Most COG games are designed to be replayable (e.g., some achievements or endings can only be achieved through replay.) Gender choices are more about protagonist identity/LI options than about replayability (some people will use the same settings for those every playthrough.)
Entirely different characters, IMO, should have different scenes, not just the same ones experienced differently. I’m trying to add some replayability to mine by throwing in unique scenes and challenges for each of my main character options, but different characters were built in from the beginning… yours seems to focus more on one character whose experience can be customized, which is not at all a bad thing. You can find other ways to promote replay, or not worry about it at all (plenty of good games focus on other things.)
If you eventually do a Bonnie’s Story type of thing - there’s a romance game called “Speakeasy Tonight” (well-written and popular, I recommend it, but you could read a review to see what I’m talking about.) The main character is a flapper, her LIs are men, and you can later download content to see the story from their POVs. Those expansions worked well because they wrote in the action scenes, conversations with other characters, etc., that she wasn’t there for or never heard about (but that happened during the main storyline.)
@Sashira I’ll for sure give the Speakeasy Tonight game a look. I’ve been into F. Scott Fitzgerald recently, so that’s the same time period he wrote about and the game sounds interesting.
I thought about adding achievements and replay only options, but didn’t see it in the tutorials. I’ll search through the forums now that I know it’s a possibility. I wrote in the three insanity endings mentioned in the directions option of the sample, hoping to increase replay value, but to have special options and/or achievements would be great.
Achievements are complicated - I expect to have a constant headache the week I finally get to those.
Replay-only achievements are just about tags. Achievements are linked to changing variables (e.g., *set I_Stole_The_Brooklyn_Bridge true) at whatever point in the story the player accomplishes them. So, all you need to do is set an invisible variable at the end of the game (e.g., *set replay_achievements_possible true) and make sure your character can be saved to replay (saving game data is also really complicated but possible!)
Or, the quick-and-dirty way is to give the player a code or a password at the end that they can type in at the appropriate time, to gain entry to the whatever-it-is.
By the way, played through your demo chapters. I like the concept and the writing is great.
The options for choices could use a bit of work… as it is, there is no advantage to stats going down, so all I have to do is pick the most obviously nice/trustworthy choices to get to the end. Maybe an achievement for skating really close to the edge of your stats without reaching 0 and getting game over? Or an ending that can only be accomplished if you reach the end with just-barely-in-the-black? (You might in fact have these things, since I haven’t played the end.)
EDIT: The non-moral choices were great; it was often hard to tell what would keep me healthy and incognito, which upped the difficulty.
You certainly know a lot of about these codes. Thank you for your insight, @Sashira!
I had to take care of some things this last week, but I’m back on NPT and working on the achievements and such. As for the lack of advantage to picking the less nice/trustworthy choices, there are certain choices that become available only after stats drop to below a certain point, namely Trust and Persona (more jerk). Some are minor, such as the “ask Bonnie to make out” option, but some are more game altering, such as “Attack Stag with the crow bar” and the alternate path I’m making at @Boman19’s suggestion to be able to run off with the money. Morally “good” players will have these options blocked off.
I will likely add an achievement for walking the line of evil, as you suggest. I didn’t have that before.
@122BCooper@Kejmur I’ve contact Hosted Games. I’m looking through the code I have and I can’t seem to find how this bug is happening, so we’ll see if HG has any ideas. It should bring up a page break Next option. Do the other two options give you the same error?
In any case, I’ll work to resolve this ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for playing (or trying to).
@WUBWUBWUB Yeah, hopefully. Please, let me know if you run into any issues. Thank you.
(I have no idea how to tag something as a spoiler so just dont read this if you didnt play) The game was great really, considering my distaste for character locked games, but the fact that we we’re forced to be with bonnie really frustrated me. I didnt like the character since the begining and not having much of a choice at the end and being forced to go and die with some weirdo I didnt like really killed the game for me. I mean, i’m not saying the game was bad because like I said I really enjoyed but man I hated bonnie and wish I could have stayed in hawaii instead. Really why does it end the game to have her die? Couldnt I just play the game without unconcentual romance please?
I thought it was interesting. They could have detailed the different paths a bit more. (For example there could have been four different endings based on what you picked leading to four different paths.) I liked the ending. I felt it was no build up to the ending just sort of stopped.
Bonnie is a great aspect to the game, someone you can sorta fall for. I wish there were more companions other then here you come across you can bring with you. She is a great way you meet at the very start. How about a second person you meet at a party. A wild party girl based on what you decide joins your crew or not.
I been playing a ton of grand theft auto. Consider that when reading this review. I thought they could have built up a crew better. You could have gotten to know them recruited them even for the job. Even relating to them at the start is more emotional impact when something happens to them.
I love the stats ideas. It’s great to keep track of my progress. Another thing, this game is very affordable. I seen other games 4 dollars or 5 dollars. It’s nice to see a game that isn’t priced that expensive. It delivers a well modest story. That fits everything I look for in a story.
