on when and how I could quit the jobs and go for other jobs in time. You engage the player with an excellent story; please keep engaging us, do not distract us by the ramifications. According to the story, we need to follow Lisa's steps, then let us "follow the path" instead of giving so many confusing paths. Please do not develop three stories with three endings, developed a story with three or more endings.

Not all games need to be kinetic.

 

[slavegal]

Not all games need to be kinetic.

sure, but those who have ambitions for a great story should consider it ~ Especially when there is not much else except a good story, we can't shoot or cut anyone after all. Anyway, I am not telling the dev what to do, just some suggestions here

 

[WendyTheRed]

just personal opinion: why not integrate them into one story? For example, the city hall job offers a clue leading to the maid job, and the police rescue us from the blackmail with a condition of cooperation on the drug case, then we find out everything points to restaurant, followed by the club. this structure would significantly extend the gaming time and experience without restarting the game. well, just saying, I don't know how to code a game, after all.

Well, the intention isn't to see every single thing. I wanted players to be able to explore the content that interested them while also moving towards their goal. In the upcoming game week I plan to have a way for the player to take a more active role in the story though we'll see how my plans work out!

 

[miyuki25]

Well, the intention isn't to see every single thing. I wanted players to be able to explore the content that interested them while also moving towards their goal.

This approach is fine, but it would be nice if it were made clear somehow (either hinted at in-world or simply outright stated in a disclaimer of sorts when each job is offered) which type of content goes with each job. As it stands I basically felt that I had to reload the first day and quickly trial run the first few days for each job before I could really make a decision on which to pick.

 

[WendyTheRed]

This approach is fine, but it would be nice if it were made clear somehow (either hinted at in-world or simply outright stated in a disclaimer of sorts when each job is offered) which type of content goes with each job. As it stands I basically felt that I had to reload the first day and quickly trial run the first few days for each job before I could really make a decision on which to pick.

Interesting idea. I could perhaps offer it to the hints on the first day. I sort of assumed players would gravitate towards whatever job grabbed their interest and would, in general, have an idea what might happen at each job based on the tropes of the genre.

 

[Atlas]

Interesting idea. I could perhaps offer it to the hints on the first day. I sort of assumed players would gravitate towards whatever job grabbed their interest and would, in general, have an idea what might happen at each job based on the tropes of the genre.

I think there needs to be a distinction between story and worldbuilding. As an example, if you took a job in the store, you could do really great world building just by having the MC talk to and interact with all the people that live in town. Knowing what they want, what goods they are trying to buy and the problems they are having being stuck in the town would all be great world building. It wouldn't necessarily advance the plot, but it would allow you to sell the weirdness of the setting.

As is, a story where you go to a small town, join the sheriffs and infiltrate a drug gang is way different than one where you become a maid to an eccentric powerful man versus trying to seduce a politician versus being a waitress. (As an aside, I did not expect the waitress job to lead to stripping at the club. My logic being that in the descriptions the job was sold as a way to meet the townsfolk and talk to people. In some ways, I could see the progress from bar>>>strip club but not so much diner>>>strip club.)

If the players are following their jobs throughout the game, that is essentially 4 story paths in one game. I want to use the example of the stats and skills system. You have one scene, but depending on how the player has utilized the rpg elements to create their character, they can interact with the scene and resolve it how they want with their skills. This has choice, replayability, character developlment/roleplaying, and most importantly, doesn't require writing separate scenes for each job.

I think what is driving my concerns is that as a player, so much of the time spent each days feels like it is the job. I basically work, deal with a sleazebag in an alley, and desperately try to explore and unlock side areas before then going on a date. The primary day cycle feels like work then date then sleep. So at this point, from a narrative standpoint, the jobs feel huge. Maybe it is just fear of missing out on my part. Here is my last try at an analogy, in Dragon Age Origins, depending on your Origin, you get a different start to the game and it is a decent chunk of content. It grounds your character, explains their motivations and what makes them unique/special in the world. Then it turns you lose on the plot and you get to take what makes you special and interact with the world and the game. They wrote a game with different character arcs, but not necessarily hugely different grand story arcs. Does this make sense?

 

[WendyTheRed]

[snip long and great writeup]

They wrote a game with different character arcs, but not necessarily hugely different grand story arcs. Does this make sense?

It does make sense. If I could go back in time I'd probably change a few things. The number one thing I'd change is to remove the sandbox elements and make the game more plot focused with branching paths. This would have let me tell the narrative easier and make some of the character interactions deeper. As it is, the sandbox idea which I naively thought would be awesome and give player freedom has been a ton of work for stuff that most players probably skip over. Ironically some parts of the game feel shallow but actually represent a ton of work behind the scenes. And it has caused me headaches.

0.22 helped a lot with this as I made the first day much more guided and added in required events on other days. This was done because I started to realize that certain players may never meet super important characters like Mister Van Horn depending on how they played so I decided I more or less had to make those events required.

I've actually really enjoyed the work I did on the Saturday event and the Sunday update I'm working on now. I'm able to guide events so the narrative works while also giving players some branching points based on decisions either in the past or in the update itself. I'm planning to put up a poll in my Patreon to ask players if they prefer the sandbox or like the more guided narrative of the recent update.

 

[WendyTheRed]

I put up a poll on my Patreon Re: Sandbox or branching path narrative. It's available to the public:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[slavegal]

Well, the intention isn't to see every single thing. I wanted players to be able to explore the content that interested them while also moving towards their goal. In the upcoming game week I plan to have a way for the player to take a more active role in the story though we'll see how my plans work out!

