Dreamtime I don’t know i just …just(sob) i don’t know!
The game is a gigantic loophole. I have faith I will beat this game, but is it possible? I keep dying
I HAVE JUST FOUND THE DARK SOULS OF CHOICE OF GAMES!
I took a nap and I woke up dead. Forget death trap. It was a death nap!
I don’t think we’re the audience you’re looking for. By that I mean us in the forum, and not the choice of games audience as a whole.
Weird, experimental and exploratory is how I’d describe what’s being done with Twine. There’s also a few tricks you can do in twine that I think lend themselves far better than choicescript does. Choicescript doesn’t really allow for the same degree of organic exploration, which doesn’t mean that you can’t do it, just I think the medium comes with certain expectations, at least for those of us in the forums. Not that I’m saying you should make the game in twine, just if you haven’t had a look at what’s being done, have a look.
What you’re saying about the options available depending on personality is something that is done here quite frequently. I’d expect as much, but the method of choosing our personality felt artificial and the implementation left something to be desired. At the start of the game I’d expect to be forming my personality through my actions, and only having actions locked off later in the game, once I’d had more of a chance to cement my personality.
@Dreamtime I have discovered another scene, the one with phantom dogs. It’s a bit longer than usual optional scenes, but the only ending to it seems to be death.
All of my playthroughs so far have been with all stats maxed out (90-90-90). The one which enabled the scene was 10-10-10. There are a few problems with this.
The first problem is: 90-90-90 means I used 270 points to create my character, with a 10-10-10 character, it is only 30. I think you should balance things out a bit. For example, if we have chosen the first stat to be a high number, we should be able to make the second stat only average or low and the third stat whatever is left after we choose the second stat.
The second problem: This is connected with the first problem. I figured that I can sleep on the bench because my compassion is low and enables me to be rude to the innkeeper and refuse her invitation (I think the innkeeper invites me to the inn, might be wrong). Someone who is playing the first time probably couldn’t figure out it is because of low compassion.
The third problem: This is the biggest problem so far. Playing a 90-90-90 game isn’t much different than playing a 10-10-10 game. Except for the dog scene that is unlocked. The only new choice I saw is to kick the city door, which is a choice that doesn’t do anything. The only change is that the options are ordered differently.
Every time I go to sleep it says I have died,is that just the end of the demo or am I doing something wrong?
@Lilskylerbug It seems like it’s the end of the demo. Everyone gets that ending most of the times, but I managed to find the phantom dog ending by setting my compassion to the lowest and refusing to go to the inn and sleeping on the bench instead. It also ends in death no matter what you do ( @Dreamtime Add a checkpoint.). I think the phantom dog death is real death and waking up dead at the inn sounds like clumsily ending the demo. That one-sentence page is completely unneccessary.
@Lilskylerbug, Dseg …oops. Yeah I bet I told the scene to finish at that part and the next scene in the list was the death scene. I will fix that! ( I was wondering why the game was “The Dark Souls of Choice Games”. )
@DeSeg you actually can survive the phantom dogs scene but it takes a bit of work earlier in the game. And you can’t do it with your compassion so low. This is actually a place where I had created the kind of interaction you were suggesting several comments up. The part you are describing where you walk along the wall and die is an artifact from the Kickstarter origins of the project. Certain backers are invited to collaborate and provide a side quest for the game. The wall is a place where one of those could go and as a result it has sort of a placeholder interaction there. I should just cut that part out for the time being though.
@DSeg again…the third problem you list above is, indeed a problem. I need to take another few run-throughs myself and examine that very closely. I am not a very good playtester. 
@FairyGodFeather Thank you for your forth-rightness. It definitely seems that there are expectations from the forum members that my game is not fulfilling. That’s ok by me: I just hadn’t anticipated these expectations.
But even if this is not the right audience for the game, I nonetheless really appreciate everyone who tried it and took the time to give me feedback. Thank you so much.
Its a very interesting problem with this game that many of you are pointing out to me: how much to communicate to players what is happening in the background while still maintaining the aesthetic that I am seeking. Thanks for your help surfacing this.
Oh well it’s good to know it wasn’t just me being a doof lol,oh and I notice lots of people say it’s very slow and I’d have to agree but I thinks it’s long in a good way…like it tells a story and gets you to feel the environment.so if your thinking about making it shorter I don’t think it’s necessary. Oh and btw I loved the whole children going missing and the kinda creepy vibe it gave off like the town has a secret that the villagers are trying to keep.so anyways I liked it >:D<
“There’s also a few tricks you can do in twine that I think lend themselves far better than choicescript does.”
Out of curiosity, what tricks do you have in mind?
“What you’re saying about the options available depending on personality is something that is done here quite frequently.”
Which games are you thinking of? “Before You Close Your Eyes” is a bit different in that it tends to hide options with *if, instead of disabling them with *selectable_if. I can think of a few games that hide options for continuity purposes, but I can’t think of any that hide options based on the player’s chosen personality, like BYCYE.
Thanks @Lilskylerbug! I find that very reassuring.
@Dreamtime What I described wasn’t about walking along the wall. What I was describing is in the very beginning, when I am on the road. There is an option to go to the city or enter the woods.
Speaking of the wall: The snake flower kills me there or I decide to take a nap and I die in my sleep. Either way, I am dead and the next page is me entering the city square or something similar instead of a game over.
Oh. Oops. You actually can go into the woods and not die. There’s a neat interaction in there (at least I think so). But I don’t remember if you can do it with low compassion. I haven’t looked at that scene in awhile I guess.