Ok, i didn't know what to call the title of this post, so I want to clear something up. I do know how to add multiple endings in Ren'py. That is not what I am not sure about.
What I am wondering is how to make the player get a sense of whether they done things right or not. I am going to have 1 canon ending and at least two wrong ones.
How can I make the player feel they have done something wrong without telling them on the spot?
I was planning on doing something like having a story page in the main menu. Each time the player finishes the game their 'story line' will be unlocked there. I could then encourage the player to try and unlock all of the endings.
"How can I make the player feel they have done something wrong without telling them on the spot?"
One possibility is to have a variable called 'karma' and show the value after every choice the player makes. "Good" choices increase karma, and "bad" choices decrease it.
If you don't want to do that, word the choices so it will be apparent to the player which one is the bad one.
Another option is to show a screen that says "Are you sure you want to do that?" when the player makes a 'bad' choice, then give the player the option to make the 'good' choice.
From a player perspective, I don't like any of the options I suggested. I want to make the choice and take my chances with the consequences.
Some of my visual novels are at http://www.the-new-lagoon.com. They are NSFW
Poorly done hand-drawn art is still poorly done art. Be a Poser (or better yet, use DAZ Studio 3D) - dare to be different.
fleet wrote:"How can I make the player feel they have done something wrong without telling them on the spot?"
One possibility is to have a variable called 'karma' and show the value after every choice the player makes. "Good" choices increase karma, and "bad" choices decrease it.
Thanks for the suggestion! I quite like this idea, actually.
You could always go with the Telltale way of doing that by saying "[Character] will remember that" which is pretty ambiguous about whether your choice was correct or not.
fleet wrote:"How can I make the player feel they have done something wrong without telling them on the spot?"
One possibility is to have a variable called 'karma' and show the value after every choice the player makes. "Good" choices increase karma, and "bad" choices decrease it.
Thanks for the suggestion! I quite like this idea, actually.
If you've ever played the game Catherine, they did something like this.
You're presented with choices and when you choose, a meter pops up that shows you whether your choice was good or evil.
(Towards blue/angel for bad, towards red/devil for evil). It was an easy way of showing which ending you're headed towards in the game. Definitely not very subtle, though. ^^;
(Towards blue/angel for bad, towards red/devil for evil). It was an easy way of showing which ending you're headed towards in the game. Definitely not very subtle, though. ^^;
I like this idea... only I don't know how I would incorporate it in a vn. I think I will stick to the idea of having an ending-screen in the main menu or something so the player can tell when they have unlocked all endings and how they have done it.
Just my opinion, but I dislike having right or wrong endings in a game. I'm not a fan of blatant good/evil meters, either. I want the ending I reach to be the just as "right" as the others.
If you want it done subtly, I think that just matters on the story -- you could make it clear after choices, like the reactions of the characters or the after effect of the choice being pretty negative. Or you could bring up the choice the player made a tad later on in the story, to show that it was a good/bad idea.
Tyrantauranox wrote:Just my opinion, but I dislike having right or wrong endings in a game. I'm not a fan of blatant good/evil meters, either. I want the ending I reach to be the just as "right" as the others.
For many games, I believe this would be the appropriate approach. I am not going to put less effort in or anything for the bad choices, but the due to the style of game I am making, I feel it is important to have dramatically different endings.
LPRe wrote:Or you could bring up the choice the player made a tad later on in the story, to show that it was a good/bad idea
Yes, this could work. In the menu, I was planning on having a 'story screen' type thingy. This would basically display all of the endings you have unlocked, and show how you got there (due to what choices).
