Punishment that matters

Game Development Writing and Content
22

If a game gives you an opportunity to act one way, evil for example, then you turn evil. Because it is your choice. Which means you reject one part and it can lead to a death of someone or rejection, which is the punishment of acting that way.

By restarting the game i meant, that the player will care about what is going on, and won’t press whatever he thinks is described better or cooler. And if you read a little more of what i have said, you will see that i will focus on redemption after the smack. And some actions won’t have a good ending and will be permanent. They will lock the player on some paths. Which will help with replaying.

When i pay the money, i expect to be able to play and experience everything the author wrote and put in the game. I don’t pay to just have fake choices which will lead to the same thing, of me being a hero or a villain.

That is the purpose of interactive games. You play them how you want and have different results, this is why it’s fun. And sometimes we have to smack the wall to experience it all, the best and the worst.

In some games i had someone dear to me die, i bared and played it till end. Was unsatisfied, replayed it. On the way choose something different, encountered a new character. Bring both till the end, something was mentioned about a dragon, finished the game, replayed it, found the required skills, rode the dragon. This is why i play and pay the money. To replay. Not to be invisible and unreachable. It is like playing with cheats, you do whatever you want and still have the best score.

And you grab on my few words and not on a whole point.

Next, about Merlin. The dragon was his mentor and was there when Gaius was unable to help the situation. And if he was listening less like you say, the boy would be dead before the series could reach 3rd season. And last, it was a show, if he did not do that or anything else nothing would exist. Like the example i said. Not listening to the warning will lead to some things. If Merlin listened, he would be living in his golden age. He was not forced, he chose it himself. Like the player.

Player has the choice, no one is pushing anyone. And second, when have you rage quit an interactive story? I am not gonna put puzzles. It is neither a shooter or flappy bird to rage quit.

The punish i am talking about is a missing an event, not getting that shine thing that could help you in the future (doesn’t mean you will have trouble), or an event with some characters, having some characters to not trust you, or leave you because of some actions. All this will build up, and in the end, the path will be crafted.

Either you will seek their forgiveness or ignore and proceed alone, you still will get an ending. Not good, but still an ending. I can’t have someone roam around doing whatever they want without paying. And if that is something not for you, then be my guest and do not bother.

1 Like
23

Alright, reading through your stuff again I’d honestly advise against writing the game. As others have pointed out, it does not sound like fun to play.
You seem to aim for a game in which there is only a single way to play.
‘Missing a scene’ is standard for CYOAs like this, so calling that ‘punishment’ is… off

In fact, a lot of what you said you aim to do is rather weird towards the genre and the players.
You say you want to have ‘punishments’ and ‘walls’ in there to ‘avoid’ the reader just clicking through.
If a reader just clicks through your story then the story is badly written.
And let’s face it. That would most likely be what would happen.
Here’s a scenario:

Player picks option A because they want to play a character that would do that in that situation. Then they pick B, because, again, it sounds right for them to pick for their character. BAM wall.
A wall they can only get past if they pick option A.
That is not ‘playing as you like’ That is a different form of railroading.

Allow me to take HeroesRise as example again. In both the second and fourth game it can easily happen that if you play a certain way the game won’t let you proceed.
You have to go back to the start. (or pay some sort of ingame currency to redo the scene)
And why?
Because you played the character in a way you as the player found logical and right for your character.
But the author didn’t.

Let’s take as counter example Tally Ho.
There’s a great variety of scenes depending on how you play. But none end at a point where the game would just stop.
I think there are premature endings (haven’t encountered one yet personally), but judging by achievements seemingly connected to them, they are that: endings that make sense looking at your character’s action (or inactions).

But, allow me the question: English does not seem to be your first language. Maybe this is really just a case of miscommunication. What’s your first language?

3 Likes
24

Not sure what you’re asking for? If you are nasty to a character they would hate you. If you charge a dragon in your underwear you (or your teammate) will get hurt. That’s the natural consequence of the choice itself, not a ‘punishment’ that you have to artificially implement. Maybe somebody would prefer to play as a jerk, or use the dragon to murder a unwanted character; that would be their choice, and they would get the results they brought upon themselves.