I love to see it! You build up a town full of mysteries, so we naturally want to know everything about it. I recently played a game called "the medium" on Steam; I spent time collecting every piece of the story to restored what happened in the mysterious past, I don't need to do this to play through the game. But I naturally want to know more when the story intrigues me; I tried the same in your game for the same reason~

 

[WendyTheRed]

I love to see it! You build up a town full of mysteries, so we naturally want to know everything about it. I recently played a game called "the medium" on Steam; I spent time collecting every piece of the story to restored what happened in the mysterious past, I don't need to do this to play through the game. But I naturally want to know more when the story intrigues me; I tried the same in your game for the same reason~

I'm very flattered to hear you are intrigued by the town and the story! Hopefully you'll really enjoy upcoming updates which reveal more information.

 

[slavegal]

I'm very flattered to hear you are intrigued by the town and the story! Hopefully you'll really enjoy upcoming updates which reveal more information.

I am a visual person. I love how you develop the environment in the story; it gives me an immersive experience. I feel everyone and every corner in this town has been involved in some unknown horrible stuff... so I am eager to seek the answer. On this site, not many devs pay attention to the ambients. I usually read the texts in many games, while the characters' portraits occupy almost half of my screen. So I appreciated your works where I can read information from pics of a church, a dock, and a park. You successfully set a gloomy and dark mood for the story through the CGs of the town, which can't be set only by texts; that is why I love it a lot

 

[WendyTheRed]

I am a visual person. I love how you develop the environment in the story; it gives me an immersive experience. I feel everyone and every corner in this town has been involved in some unknown horrible stuff... so I am eager to seek the answer. On this site, not many devs pay attention to the ambients. I usually read the texts in many games, while the characters' portraits occupy almost half of my screen. So I appreciated your works where I can read information from pics of a church, a dock, and a park. You successfully set a gloomy and dark mood for the story through the CGs of the town, which can't be set only by texts; that is why I love it a lot

I'm glad you've enjoyed it and that the atmosphere is coming across well. I will say, there are a few true innocents in the town and some of the people acting as they are is not their fault. Sean, for example, repeatedly says something along the lines of "I don't know why I'm acting like this..." Amber, on the other hand, is truly uncorrupted.

 

[akinit]

Ohh, that makes me want to try being a lesbian and corrupt her Amber.

 

[slavegal]

I'm glad you've enjoyed it and that the atmosphere is coming across well. I will say, there are a few true innocents in the town and some of the people acting as they are is not their fault. Sean, for example, repeatedly says something along the lines of "I don't know why I'm acting like this..." Amber, on the other hand, is truly uncorrupted.

Oh yes~ I mean every one of the leading roles. Amber doesn't show herself often nor provide much information; I ignore her sometimes. I guess she is way too innocent, so she barely knew what Lisa was doing... as for Sean, he might be alright, but his family, I mean his mother, on the other hand, looks suspicious. So, I don't know... this is what I want to find out, who did what, and how to connect with Lisa's fate...oh, right! Must Lisa die? Can we save her, maybe?

 

[WendyTheRed]

Oh yes~ I mean every one of the leading roles. Amber doesn't show herself often nor provide much information; I ignore her sometimes. I guess she is way too innocent, so she barely knew what Lisa was doing... as for Sean, he might be alright, but his family, I mean his mother, on the other hand, looks suspicious. So, I don't know... this is what I want to find out, who did what, and how to connect with Lisa's fate...oh, right! Must Lisa die? Can we save her, maybe?

Lisa's fate was always set. I mean, one of my big inspirations was Twin Peaks which famously starts with the discovery of a dead girl wrapped in plastic.

 

[LowLevelLesser]

As long as we have options and branching paths, I'm happy whether it's a sandbox or semi-linear.

Also if you want to see how much difference sound effects can make on a game you should check out Exciting Games, Our Red String, and/or Luna's Fall From Grace.

Exciting Games has no music or animation during gameplay so it relies entirely on multiple sound effects to liven up otherwise "static" scenes.

 

[slavegal]

Lisa's fate was always set. I mean, one of my big inspirations was Twin Peaks which famously starts with the discovery of a dead girl wrapped in plastic.

Poor girl... and yes, you indeed reconstructed an eerie and surreal small town, it reminds me of Silent Hill sometimes, especially when it gets dark suddenly and vampires show up from nowhere.

 

[WendyTheRed]

As long as we have options and branching paths, I'm happy whether it's a sandbox or semi-linear.

Also if you want to see how much difference sound effects can make on a game you should check out Exciting Games, Our Red String, and/or Luna's Fall From Grace.

Exciting Games has no music or animation during gameplay so it relies entirely on multiple sound effects to liven up otherwise "static" scenes.

Well, like I said, I actually mute adult games when playing them so no one else in my house hears it. I know Twine can do audio but I'm not sure how efficient it is and I don't have much in the way of sound effects. As in, I don't have any. Someone mentioned the assetts forum but I didn't see much in there except one thread with some adult sounds.

Poor girl... and yes, you indeed reconstructed an eerie and surreal small town, it reminds me of Silent Hill sometimes, especially when it gets dark suddenly and vampires show up from nowhere.

I've never played Silent Hill. I always kind of wanted to but never seemed to get a chance. They need to remaster them for current gen consoles I think.