I’m still working on my MilSF, “The People of the Frontier” is what im calling it.
Anyways, I’m having some trouble balancing the choices of the player with making the MC distinct in their own way. I want lots of freedom of choice for the player ot make their captain the way they want, like tin star, but fallen hero was so good partly because you were always a bad guy. Its just what kind of bad guy. And like in hyuga, you have a balance, but it leans much more towards the pre-written character route
I think the mix depends on what kind of story you want to tell, right?
Like, if you have a strong storyline or certain themes that you feel passionate about portraying, which is not a bad thing at all, maybe a more developed character with a more defined personality would be better; and you can always try to find ways to make the MC more customizable for players in the areas they aren’t pre-determined in.
On the other hand, if there is a central story but you can clearly see it going different ways for captains of strikingly different personalities or backstories, the Tin Star approach might offer more freedom to you as a writer. In this case, it might take more time to truly flesh out the different paths for character development, but as long as there’s effort put into it, it will show and readers will appreciate it.
The general theme of the book is the necessity, and the cost of taking sides. And so I’ve been leaning more towards a blank character with a light backstory. But it’s an odd balance to strike bc I want people to like playing their character
In your military sci-fi game, the player is a captain. You are having trouble with whether or not you want the player to slot into a blank slate with some backstory or a preset background that you can vary during gameplay?
You also suggest something about players liking to play their character. Do you think players are more likely to like a blank slate with some backstory or a preset character?
A lot of this boils down to playing your own game and getting good feedback from others. But, there’s also another trick to this: see what other games have done.
You referenced Tin Star and Fallen Hero, so the next steps are to take note of how these games work. What are the choices like in each game? How did it make you feel? How does the game still weave player agency with the overall narrative?
Playing other games in your genre also helps with this. How do other games create their MCs? What are little ways you felt disconnected from your choices?
Looking back, this sounds so wishy-washy. It’s the same process I do when I create a brand new project. I review current games in my media, the ways I enjoyed them, the choices made, and then I add in my own flare for a refreshing take.
If this is the theme of your game, then there may be a reason why the MC’s backstory is causing some uncertainty.
The biggest challenge with this kind of premise is providing compelling reasons why the MC might choose one side over another, and then making the player interested in it. Backstory is often an important tool for accomplishing this.
All three of the games you mentioned - Tin Star, Fallen Hero, and Samurai of Hyuga - have certain mandatory backgrounds for the character: innocent or guilty, Tin Star was a convict; selfless or selfish, Fallen Hero was a ReGene; honorable or dishonorable, Samurai of Hyuga was a cannibal.
The player reacts to these backstory elements - either by leaning into them, or pushing back - but notably, the preset aspects don’t predetermine any faction or allegiance choices.
A selfish Sidestep can still hang out with heroes and call themselves a necessary evil. An innocent Marshal can befriend corrupt townsfolk and claim it keeps the peace. A honorable Ronin can accept their past misdeeds and argue it was the only way to survive.
These contradictions are interesting and, I think, create some of that sense of freedom and distinct personality you mentioned in your first post.
I suppose my point is that, rather than approaching this as a question of player preference, it may be more useful to look it from a utilitarian standpoint. Your MC is a military Captain - how do they use that to justify their choices?
It may be easier to pick between and blank-slate vs a preset-backstory after deciding the difference between who the MC thinks they are while the story happens, and who they’ve chosen to be when it ends – and then work backwards to who they were before it started.
So I consider the spectrum of player choice between like, Tin Star, and maybe Golden rose on the other end. While you have a certain amount of player character build up, Tin Star was very minimal, and Fallen Hero and Golden Rose was very robust. I have some elements of backstory, but it’s hard to determine things like where should the player talk themselves or have a choice for a dialogue option. Like Hyuga, there’s a lot more text between choices than in Tim Star, and your character talks a lot without the player input. I don’t want to fill in backstory that removes critical player agency. It’s a tough balance
I have some backstory to the mc, like their previous command, a couple people they know, their family, a few things like that. But the two biggest struggles for me are one, balancing things the player says vs things their character says without a choice option, and two, filling in backstory without removing the identity the player wants to create for their mc
If I may, one thing to consider for this very specific dilemma is a compromise where the player still influences what the character says even if they don’t directly choose it. For example, if you’re tracking certain personality traits, like whether the player is likely to choose lighthearted or serious responses in dubious situations, for example, you can include some small variances in ‘set’ dialogue based on those traits.
Of course, no particular approach is going to 100% satisfy everyone. Some people want to be able to control every single line of dialogue, some people prefer much more strongly preset characters, but I think one thing most people enjoy is when a game is responsive to their choices, even in small ways, which is why at least sometimes varying dialogue with personality is a decent compromise if you’re trying to balance between flow / pacing and player agency.
But that’s just one possible take, so do with it what you will.
That’s an elegant solution. I’ve been making it so that what the mc says is chosen by the player but those choices shift according to their stats as they start leaning in certain directions
Let me see if I understood you.