Stats Gone Wild

Thanks it does. It would be better if we could optionally see what choices are affected by what stats after maybe one playthrough no? Some like the games to be dynamic, others like it to be able collect every achievement. How else will we see the success and failure dialogues that the author wrote?

I don’t think it’s just you! As a writer it’s one of my pet issues that when I write a set of choices I think it’s really obvious what it’s testing, but then someone else who isn’t in my head plays it and is like “uhh what is this, it could be any number of stats”.

Example: in Creme de la Creme there’s Manipulative and Intrigue, both of which could be useful for lying. I didn’t intend that - I think I always use Intrigue for lying choices - but it’s reasonable for a player to be uncertain what stat they’re using in that situation.

So for future projects I really want to hammer out the stats so there’s much less confusion about overlap.

I see what you mean here, it can be a challenge to make opposed stats that can all interlock together and work personality-wise whether each is high or low.

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@HarrisPS

Sorry for the delayed reply.

Hmmm.

Off the top of my head, I’d say The Grim and I works extremely well with the default set as not even showing the player the stats screen unless prompted. It honestly lets the players focus on the story and the story itself conveys enough clues through the narrative that I don’t feel compelled to check my progress.

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We’ve been talking about stats at home and at the suggestion of @HarrisPS I’ll post my thoughts here!

One thing I’m trying to do writing Warrior’s Shot is be mindful of squeezing choices in to fit the stats. With Asteroid Run I think I had times where I knew what options I wanted to give the player, and then worked out which stats fit those iPhone [edit: options] - regardless of whether or not the stat felt like a truly natural fit. Lo and behold, there’s some choices that I do feel are pretty muddled.

Now, if I’m writing a choice and the stat to test isn’t immediately obvious? I’ll instead present an entirely different choice that reframes it to fit a stat better. Hopefully that will make things more clear, but I guess we’ll see!

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I want to hear more about that.

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Uhhh… Minimalism! Chic! Expense! Grayness???

Bizarrely, I don’t own an iPhone, so I blame this on weird subliminal Apple marketing!

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And here I thought you were being paid by Apple to insert their product :wink: lol

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I am so glad that you made this post for I love games with many, many, MANY stats. The stats add a different level of immersiveness to the game, for me at least.

Anyway, the stats are best liked are in Villain Academy, specifically the stats (Classic Villainy: Modern Villainy) and (Something more than human…)

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