Now, I was told that the game’s descisions didn’t feel like they left an impact, so I’m going to explain why that is so. And, to do so, I’ll have to explain the basic structure of the game.
The game, when completed, will have five chapters. You will see little to no affect on the first four from your past decisions. The most that your choices will get you before chapter 5 is some small dialogue changes. It will not be until chapter 5 that your decisions mean anything. And not all choices will have any impact at all. Quite a few are there just to give you different dialogue options, and will not affect the story in any other way. Only a certain few choices will have any impact.
Starting in chapter 5, your decisions will start to change the story. Each past chapter is based around developing a relationship with a certain character, and how these relationships are will determine all of chapter 5. But each chapter is not limited to just it’s one character. You may find an opportunity in many places to improve your standing with another character.
Now, each character’s relationship with the player can fit into one of three places, simplified for my convenience, as either Good, Meh, or Bad. There will be almost no way for you to tell, so you will likely need to guess at this to get some of the endings. However, sometime in the future I might find a way to implement something to display your relationships with the characters, I don’t know.
As far as chapter 5 goes, it will change based on your relationships with the four characters. Sure, certain things won’t change, like the whole premise of chapter 5’s story, but how the characters behave will. And, thanks to the simplified system, I will be able to make tons of endings. After the full game is released, I may choose to add more endings through an updated version. However, now that I think of it, I’m starting to feel sorry for all those completionists out there, since it will take an entire playthrough to get a new ending. Just like (insert similar game here).
Now that that is dealt with, I can move on to other news. I may have found an artist to do the character art. I am yet to decide if he will do, but I will announce when I do. However, even if I do use him, I will still need someone to do background art. So, if anyone is interested, feel free to contact me. Also, if anyone out there know where I could find some guides for doing more advanced things with Ren’Py, it would really help if you send me a link.
Now, my last piece of news for now. I have been working, for a while, on implementing both sound effects and background music. I have found a place to get the music, but I could use a good website for sound effects, so, if anyone knows of any, I’d love it if you send me a link.
Well, that’s it for today.
LR14 Game Development