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25

Ugh, clearly i was not understood, my bad guys! English is not my first language and maybe somewhere i expressed in wrong way or choose wrong word.

But i did got my answers, which is nice!

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26

Kill friends, maim friends (no exclusion for the ro), lose all their money, stat loss, cause a tragedy, make the game harder, ruin the mc’s social life, ruin their relationship with their companions…

Douse them in tar and feather them?

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27

I believe what @Fluffy_Buffy meant by “punishing until the player restarts” is something like, “you messed up, got through the not-so-good ending, and wanted to do a good-ending replay”.

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28

In response to this

That is my dream C.O.G plz someone
make that!!!

P.S Yes I’ve played Paradox factor, but I’m thinking of a focused story over the course of 1-3 day game with an actual objective.

29

Y’know, thinking about it, the random function could work wonders here. Like, if you’d write various paths where the ‘final ending’ is different all the time, so that each time the game gets restarted you get a new story, while a ‘set back to the start’ would keep you with the same thing

like, all it’d need would be a…

*create whatsinaday 0
/
-first line-
*rand whatsinaday 1-5
*if (whatsinaday =2)
   *goto storystart_2

and go from there.
Granted, at some point it would also lead to massive guide checking, potentially, but…

2 Likes
30

It would take a Great writer(s) to do the idea justice

And a Great coder(s) to properly implement it.

31

I just got what you wrote basically If you restarted the game then it would randomize but if you restarted the game in-game then it would stay the same.

32

yeah. you’d get a “and all goes dark” or something, click next and

*goto_scene firstday rollcall

With the rollcall label being directly under the random thing.

-first line-
*rand whatsinaday 1 5
*label rollcall
*if (whatsinaday =1)
   *goto start1
*elseif (whatsinaday =2)
   *goto start2
etc
1 Like
33

Well this is ironic on a topic about punishments that matter we talk about a concept that would directly undermine it(in story) but could support it in(code).

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34

Yes! Exactly this! Like not punishment with the full meaning of the world but small obstacles!

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35

“Wow I’m a cool criminal lady investigating a Scottish town I hope I don’t get gruesomely murdered because I as a new player assume I only have one character and am attached to them”

“So my options are die or let Preacher Kiddy Fiddler turn me into a cultists better see if I can try something else”

Those both involve death though.

I also replayed Samurai of Hyuga book 3 , I shit you not, 134 times because I wanted s a perfect no desynchronization . I almost did one more because I didn’t know the one detail I was supposed to write in to save my student.

Also If I get attached to a love interest. Whether it’s my Shugenija, my former archnemesis turned lover, or what not I will do anything to save them. Actually in games I’m pretty whipped. When I was playing Life is Strange Chloe would be like “Let’s rob a bank” and I’d be like “Anything you wish is yours I’ll burn the world to save you” even in games without a love interest influencing say The walking dead new frontier. I put Clementine before everyone else even though she only just met Javier and he had no reason to show loyalty to her above the others. Because Clem’s my fictional daughter. So basically you want me to reset without killing my character have me aliens email a love interest or character I’ve grown close to. Or make the protagonist so unmitigatedly badass that any failure is the equivalent of Chuck Norris coming out in pee stained jeans.

2 Likes
36

Hey remember the fake out bad-end in SoH3 I swear to you, once I saw that subtitle and all those greyed out options I restarted the chapter at least twenty times and restarted from book 1 twice, then only to realize that it wasn’t a real bad end by sneezing and swiped by mistake, then I felt like a right fool.

And don’t get me started on my trainees

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37

I still haven’t figured out if I can save everyone/ make them all perfect or that final type a word

38

You can give out the Snickers evenly but one will be cut short.

39

So what you’re saying is this book is SUPPOSED to break the protagonist. So we can rebuild them in Book 4

40

I’m not gonna lie I got heated about that( and finding out I couldn’t romance a character I wanted at the time) and restarted found out it was a fluke and I since to this day have never picked it back up again…

41

Well it’s probably because Masami needs to age a bit before we can date her ;p