Polls about COG, HG, and IF games

I think you all do have a thread about it, I was thinking about doing something similar so, I really wish you luck and If you need help in something you know where I am. I really recommend you, however, start little by little, and lay the foundations to not scare new people with many contents present at them at once

8 Likes

Readers, do you prefer when authors use the disable_reuse command and grey out your previous choices or do you prefer when authors use the hide_reuse command and make your previous options disappear?

  • As a reader, I prefer disable_reuse/when my options are greyed out after I select them.
  • As a reader, I prefer hide_reuse/when my options disappear after I select them.
  • No preference.
  • Other. Please respond!

0 voters

Authors, do you prefer to use the disable_reuse command and grey out the readers’ previous choices or do you prefer when to use the hide_reuse command and to make your readers’ previous options disappear?

  • As an author, I prefer to use disable_reuse/grey out my readers’ previous options.
  • As an author, I prefer to use hide_reuse/make the readers’ previous options disappear.
  • No preference.
  • Other. Please respond!

0 voters

Example of disable_reuse

Example of hide_reuse

4 Likes

I put in both other because all depends on the scene and the importance and impact of the choices itself.

Grey out choices can be a spoiler enough to destroy game twists.

Imagine for instance, that The Empire Strikes Back were a Choice game and the discovery of the fact that luke was son of Dark Vader depending on a previous choice or a stat. You don’t have that stat. But suddenly you see a grey-out choice saying I DON’T BELIEVE! YOU ARE MY FATHER!

However, in many cases where choice is not spoiler, Grey out can be used effectively to remind the player that there are more outcomes that they can see based on other choices and help that they want to replay to see the alternative.

6 Likes

As reader, I’m impartial.

As author, however, I prefer to have those options to always be available to be picked again. I can’t be sure if the reader gets all the info they need from just a single read through, so I like to keep it available so they may choose to read it again, despite the game logic or chronology. I’ll find another way to mark an option that’s already read.


This is about choices you have picked, Mara, not choices where you can only pick one option as your decision.

Naturally, I assume this is about those hub-choice structures.

2 Likes

IMO: *disable_reuse provides context, *hide_reuse prevents clutter. I prefer *disable_reuse for options that provide more context than clutter, and *hide_reuse for options that don’t. (A subjective call, of course.)

*disable_reuse Examples
  • Mapping. In exploration/search scenes, disabled options can help players visualize the layout of a city or the objects in a room.

  • Progress indicator. The number of grayed options versus the number of not-grayed options is an easy way to show progress towards a goal in scenes where you need to play all/X number of options to advance.

  • History. Sometimes it’s just nice be reminded what you’ve already done, especially if the game follows a hub structure where you can do things in one area, leave, and then come back later.

I personally use *hide_reuse a lot more than *disable_reuse, but I feel it’s silly to think you could or should only use one. (Not that anyone is saying that.) Sometimes you need a hammer, and sometimes you need a saw.

4 Likes

As a reader, this approach makes me irrationally annoyed. :sweat_smile: I don’t really know why, but if I am supposed to be picking several options in succession, I want a way to be able to strike things off my to-do list, so to speak.

Also, when I do a replay breezing through the text I’ve already read, I like to have a way to click through the options quickly. If previously selected options remain available, that means I have to slow down and read every option to figure what I should click next in order to be allowed to progress.

I suppose I would feel a little bit better about it if there were an option to “review the information I’ve already seen” or whatever and that led you to a submenu with options to choose the already-read text. :thinking: But then, it’s not that I’m expecting you guys to tailor your games to me specifically, so you do you. :laughing:

Unrelated to that, I wonder if there can be a difference in meaning between hiding an option and greying it out? Something like, options that you can’t choose because you don’t have enough of a stat, or enough money, or enough time, are greyed out (these are options that the MC may have thought about, but cannot execute in the moment), but things you’ve already done disappear from the list, as it wouldn’t even cross the MC’s mind to do the same thing again?

18 Likes

Ah. I always mistake those :tongue: Then I don’t have a preference, but I usually hide them for aesthetic reasons, I don’t like to see the same choice over and over.

1 Like

As an author (hopefully one day) I had a problem with that command, I should have to check again if it still works as before but, if the player dies and restart from the chapter and not from the begginning the options already chosen would still be grayed out, so I generally use *if instead. It ends up being like the hide reuse command as the choice doesn’t appears anymore. Maybe there is a fix to that and I didn’t investigate it properly, or I got things wrong from the beginning, but I remember that happened to me a long time ago, or maybe I’m just confusing it with another thing, in that case, sorry, you can disregard this comment.

1 Like

I mean, why not use both? It’s not a written rule to use either disable_reuse or hide_reuse, is it? You can hide potentially spoiler-y stuffs with *hide_reuse and do a choice-hub like structure with *disable_reuse.

Unless I’m forgetting something?

7 Likes

Well, there wouldn’t be spoilery stuff in hub structure. Usually.

2 Likes

I’m weird. :rofl:

If I’m having a conversation with an NPC then I don’t mind either way. Sometimes I might prefer hide_reuse if there’s a long list of dialogue options so as to cut down on the scrolling when I return to the label.

If I’m doing an action that’s not conversation based, I prefer disable_reuse so that I can reference what I did if I forgot or have to pause and come back.

If I’m in the stats screen or navigating through it, I don’t like having either commands present.

5 Likes

When confronted with a skill check, do you prefer if the author breaks immersion and tells you which skill will be tested or do you prefer to try and guess based on how the choice/options are narrated?

  • I prefer if the author explicitly tells me which skill(s) are going to be tested.
  • I prefer if the author does not explicitly tell me which skill(s) are going to be tested.
  • I’d rather have an option to toggle this on and off.
  • No preference.
  • Other. Please respond!

0 voters

Tells

Does Not Tell

4 Likes

I’m absolutely on the side of being told implicitly. It is usually a total immersion breaker for me if I see a “You need high agility”. It is a lot more compelling to be told through skillful writing how to approach a situation rather than a blunt statement. While it does work for maybe shorter, less story based novels, if it is supposed to be some grand adventure, don’t tell me how to play. I want to figure it out.

14 Likes

I like being told, since I rarely look at the stats. They are inside my head lol

But I think a toggle to tell or not tell is always a + .

8 Likes

I would like the option to toggle it. So if I feel like being told implicitly, I toggle it. If I do not want to be told, I toggle it off.

3 Likes

I feel like a toggle is the best way to deal with this in general - but I prefer being told outright personally, if only because the author and I’s idea of “being told implicitly” (as in, to what degree is implicit, and what degree is needless obfuscation) often differ. I honestly can’t tell you how many times games were either ruined or significantly harmed by having stat check text that made it hard to tell what stat was actually being tested.

7 Likes

I prefer it being suggested, but not stated outright. When it’s stated outright, it can sometimes cause the game to feel like one big game of stat-mongering to pass certain checks.

5 Likes

I think that this separates even more the “story” from the “game”, in which if you don’t know the stat checks you’ll just read a story and the consequences of your choices, and if you are told everything in advance you can easily treat it like a math problem instead of a story.
Maybe the trick is for the author to be clear explaining how things work before they are used and not leaving it to interpretation that can be not well understood.
If I get to choose, toggles aren’t really something I would cheer for, I see that more like a patch than a fix (maybe not applicable to all the cases though). Instead I would prefer not being told but have a good understanding of what I’m choosing, not just have the clarification that 1+1=2. More than immersion it breaks the story and transforms it into something else.
Just my two cents.

Edit: Also, Stat checks don’t necessarily have to have negative consequences if you fail to pass them.

3 Likes
More images: yes or no?
  • Yes, I’d like to see more images in the game.
  • No. The cover is enough.

0 voters

Hi everybody! :grinning:

I’m creating my first (hopefully!) hosted game inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean and a question suddenly crossed my mind: what if I added some images to enrich it?

For example, I could add something like this to represent PCs/NPCs Crow Sparrow

I own many games, but only a few actually display images besides the cover. So I’m wondering: do you like images? Or would you prefer to read text only?

As always, stay safe and never stop writing!

6 Likes

My Current game is full of images… all you need to do is include a choice for the player to display them or not, then you can go wild… also make sure they are not too heavy. :slight_smile:

13 Likes