Dialogue Choices/Branching

[Mix]

What is your opinion on dialogues that have choices/options in them? (By this, I mean repeatedly, as in the game will have this be a thing that happens regularly)

An example. You have character A talking to character P (protagonist, who the story's perspective is from), and he asks, for example, 'do you like the color blue' (just roll with it ok its 2am)

And you have the following options:

>Blue is my favorite color, actually.
>Its okay, I guess.
>I hate the color blue, its disgusting!

Each option changes up the dialogue after that point, but doesn't necessarily affect the story in a large way. It can reveal information about the character you're talking to ('Oh, blue's my favorite color too!') or can be mentioned later on ('P hates blue. Didn't you know?') but doesn't necessarily affect which ending you get (though a game where hating the color blue can alter what ending you get? that'd be interesting, haha.)

Do you think, if handled right, this is acceptable? Does there need to be moderation in how many choices affect things and how many are just purely conversational? Input's really what I'm looking for here.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I try to work in a choice or character interaction every 5-10 minutes of reading time on the player's part. (Using a comprehension reading rate of 300 words a minute to calculate this when writing the script.)

I don't think these necessarily have to affect the larger story, but I try and make sure each choice is meaningful, in that it will reward the player with a different scene, or a new piece of character information they wouldn't have known otherwise. I do my best to AVOID a situation where despite the choice made, the player gets railroaded into identical follow-up dialogues that are just summaries of each other. A character may still end up doing the same thing for story purposes, but the player has chosen a different motivation for them doing so.

I also personally like to make player choices "mysterious". By example, instead of:

>Blue is my favorite color, actually.
>Its okay, I guess.
>I hate the color blue, its disgusting!

I might have these options:

>Yes.
>Eh.
>Nope.

Choosing one then has the protagonist speak unique dialogue, which I use to reveal personality. I find this avoids the redundancy problem of reading dialogue twice - once to pick it, and once when it is said. (Not every game does this, but too many do.) It also lets me get more long-winded and creative with replies, and the player gets to wonder "How will the protagonist phrase this response?" and so builds anticipation.

[Ryue]

If the choices are not only effective for about 10 seconds, but the infos you "generate" with them pop up time and again (thus when you visit the others room it is painted in blue or green depending on choice.....or it is mentioned a few times later on) it will have a great effect on the player.

I always call these things gimmick as they give the game a stronger feeling of beeling "alive" and not a static thing.
Thus the more things you can do affect small little things the higher the replay value and also the concentration of the player.

Although on the otehr side you shouldn't overdo it as too many dialogues (choices) will make it a clickfest that becomes boring very fast.

But else it is a VERY GOOD motivator for players I think.

[Mix]

To give a bit of explanation:

What I'm hoping to achieve (if it seems to be a good idea, anyway-I've gotten positive feedback from people I've brought it up with before) is conversations that have a dynamic feeling to them; while the conversation choices you say might not necessarily have a large impact on things, it still alters how the direct conversation goes, giving it a more realistic feeling (and hopefully, helping the player slip into the protagonist's shoes easier if they themselves have some semblance of control over what he says- without making the protagonist come across as bland or lacking characterization).

While some choices might obviously have repercussions- siding with A over B could have B using that to jab at A in a later argument, for example- allowing some details to be revealed or missed entirely (C turns out to play violin, but its only mentioned if you state you like classical music- otherwise, you find that out later on or don't at all) hopefully makes it so that in subsequent playthroughs you can still have little moments of 'oh, I didn't even know that, cool' or something that actively keeps the player engaged and not just the same old script with nothing new. Little bits of info or data about the character- or characters in their life, or setting, or so on- that can be missed and that while ultimately don't take away anything from the main plot, still fill in little blanks you didn't know were empty until that point.

Since what I'm working on isn't going to have a lot of variance in endings- if there even are multiple endings beyond some 'game over' scenes- the changes or alterations will be more subtle, and callbacks used sparingly enough to have that moment of realization hit for the player ('oh shit they remembered that choice I made ages ago') but not overbearingly to the point the player gets bogged down with callbacks and brick jokes.

