13ventrm t1_j88lg95 wrote
Reply to comment by tyeishing in I am Tye Abbott, the solo developer of Yuma Will Burn- An interactive moral thriller where choices have long-lasting story and mechanical consequences. Ask me anything! by tyeishing
Interesting! You cited Pathologic as a source: one thing I found with the original in particular is that it became easy to contextualize the moment to moment moral decisions as just elements to be considered within the scope of the gameplay.
A lot of punch can potentially be lost when what's supposed to be a tough moral decision becomes less about the narration itself and more: "well this event gives me a permanent debuff if I do decision x, so let's not do that". "Hm, this choice gives me +5 Hope, but -5 Food. I'm low on hope atm though, can afford to lose the food".
Is this sort of gamifying a concern for you in crafting the narrative? If so, do you feel you can address or incorporate it?
tyeishing OP t1_j88nrs8 wrote
Min-maxing is the blight of moral narrative game design, and it's something that you can never get rid of, but you can minimize. How Yuma Will Burn discourages this type of play is being slightly restrictive with its save system. The game automatically saves over your one save slot after a major descion so a player can't personally reload 57 times and find the mathematically perfect solution. There is where the dynamic narrative stuff helps me too, for a lot of interactions with 10+ outcomes it's hard for even me to keep a running understanding of what happens if you do X,Y, and Z. Now- will that stop players from just looking up a guide and ruining the mystery? Probably not, but that's their descion, and anyone who approaches the game in good faith, trying to engage with thematic experience, will have atleast 3 playthroughs worth of uncertainty before the clear mathematical systems behind yuma will burn will become TOO clear
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments