I have a very preliminary demo up for my work in progress, Going West. A great deal of the content is still unfinished, but I’d welcome any comments on what is finished so far. In particular, I’d love to hear specific things people would want to see in the game as I work on the rest of the story.
The sequences in the church and saloon still need serious work, so I’ve replaced them with what are basically placeholders. I hope to have finished versions of those two scenes ready by the end of the weekend.
No argument there. It’s definitely a barebones start. More content should be up by the end of the weekend. But I figured it’s never too early to get input and ideas for development.
I had fun playing your game I did notice you spelled the word alternatives right but there k and j in it making alternativekjs you should take them out and it’s in the criminal path just thought I would let you know
Just had a quick peek (busy weekend ahead too!) as anything historical is always of very great interest to me.
I really like the whole concept, from the range of backgrounds and skills to the unique setting itself. It’s a challenge to start out with such diversity but I think it pays off in the long run, as it can in itself stimulate new ideas to make good use of the various background differences & stats, but more to the point, it really suits this game concept. Anything less would to me have seemed half-hearted when you have such a wonderfully rich topic to play with. Good decision there, IMO.
The writing is very good, engaging throughout, and I especially like the thought you’ve obviously put into the choices available.
The one suggestion I would have at this early stage is to not leave the other setting-out options unfinished for too long. From the player’s point of view these seem critical and so we’re left feeling ill-prepared for the challenging journey ahead, which might adversely affect how that is then perceived. But more importantly, from your own point of view, getting that type of coding out of the way can, I’ve found, leave you with a clearer mind and better focused to forge ahead with the story. Unfinished bits tend to gnaw at the back of your mind and constantly distract . . . or maybe that’s just me!
@Passer556 and @ScarletGeisha Given the apparent popularity of death by dysentery, I will definitely have to include the possibility at some future stage.
@andymwhy You’re right, it is bad grammar. I may take another look at rewriting those lines.
@13ventrm Thank you for spotting that! I went in and fixed the error in the hunting segment, it should work fine now.
Honestly, at this stage in the demo many of the stats are superfluous. However, I have ideas for ways to make each of them relevant in important ways. Perception and Intuition, which currently have no use, will factor significantly into the saloon scene I’m working on. My goal is for every background to really feel different in a meaningful and significant way.
@vendetta That’s also on my list for things to include in the first update. I’m hoping to have the ‘setting out’ portion finished, along with the saloon and church sequences, in an update ready sometime around Monday. Finishing the ‘setting out’ bit is necessary to make the other two work properly anyways. Certain backgrounds like the shopkeeper and the politician have lower overall starting attributes which is offset by having larger amounts of starting money, which doesn’t have too much benefit in the current demo.
I’ll keep working over the weekend to get those next sections polished and up. Thanks for the feedback!
My only criticism is starting sentences with the word ‘But’. It’s something I don’t like to see, although I can appreciate it when used for dramatic effect. Otherwise, it’s a promising start. It’s definitely a good topic to write about with so much potential for where you could go with it.
I quite like the feel of it, very reminiscent of Oregon Trail. Writing’s good, but the setting definitely could use some fleshing out. I also got an error when choosing to go hunting:
Demo’s a bit too short to thoroughly judge, the sheer amount of stats seems like a lot of them will end up being superfluous, or at the very least it’ll end up confusing for you.
In dialogue, it’s not so bad and is often used like that for added effect. Technically, though, it is bad grammar. It should really be a comma used instead. The same is true of the word ‘and’.
Very promising start, puts me in mind of ‘The Wild Bunch’ which I used to play on my Amstrad back in the day…I will watch this with great interest, as it’s a subject I have a lot of interest in, and your writing style is pretty good. No suggestions as yet, just keep it up!
Thank you all for the comments and support! I’m still at work on an update. I may have been a little optimistic in planning on releasing it tomorrow, but I think it should definitely be ready by the end of the week. On the plus side, I’m going to try to put more in the update than I was planning. The update should include the ‘setting out’ portion finished and polished up, the saloon and church scenes finished, and an extra scene for those who choose to avoid Plainfield entirely. I’m also going to take another look at some of the parts already written and polish them up a little, maybe get rid of the ‘buts’ some dislike.
I welcome any and all suggestions about things you’d like to see in the game as I continue developing it. I have a fairly rough overall plot sketched out and many specific scene ideas, but there’s plenty of flexibility to include things people would really like to see.
@Rogar I don’t want to spoil too much at this stage about what I have planned, but I will say that I don’t plan on having the game end when your character reaches the place they intend to settle. There will be more adventures from there.
