I usually try to stick to as few attributes as I can get away with, and build the rest of the gameplay around using those attributes in as creative a way as I can.
I feel that fewer primary attributes you use, the more consequential your choices to invest in them are, and the easier it is to build a game which can provide a satisfying narrative regardless of “build quality”.
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I’m not familiar with this method. Would you mind explaining it?
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The “KISS method” is a fancy term for not letting things get unnecessarily complex. It stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”
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Eiwynn
286
Aletheia said it perfectly.
I chose to write a complex and challenging game in Patchwerks, so for this hobby project I am really trying to focus on the fundamentals and the execution.
With Patchwerks, I had to scale down at least three times and the “behind the scenes” coding and work is so messy that when others look at it, I expect them to see vomit.
My goals with my hobby project is to literally keep it as simple as I can, while keeping my standards intact.
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Sounds like a good exercise in efficiency. Also sounds like it might be a welcome change after such a complex project!
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Furthermore, the KISS method is tied to what are called “feature creep” and “scope creep”. Basically, don’t bite more than you can chew with your game’s narrative scope and features.
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I sent off my revised outline this afternoon, which I’m pleased about!
There’s something very satisfying about adjusting the bones of a project at this stage. For example, my first draft of Honor Bound didn’t have the “returning to your hometown” or “recover your reputation” elements - simply being reassigned after injury - but I can’t imagine the game without them now.
Also it’s new icon o’ clock, which feels decidedly weird after 18 months or so of the same one 
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I was planning to try to write, but ended up downloading a bunch of WordPress extensions instead, and now I’m too sleepy to do anything anymore.
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Foxcat
291
Thanks to the discussion here, I’m thinking over my variables again for my main big project. There’s been something feeling slightly off about how I’m defining the three secondary stats so I’m trying to sort that out again. Also I really need to decide on a new title for it because I’m tired of referring to it vaguely 
My little side project Wedding Crashers is going well, the basic wardrobe management code is functional! I have a lot of plans for the next few days though, so I have no idea how much I’ll be able to work on anything for the rest of November… So, if I have time, I’ll likely use it to work on the Halloween Jam story.
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Hazel
292
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, in the past few months. More and more, I think that UI elements in a game (like the stats screen, the achievements, and even the options given for any particular choice) establish the game’s tone, theme, and especially worldbuilding, even more than the game’s text. Skills establish the problem-solving tactics that are available to the MC, achievements hint at endgame conflicts and hidden content, etc.
But most of all, the options given for a particular choice form a kind of overton window that exposes what qualifies as “acceptable” or even “normal” behavior, in the game’s world. It’s useful for giving the player information about behavioral norms and taboos, especially as they apply specifically to the MC (or people like them).
To give a fairly obvious example, if the MC is a soldier or a servant, their conversational options establish how freely they can speak before they can expect to be court-martialed or dismissed without references. Less obviously, the same technique can be used to communicate the story’s tone, especially how dark vs. optimistic it is. Just having the option to summarily kill a nameless NPC, even if most players don’t take it, already conveys to them the range of actions available to their MC.
I can already identify a few places where I did this (or didn’t do it enough) in my earlier games. It’s useful to identify the trend so that I can do it on purpose, next time.
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Yes! It took me some time to understand how the provided options can frame player understanding of the setting/tone, characterisation of the PC, and the scope of what the player can expect to do - especially at the start of a game. I didn’t do this very consciously with Blood Money but I started thinking about it with more clarity when I made Creme de la Creme, because I wanted to establish its low-violence, social focus (especially because when I was making it, there were very few published games like that).
It’s also a ton of fun departing from expectations later - if it’s consistent early on, it’s more surprising and fun playing with that down the line.
I’ve been playing Pathologic 2 a lot the last few months, and while the dialogue wouldn’t necessarily always go down well with a CoG audience, the (set) PC’s dialogue options often contain a wealth of worldbuilding and characterisation. Sure that kind of thing could have been put in a codex or a glossary, but there’s something I find very satisfying about seeing and uncovering things more through the PC’s eyes.
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Eiwynn
294
Today, working on my 10th page of edits of this second pass, I discovered (or is it rediscovered) a bunch of “placeholder text” lines that were buried in my stunning and brilliant prose.
This is the type of thing that reinforces my need to have multiple passes, one of which will be to do a search for “placeholder text”.
Knowing myself, I have no doubt there will be other such hidden gems lurking, just waiting to be completed.
My future self wants to ask my past self why, but my present self is just over it all, regardless, and just wants to get through the rest of this pass.
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I am tentatively prodding at an idea
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I do this a lot in the Dragoon Saga, since its MC is someone who exists in a society and a social position so different from most players. Setting a “range” of expected acceptable behaviours helps give players a frame of reference when it comes to how they should be thinking as a person of that class and position, while providing options which exist outside of that norm, and then contextualising those choices with reputational penalties demonstrates how that society polices its behaviour and how it penalises those who don’t fulfil the roles expected of them.
It’s a really powerful worldbuilding tool.
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This is one reason why I don’t enjoy choices that are outside the scope of the game with responses like “you realise you should do this instead”. I can see it working under some circumstances - but in most cases, I’d rather see the game follow up on what it offers.
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You mean like ones where the game offers you a choice, and then walks back on it if you select it instead of letting you suffer the consequences?
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Yes, like “you think about trying [the choice you picked] but actually figure Y would be better”. I’d rather be allowed to go ahead, do the thing, and get hurt etc if I chose it - it seems a waste of a choice to offer it and then block the player from doing it. I think sometimes it happens because writers aren’t secure in what they’re offering and are wondering if players will be going “but I want to do [thing outside the scope of the game] instead…”
Then there’s “haha, why would you do outrageous option - you go and do Y instead”. That can work, depending on the game and tone, but I think people can overestimate how funny it is.
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Absolutely. Either let the player eat the consequence, explain why it’s not viable ahead of time, or just simply don’t give them the option.
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This. If the option is there, players are going to want to see where it leads.
In other news, I’ve finished the first chapter in my new WIP. 
I’ve been doing all my work on a 15inch laptop screen, and given the fact that this WIP is based heavily on one of my unpublished manuscripts I think it’s time to get that 27inch monitor I’ve been meaning to buy for a couple of years now. Trying to read a file from one program and write a game in another on this little screen is not the most efficient way to work. 
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