Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

A place to discuss things that aren't specific to any one creator or game.
Forum rules
Ren'Py specific questions should be posted in the Ren'Py Questions and Annoucements forum, not here.
Message
Author
User avatar
Pyonkotchi
Veteran
Posts: 494
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2010 1:19 pm
Projects: Magical Warrior Diamond Heart, unLucky Love, Phantom Thief Asterism
Tumblr: magicalwarriordiamondheart
Deviantart: PastelPyon
itch: Pyonkotchi
Location: Illinois
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#16 Post by Pyonkotchi »

depends. I'm a perfectionist like that. So I'll likely want to see each one...but

each ending should be unique and interesting and maybe even reveal a mystery. if all the endings are good, mix it up, maybe one characters "good" ending is bittersweet at best compared to the others.
if there are death endings, Does your character regret dying? is it suicide? murder? how do they die?
Image

User avatar
SilverxBlue
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 962
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 1:22 pm
Completed: Caught in Between: A childhood prologue
Projects: MDLS, Alice Hunt(Temporarily on-hold), The Guardian's Spell and one other unannounced thing.
Location: Philippines
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#17 Post by SilverxBlue »

For me it depends as well, if I feel like the endings or the branching of the story is being redundant, then I'll stop going after the other endings. If a writer plans on writing a game with 20+ endings, each ending must give of it's own sense of uniqueness, thus making a player want to play through it again and again and again...
Image Image
"A fool who doesn't think is more foolish than a fool who foolishly thinks." - Franziska Von Karma
Weeeeeee~
不愉快です !!!

kinougames
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 522
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:37 pm
Projects: Working on ミツマタ [Mitsumata (c)].
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#18 Post by kinougames »

This question is pretty extremely subjective. My favorite VN has a total of about 22-23 endings, 12 of which are "good" endings and 10-11 or so that are "bad" endings.. I've played through about...17 or so of them thus far. The CGs are planned so that each of the good endings has a few completely unique CGs. You absolutely cannot get all the CGs without playing all 10 endings. To encourage you to also get the bad endings, you get a special item with each bad ending and cannot complete your inventory without getting all of the endings.

For games like Princess Maker and PPBB, there is a special picture for each and every ending...the only way to get them all is to keep playing. For those games, I'm cool with it.

It really depends on how well it's done.
Check out the new interactive media project, Mitsumata(c). Follow 8 colorful characters in a story full of drama, horror, all sexualities and exciting gameplay~!

Development blog's up! Visit!

LVUER
King of Lolies
Posts: 4538
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:57 pm
Completed: R.S.P
Location: Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#19 Post by LVUER »

What is your favorite VN? If you don't mind telling me ^_^
"Double the princesses, quadruple the fun!" - Haken Browning (SRW-OG Endless Frontier)

DeviantArt Account
MoeToMecha Blog (under construction)
Lolicondria Blog (under construction) <- NSFW

kinougames
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 522
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:37 pm
Projects: Working on ミツマタ [Mitsumata (c)].
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#20 Post by kinougames »

Animamundi. :)
Check out the new interactive media project, Mitsumata(c). Follow 8 colorful characters in a story full of drama, horror, all sexualities and exciting gameplay~!

Development blog's up! Visit!

User avatar
Gear
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 764
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:15 pm
Projects: Tempestus Sum
Organization: Xenokos Interactive
IRC Nick: Gear
Skype: Skye.Gear
Location: Grand Prairie, TX
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#21 Post by Gear »

I like multiple endings...IF they're well done. Each needs to be distinct, be preceeded by long branches that differ from the alternates, and have endings that are true to the characters, storyline, and other factors throughout the game. I will go for them all IF the game was good. If the game leaves a somewhat lacking taste behind, I'll get the one ending and move on.
The best reason to get up in the morning is to outdo yourself: to do it better than you've ever done it before. But if you haven't done it better by nightfall... look at your globe and pick a spot: it's always morning somewhere.

User avatar
Aileo
Regular
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 8:44 pm
Projects: Unnamed short project
Organization: [ctrl] + minds
Location: New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#22 Post by Aileo »

Having lots of endings doesn't really bother me for a few reasons. If playing through many of the endings actually rewards me with something, like a special ending, then I am all for playing a game through multiple times. Or if the endings offer a different perspective by going through them, I like that too.

Agent Zero
Regular
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:28 pm
Location: Sarajevo
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#23 Post by Agent Zero »

When I have spare time on my hands I go for all the ending if possible but if it's like Bionic heart where the last ending is impossible to reach then it is annoying. ( I still want that last ending T.T *goes off to play it again* ).
But people love many endings if the story is really good.
Image

Currently in school. By June 22th a site a blog and a game should be up and running.

squark
Veteran
Posts: 277
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:59 am
Completed: Tour de Pharmacy (Proofreader), The Abandoned Land: Book One (Proofreader)
Projects: Raven Hollow (Core Coder, Proofreader), The Universal Hope (Core Coder, Proofreader)
Organization: FlareBlue Entertainment
Location: Always somewhere behind you...
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#24 Post by squark »

Multiple Ends are nice, but if they're going to be based on Minor playing style changes it loses its impact for me. Either make it so the branch paths are sufficiently different to be noticable or use the persistant data to have one of the already achieved ends inject something new into one of the branches.
Without communication, nothing is possible.
"All we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore"
-- Edgar Allen Poe, "A Dream Within A Dream"
Current Projects:
Universal Hope Stalled
Raven Hollow (on hold for now)
Peace and Love,
Squark

Wintermoon
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 701
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 3:41 pm
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#25 Post by Wintermoon »

The purpose of multiple endings, IMO, is to personalize the experience. I play through once, making my decisions until I reach my personalized ending. And then I stop, because I've already reached my ending. The other endings belong to other players who made different decisions. Replaying to get the other endings is a almost a form of cheating to me.

Of course, there are games where I do end up replaying to get the other endings. For example, the first ending I got was unsatisfying, or I want to explore other parts of the story, or the game forces me to replay multiple times to get the "true" ending. However, at that point I consider the game's structure to be broken. I am no longer truly immersed in the story. I rely on walkthroughs and text skipping.

I don't want visual novels to encourage me to replay. I want them to offer me a complete experience, no matter what choices I make.

Friendbot2000
Regular
Posts: 161
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:00 pm
Projects: Mutagen : Journey to Haven's Landing
Contact:

Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?

#26 Post by Friendbot2000 »

I believe that it is best to have one set point where your story ends and a variety of small charater based endings within the story. Ideally as the player explores the world and interacts with the characters then he/she will unlock resolutions of that characters arc. That is how most of the games I am developing are like. I try to make my games different by adding gameplay that affects the flavor of the ending not the ending as a whole. For instance I am coding a emotion engine that modifies your interactions with characters depending on how you interacted with them in the past. If you are mean to one character his or her friend will be mad at you too (this is just an example). This allows different playthroughs flavored by different styles of interaction. If you are mean then people will have different dialogue for you, but that should only affect the ending in ways that are minor so the core structure of the story stays intact. Usually multiple endings puts the story on a shaky foundation.
Visit my game development group's Facebook page : Timekeeper Games
Mutagen : Journey to Haven's Landing Facebook Page
Follow our Twitter feed too : TK Games

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users