@Mary_Duffy I know this thread is old, but it’s the most recent one referencing back buttons.
I would like to start off by saying that I understand your design philosophy. I just think it’s stupid. Hear me out for a second.
As someone who plays these games on a phone, I have the issue of occasionally misclicking the “next” button. Or I’ll drop my phone, and it’ll click it somehow. This means that, occasionally, I don’t even get to make the choice, and circumstances outside of my control, or yours, or anyone else’s for that matter, ruin my playthrough. That’s a bit of an issue. The same problem can also cause me to miss some bit of crucial information by making me accidentally skip a page. I can understand your fears that players would abuse the back buttons, but I, personally, think the benefits far outweigh the downsides. At the end of the day, it’s a game and a book. In a book, you can just flip back a page. In a game, most of them except for roguelikes allow you to save, load, and go back if you missed something or made a mistake. When you think about it, these games about choice are depriving their players of the very thing they’re trying to give- choice. The choice to go back and undo a mistake, or reread an earlier page, or whatever. Players are going to want to play the game how they CHOOSE to play it, isn’t it a bit AGAINST your philosophy to deprive them of this?
Regardless, even if we exclude the fact that you’re going against your company’s name, it makes sense to have a back button to at least re-read pages you accidentally skipped. And, as a game developer myself, I know that it’s not that hard to implement a back button. You already have one for the stats screen. It’s also not that hard to make it so, if you use a back button, you can’t alter your choices, if you wanted a compromise. And I don’t see any reason a compromise couldn’t be reached.
The only other reason I could see for not including a back button is because you just don’t want to, without considering what your customers want. Isn’t that the definition of ANTI-CONSUMER? If your design philosophy conflicts with what your players want, what do you think should change? Choose your answer carefully, because like your games right now, there are no back buttons, no do-overs, no re-tries, no changing your choice once it’s made.
As much as I love the games you guys put out, I can’t condone anti-consumer practices, so if you continue to put your own design philosophy ahead of the desires of your playerbase, I’ll have to start spreading the word of your anti-consumerism.
Have a good day, and choose wisely.