I'm hoping I can pull it off without it being overwhelming. Does this sound like (if implemented properly) it would be a good path to take? (I realize it'll require a lot more writing to allow for this kind of dynamic conversation, but I'm cool with that)

[Ryue]

That is what I meant with gimmicks. If you can pull it off go for it. As that is what me as a player keeps interested in a game and make the game feel much morer alive than if there aren't such things included.

[Greeny]

Should warn you that from a logistical perspetive, this wil greatly bump up the difficulty of planning conversations, as you'll have to find ways to tie it all together in sensible ways.

[Mix]

Oh, definitely. I'm pretty aware its going to be a lto of work/harder than regular conversations are- that, in addition to the other stuff I have planned, is going to take a lot of time, writing, and energy to do- but I'm willing to put the time into it. I mean, if you're gonna do something, might as well go as hard as you can. And I have faith in my writing ability.

[Paul Mesken]

What is your opinion on dialogues that have choices/options in them? (By this, I mean repeatedly, as in the game will have this be a thing that happens regularly)

Well, choices in dialogue... I think it could only be used in a significant way if it "informs" the game about what kind of character you want play and then the game choses the branches accordingly.

Something like this :

"What's your favorite color?"

a - "That's none of your goddamn business" (some brazen loner)
b - "Is this a test? I didn't know there was to be a test! I didn't study for it! It's not fair, someone should have told me!" (an insecure scaredy cat)
c - "I love aaaalll the colors of the rainbow. They're all so pretty *giggle*" (a happy-go-lucky type)

But then something more appropriate to the game

[Mix]

What is your opinion on dialogues that have choices/options in them? (By this, I mean repeatedly, as in the game will have this be a thing that happens regularly)

Well, choices in dialogue... I think it could only be used in a significant way if it "informs" the game about what kind of character you want play and then the game choses the branches accordingly.

Something like this :

"What's your favorite color?"

a - "That's none of your goddamn business" (some brazen loner)
b - "Is this a test? I didn't know there was to be a test! I didn't study for it! It's not fair, someone should have told me!" (an insecure scaredy cat)
c - "I love aaaalll the colors of the rainbow. They're all so pretty *giggle*" (a happy-go-lucky type)

But then something more appropriate to the game

Ah, but herein lies a problem I'm trying to avoid. While it would be giving the player control and/or allow them to choose what dialogue is said, I don't want it to be so widely varied like that. Having the protagonist's personality/characterization be so across the map like that (is he a loner, is he scared, is he obliviously happy) just results in a sort of bland mess of mediocrity as you have to cater to all the different personalities. At best, I'd consider putting something like (lie) at the end of an option occasionally if the protagonist is in fact lying with what he says, but that's about it- since I'm trying to keep his character consistent to a degree. The dialogue options I'm looking for aren't going to be so drastic as to outright contradict each other in terms of personality.

[Aines445]

Hmm..... That depends. Is your plot related with liking the color blue? Then how will the characters bring up that question? Maybe it could be to define the protagonist himself, or even the outcome of an ending. That depends on what kind of branching are you trying to make. For example, is it linear and the choices only change some dialogue? Or do the choices affect which ending you'll get and some dialogue, but what will happen in the middle be pretty much the same? Or even where every choice makes a different action in the story and you get multiple endings? Asking things like that is good and all, but imagine that it would be in a fantasy setting where you had to beat demons from hell, and suddenly, before a boss fight and your companion suddenly asks "Hey do you like heavy metal??" just like that, everyone would be like "O.O ....Dude....We're in a boss fight" XD. What I'm saying is that you ask such questions to the player if it has something to do with the story, or imagine the same setting, but you're in camp and not in a boss fight, now it would be more appropriate for your companion to ask "By the way, do you like heavy metal??". But if it's modern life and all, you can ask this because you normally make conversation. Like how in a horror game you don't go to this enigmatic character and ask if he likes cats XD, because you should focus on whatever is TRYING TO KILL YOU XD! But if you're asking the stuff to the characters, I guess you could, because THE PROTAGONIST IS TOO AWESOME TO GIVE A FUCK! XD Just kidding. But for dialogue choices, you should try to make the story go foward, but maybe the protagonist has doubts about stuff you can make a part in the game where he can ask about various things (this is mostly in the beginning of a game though), or yeah, maybe you can sidetrack from the plot a little to have some fun, those thjings are sometimes pretty nice in a game, and you can ask things like that to other characters, or get to know your characters better, or maybe the protagonist already knows the characters from the beggining and describes them to you.
Anyways, I like choices a lot, and like branching as well, but I don't think I would play the whole game over and over again to check different dialogue because I picked something different this time, I would play it again to get more endings, but that's just me. I also don't think there is a moderation on how many choices should affect the story, if you're PLAYING the story, you shouldn't have limits in AFECTING it.

