Playing through all alternatives

[Xarbia]

My opinion in this matter is that you should not force the player to play through all of your paths. I often only play through a game once (of course, I might replay it later). I believe that the purpose of having multiple paths in a story is in the first place to let the player input some of his own character into the story, to feel the story fold around him like a tailor made rather than a store bought suit. Once the player starts replaying the game and making different choices, this feeling disappears, the story changes, and is actually no longer a story. Once you see everything the creator of the game put into it, a great deal of the realism is lost. At least, that is my experience. On the other hand, playing the game multiple times can give you a better image of the world the creator made, which can also be satisfying, I guess it depends on the game.

I know that form a game makers perspective it is really tempting to make it such that the player will see everything, to be sure that all the hard work you are putting into it was not in vain. However, I believe that you should aim to make a game of which ever part will be seen by somebody, rather than everybody will see every part. It is much like life in this respect - every player sees only a part of it and every player sees a different part. And you know there are parts you have not seen, which is really a comforting thought. All right, enough of this philosophical talk.

So, I believe that a game should be playable and enjoyable in one play-through, and replayability should only be an extra feature for those who can't get enough of it or have that desire to find every last detail there is to find.

[mikey]

Xarbia>> there's definitely something to that - I actually plan on returning to the RT-style path system in future games. For me it depends on the story as you said, if I need to show many angles of the same story I go for the multi-replay approach.

[kara24601]

I think games like River Trap , I only played a couple of times just to see a different ending...but since they're big games... so , of course , it's going to be harder to find all the endings.
But shorter games , of course I'm going to want to see if I can get them all.
Like others , I think lack of save / load and skip options are a turn off.

[Glasskitten]

My policy is similar to Xarbia's...I like to be able to suspend the disbelief and consider that I have forged my own path through the world...

Mikey's multiple angle games have their place...it is a different feeling, a bit more cinematic...

[RedSlash]

I don't think anyones is being "forced" to go through all the endings. I mean, you could just choose to stop after one ending and not bother to get the final ending. Atleast I think, the final ending should be an extra and not a necessity to enjoy the game, should the person choose a 1 ending path.

[Yang Sei Fu]

How about the feature that by finishing a path you unlock game features (such as CG mode, music etc.), like most other Japanese VNs?

[Blue Lemma]

I think one way of incorporating multiple paths that players will more likely play is by making paths branch near the end of the game. Growlanser 2 does this very well, for example. With about an hour left in the game, you can go down several paths, so when you're done you can go back and see what else might have been. Also of note is that Growlanser 2 has multiple path branches throughout the game, and it's really cool

(Go out and buy Growlanser Generations (it has #2 and 3) from Working Designs for PS2, everyone! Good anime RPG stuff!)

[PyTom]

How about the feature that by finishing a path you unlock game features (such as CG mode, music etc.), like most other Japanese VNs?

A CG gallery is one of the features I plan to implement in a future version of Ren'Py, once I start adding new features to it again. One of the things I plan to do is to have the system keep track of the images that have been unlocked, so that the user is relieved of that burden.

[Yang Sei Fu]

I think one way of incorporating multiple paths that players will more likely play is by making paths branch near the end of the game. Growlanser 2 does this very well, for example. With about an hour left in the game, you can go down several paths, so when you're done you can go back and see what else might have been. Also of note is that Growlanser 2 has multiple path branches throughout the game, and it's really cool

(Go out and buy Growlanser Generations (it has #2 and 3) from Working Designs for PS2, everyone! Good anime RPG stuff!)

This game design system is easy, but it also has been criticized. Just look at e.go!'s Natsukagura, as well as minori's Wind.

Basically they use point systems and a single critical point. I don't use that. I use conditions and situations.

[kara24601]

I never thought of multiple paths as "forcing" the player to choose one or try and find all of them before....hmm.

[mikey]

In the case of my games like K* and MS (and also TT) this in fact is forcing - whereas you could end RT with your ending and got the bonus section as omake, in K* or MS, the whole point is revealed only after the game sees you exhaust all (or nearly all) of the paths. That's one of the reasons I brought this up. Anyway, as I said, from TT on, I'm taking a break from this system, so no bashing 'kay?