Today I want to give you a small glimpse into a process that has accompanied me for the whole development process of FCotW2, but that came to the foreground these past few months, when I really started putting together the game. You see, FCotW2 is a very story intensive game, much more so than part 1 wich was mostly investigation. This means there are a huge number of plot points that need to be resolved, addressed and foreshadowed.
One of my current challenges is to find a way to make all this seem gradual and natural, without slowing down the progress too much or overwhelming the player with new information. This means to decide which character should give you what kind of information, when certain story points should come into play and how to deal with information gain during nonlinear gameplay.
Story progress in FCotW2 definitely is a balancing act, especially in the early parts of the game where we go from one reveal to the next. But I think it’s here that computer games, and adventure games in particular, show their strengths. Contrary to movies or books, in games you can keep the mandatory discussions short and to the point, while interested players can get lots of additional information and explanations via optional questions and exploring the environment.
There’s a lot of world-building that can be done that way. On the downside, how's the player to decide what is relevant and what not? Guiding the player through the story without artificially restricting him too much, that's a real challenge. We'll see how FCotW2 rises to it.
Next month I plan to dive into scripting block 2 of FCotW2, which will be much more open-ended than block 1 and allow me work on a few more involved puzzles and even a mini game or two.
One of my current challenges is to find a way to make all this seem gradual and natural, without slowing down the progress too much or overwhelming the player with new information. This means to decide which character should give you what kind of information, when certain story points should come into play and how to deal with information gain during nonlinear gameplay.
Story progress in FCotW2 definitely is a balancing act, especially in the early parts of the game where we go from one reveal to the next. But I think it’s here that computer games, and adventure games in particular, show their strengths. Contrary to movies or books, in games you can keep the mandatory discussions short and to the point, while interested players can get lots of additional information and explanations via optional questions and exploring the environment.
There’s a lot of world-building that can be done that way. On the downside, how's the player to decide what is relevant and what not? Guiding the player through the story without artificially restricting him too much, that's a real challenge. We'll see how FCotW2 rises to it.
Next month I plan to dive into scripting block 2 of FCotW2, which will be much more open-ended than block 1 and allow me work on a few more involved puzzles and even a mini game or two.
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