Now, to try and justify my relentless waste of update notifications by offering something
completely biased constructive.
I am not a fan of the +1 type stuff popping up when it comes to this game.
I understand it for something way more simplistic, or the opposite, something way more complex, where there are 30 stats to keep track of.
I agree completely. I think explicit notification of 'points' like that works best when you have either a large number of contrasting stats to keep track of, or a much less structured game such as those that have clearly-defined and mostly self-contained character routes/paths that the player is free to pursue at their leisure.
For a more tightly-plotted experience like
Vinland I prefer things to be as diegetic as possible. Personally, I think Nottravis has the perfect implementation, and certainly the best I've yet seen - the combination of a diegetic character info screen that updates as your relationship (or perceived relationship) with certain characters changes, and a end-of-chapter summary screens that are just brief notifications along the lines of 'you accomplished [action]' or 'you did not see [event]'. The summaries remind me of another game that I can't quite remember, but that might just be me hallucinating again.
I think even the summaries alone, or something similarly simple, would be more than enough here, as
Vinland's character introductions are handled differently to
Heavy Five's.
Well, if I do it, it won't just be a "Gudrid love +1" type of thing, but more like "Character likes it" or "Character does not like it" just to steer you toward the right direction.
(Gudrid slightly approves)
That's also a good way of doing it.
Huitieme said:
Well, that would be the wrong thing to do since love/like points aren't really relevant in the gameplay, I mainly use them as reference points for when I write the script. I don't want someone down the line to miss a scene because they have only 13 love points when it requires 14.
That's good to hear. That
can work for some games but in my experience it usually doesn't, and in game with a clearly progressing narrative like this one it's always annoying to miss out on a great scene because you didn't manage your affection points or whatever just right. Once again, I can only congratulate you on your excellent work so far and emphasise how much I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the game.
I know I'm responding to posts that are rather a while old so don't feel the need to respond in detail or anything, it doesn't fuss me. Just wanted to offer some thoughts.
