the whole thing sounds great, you mentioned puzzles AND not able to get stuck, so its possible to fail at the puzzles and still continue?

The puzzles only serve as a device to unlock codex and lore, not to proceed forward in the game.

That is great because depending on the puzzle, I can be a whiz at it, or I can be terrible and need to look it up to advance further.



And since no one else is asking, can we play male/female? And what type of romances will be available?

The player will have the choice of playing either male of female protagonists. The story will essentially be the same for both but the NPCs will react differently.



As for romances, I intend to include BxG, GxB, GxG, BxB, a bromance (really) and something else which is um... different.

Hello world.



I'd like to ask a few more seconds of your time to ponder this short yet existential question.



When I submitted my first chapter to Jack some time ago, one of his comments was that there was one scene that was perhaps 2-3 pages long with no possible interaction from the player. "Some people might dislike this." Now, I understand that no matter what game I come up with, I can't make everyone happy but, I'd still like to discuss.



In its current state, my game offers TONS of dialogue choices, most with very little consequence besides different replies/attitude from NPCs so you never really get bored by just reading.



There is this scene however, which I am working on right now. It will be somewhere around a solid 8-10 pages long and you have absolutely ZERO interaction in it. It's a scene aimed at creating a paroxysm of suspense and terror and the first and most important tool used in that scene is that the character CAN'T ACT.



In a nutshell, I'm writing a cutscene. A very intense one at that. How do you, the player, feel about this?



Thanks!

What you describe is similar to kinetic novel. I don't think is a good idea, at least compared to the games usually made by WW.

Even the ones of Choice of games, which are "pure text", are popular exactly because they offer a lot of options, and replayability.

If it's just one or two scenes that have that then I don't see an issue but I like to read.

If you REALLY have faith that you can deliver, it might work out. Of course, there's always the "trick" of having non-choices, same result no matter what you choose, but still giving the illusion that you had some interaction and didn't just sit there being forced to read through the author's megalomaniacal ravings.

It's very hard to give you guys any context without spoiling the story but I had an idea in the back of my head that I can work with.



You are right however: the scene has one and only one possible conclusion and it cannot be avoided.



And yes, it's just that one scene. The vast majority of the rest of the game will keep throwing dialogue choices at the player.

my main issue with longer text passages are the place restrictions of the GUI - 5 sentences ago is also 5 screens ago and this makes it harder to grasp the content "holistically" (for lack of a better word). if there's an elegant technical solution (maybe a temporary vertical split with enough screen estate for a couple of paragraphs) I wouldn't mind more textual input if it pushes the story in new regions

I have to consider this problem indeed since the game will feature a host of codex files that will deliver a lot of story-building content essentially through text. If such a solution is implemented, it could also serve for "textual cutscenes" as well.



Jack and his unstoppable code-fu skills should be my best friend in that regard.

Yes it's possible to display more paragraphs in a single screen just fine, like those of a book or in this case some sort of holo-disk stuff

I gotta say the thing that bothered most about your comment was the tons of choices/little consequences. I would rather be sold a kinetic novel that doesn't pretend to have choices than a VN game that claims there are tons of choices and there really aren't. If I find a kinetic novel interesting enough then I have a certain expectation, but too often I have run into VNs that claim they have choices, but don't really. That claim leads to certain expectations of replayability to see all of the story and options, and thus makes me adjust the price point of what I am willing to pay. I have seen too many using this tactic to validate the high cost of their VN. This is a reason I buy Jack's games. There is no false or misleading hype.

If it's just one or two scenes that have that then I don't see an issue but I like to read.

Agreed.



It also depends on the expectations of the game. I've seen VNs that you have to go through 50+ screens before you get to a choice (though the choices do matter and affect the story), but it's also kind of apparent that's what you're getting into given how spaced out the first few choices are. If you offer a bunch of choices in close succession and then a really long story segment, it can be a bit jarring.



It also depends on what "8 to 10 pages" means. 8 to 10 pages of rapid-fire dialogue is very different from 8-10 pages of heavy prose with no dialogue. And that much prose all at once can sometimes be hard to handle even in actual novels without character interactions to break it up.

Thank you for all the answers I gathered so far.



Unless this is a game-breaking issue, the story I am writing is not planned to have much replayability value. Sure, there are/will be the different romances but the core of the story, the whole suspense/horror element will be spent after the first time you play through and the game just won't be as enjoyable once you know how the global story plays out.



I may also be speaking out of place here but I don't think that Jack intends to make it a very expensive game. Jack, correct me if I'm wrong.



Then again, say it's somewhere around 10$. Ten bucks for a good story, nice visuals and music. In 2016, you easily pay 30+ dollars for restaurant meals that end up being quite forgettable.

I may also be speaking out of place here but I don't think that Jack intends to make it a very expensive game. Jack, correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes since it's a new territory for me (psychological horror/etc) I don't want to make same mistake as I did in the past and make a huge 300k words game. If it does well then will do bigger stuff but I need to learn to make smaller games (people who follow me I know I've been saying this since years but I really want to! )

Yes since it's a new territory for me (psychological horror/etc)

PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR!!!!!!!!



My favorite!!!!!!!!!!



When will this be out, Jack?!?!?!?!?!?!



I wanna be the first one to get my hands on it!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm getting quite carried away with this scene... It's over 2500 words long already and it will be well over twice as much when i'm done. I'll need to find a way to sneak in some interaction...



But it's so inteeeeense. What's going to happen? Even I don't know! (Of course I do.)

It is a very common thing for VNs to have long dialogs with no choices, some VNs even only have like 1-3 choices in an entire VN that is super long, in fact it is far more rare for VNs to have more often choices then every couple of hours so I don't think any VN fan will mind this. I do not only not mind this but even like it, I do like VNs that have many choices but I also like long events and if I had to choose between one or the other I would choose long events everytime, as I see it you should only offer many choices if you can afford to have both.

So many different opinions... we'll just have to wait and see I guess. No dount Jack has a few good beta-readers to give me further advice.



Speaking of beta reading; the English language can kill me with its verb tenses... The (entire) story is seen through the eyes of a narrator that is present and involved. All actions and facts are told and reported as immediate statements. So all of you who speak English as their first language (because it isn't mine), please tell me if the following is correct:

“That’s enough. We were tasked with bringing them both here and leave at once. I may not have been here as long as you but I have been long enough to know how doctor Hunt doesn’t tolerate insubordination!” The woman adds. Albeit my own fear and outrage, I could not help but notice how her voice sounded like she was pleading.