So I was wondering how you guys felt about there being a God Mode in choice games. I noticed some have made DLC where your MC gets stat bonuses and/or skills and abilities by paying additional fees. I’ve bought them every time.
These kind of take the challenge out of the game at times. It can also make it more fun and less tedious. Rather than checking your stats each time you have to make a decision, you can more easily make decisions with less consequence.
Saw this done with Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven and The Lost Heir series.
I found it ridiculous and as an author, I will never cheap my product to become a linear storyless mess without reason. It becomes a linear game with a linear story where basically all is same each time to play.
For me, It is an insult to the work of authors it is like grabbing a Shakespeare book And tampering it letting only a few pages.
That is my visceral opinion not a universal truth and I understand that for others is a very different concept of What IF is. For me, they are first and foremost stories. not games.
Still, This type of tampering is very popular and helps to sustain authors so for many authors could be a good revenue.
I personally prefer the In-app purchases add some tangible to story as a mission or small stuff
that kinda happens in ‘choice of romance’, but it never really caught on. it also bring us back to the question of 'how much ‘choice’ is there in a choice game when decent outcomes rely solely on minmaxing etc?
Some games have built in difficulty sliders. I don’t have a problem with that. In fact I quite like it. Sometimes you feel like playing “story mode” if you’ve had your character beaten to a pulp on the first playthrough
As for the DLC’s, I’ve never found I needed them in the games that have had them? (The hero’s and verses series also have them from memory.) Although I prefer difficulty sliders to be built in personally, I think they are pretty optional and not necessary buys if you don’t feel like it. So it comes under personal preference.
One of my stretch goals for every project I am working on is to enable a(n): “Easy-Mode”, “Normal-Mode” and a “Hard-Mode” to try to accommodate everyone’s play-style.
The trouble with implementation of this feature without adding an extra purchase is that the cost involved in making it is not easy for the gamer to see, because it is behind the scenes.
A consumer can see artwork, hear music or read additional story … they don’t normally view the code, and even if they do, they do not realize the additional balancing and testing involved.
Ideally, you’ll want to “value-add” the feature to another – to the additional story or artwork as examples.
Regarding the authors here: they are must purchases for me, just because I want to support the authors.
Totally agree. Messing with stats in this way and doing it properly can add a lot of time to the project. I think it justifies adding to the cost if built in, but I can see how people who don’t try to code projects in CS may not see the extra work it causes.
Sure, supporting the author is a good reason to buy them I guess what I was getting at is I don’t consider them “essential” add ons. You can play the games fine without them so I don’t think there can really be that much in the way of complaints by making them an optional extra and keeping the price of the game down in the process. They just add a dimension of QOL for those who want to purchase them.
I don’t like games that rely too much on stats, but that doesn’t mean I’d like a god mode.
If it’s DLCs that add boosts or other things, well, that depends if it’s integrated in the story. I like the hint system DLC Heroes Rise has for example. It is truly a device you have in game that helps you formulate strategies so yeah, I like it. But if it’s something that gives you a straight up stat boost with no explanations, then I think I’d avoid. Unless I replay the game again and again and for some reason I suck at it and I’m unable to get a decent ending because of stats. But that would be on a case by case basis.
I don’t mind it to be honest. From what I’ve seen so far, every game that has offered this has made it clear that it is an extra option for those who want it, and the games are still playable and winnable without the DLCs. I’ll admit that I’ve never bought any of the “extra points/skills” DLCs but I’ve never felt that I’m missing out on anything because of it.
My preferred DLC policy is just adding some extra content in for those who want it. For example, in Pon Para, buying the DLC allows you access to a whole new goddess and gives you access to some new story content that isn’t necessary at all, but nice for those who would like to go that route.
I would honestly pay money for a feature that removed skill and maybe relationship stats but left in personality stats for flavour. Perhaps it shouldn’t be something you charge people for though.
Nothing kills a story for me than getting an unexpected game over because my stats weren’t high enough and it’s one of the reasons why I haven’t finished really well-written stories like “The Fog Knows Your Name” and others.
So many games don’t have a checkpoint/save system, so if you mess up late in the story and die/meet a fail condition, you’re forced to start over. It’s a significant UX problem because you’re basically telling the reader that they need to “fast forward” through the story while remembering all the choices they made just to get back to where they originally were.
I guess what I was getting at is I don’t consider them “essential” add ons. You can play the games fine without them so I don’t think there can really be that much in the way of complaints by making them an optional extra and keeping the price of the game down in the process. They just add a dimension of QOL for those who want to purchase them.