[SusanTheCat]

An example. You have character A talking to character P (protagonist, who the story's perspective is from), and he asks, for example, 'do you like the color blue' (just roll with it ok its 2am)

And you have the following options:

>Blue is my favorite color, actually.
>Its okay, I guess.
>I hate the color blue, its disgusting!

I am in support of these kind of choices. I can see it followed up by something like:

Character B gets you a present. Depending on what you answered earlier you get

>A blue tie "Character A told me you like Blue!"
>A purple tie "I like the colour purple."
>A red tie "Character A warned me you don't like Blue."

This reveals that Characters A and B have a life outside of you. And that they were talking about you.

But hey, it's 2am and plots take strange turns at 2am.

Susan

[cuttlefish]

What I'm hoping to achieve ... is conversations that have a dynamic feeling to them; while the conversation choices you say might not necessarily have a large impact on things, it still alters how the direct conversation goes, giving it a more realistic feeling

Go for it! You seem to realize the work involved (just be super aware of Greeny's advice), and it sounds like it'd be fun to read :)


I like choices where I know what the protagonist is going to say. But

the redundancy problem of reading dialogue twice - once to pick it, and once when it is said.

make sure you don't have this.

[Mix]

Hoo boy okay this might be a big response so LETS GET IT GOING

For starters, one hundred percent agree on the redundancy thing. What I'd end up doing, most likely, is have the character the protagonist is talking to/answering react/respond in turn, as if you selecting the choice equals the protagonist saying the choice you made. Since you yourself know what the protagonist just said, there's no reason to say it again.

I'm also wary of oversimplifying it to make the actual dialogue mysterious, as its never a good feeling when you choose what you THINK is an innocuous answer but it was written to portray an emotion you didn't intend (case in point example: in the walking dead game, episode 1, when Clem says she has to use the restroom you have the option of saying 'Just go.' which seems pretty standard enough, but when you choose it Lee snaps at her, which ends up upsetting her slightly. This is NOT a good reaction, since the choice was sort of a lie- it seemed fairly neutral, but the actual dialogue was harsh, which most likely was NOT the player's intention, leading to the player going 'no, I didnt want to say that!' or something to that effect. Which can backfire majorly. (Having consequences/reactions happen that weren't planned is fine and good; having the player's choice be portrayed in a way they didn't want or weren't aware of can backfire SUPER easily.)

The setting is, for the most part, realistic/average. Its not a horror game per se, nor is it a fighting/battle/etc. Discussions with the characters are meant to parallel and feel very similar to conversations one would have with people in real life (albeit the fictional elements controlling what the conversations/conflicts are about, as well as other factors making it standalone as its own world/setting) So dialogue options that aren't directly plot related (but rather, are simply conversational) won't be out of place, to a degree. (An overabundance will make the player go 'what's the point of this this doesnt change or effect anything major right', but having the right amount of balance/contrast helps make the characters feel 'real' and easier to relate to/invest in.)

Its definitely going to be work to make the conversations branch/work without having the character's reactions/conversation tree feel out of whack, but I feel like I can get it taken care of if I make sure to spend time running over things and make sure it flows in the grand scheme of things.