Just a minor update on the state of this.
The work of it is not going at the pace I had hoped for various reasons(mostly real life keeps getting in the way, stupid reality…) and I’d like to get everything spell checked and tested more thoroughly this time before presenting it. However I am still making head way! It may take a few weeks to update this little preview but when I do it is going to be a more legit demo. So basically, I’m not updating tomorrow like I said and I apologize, but this thing is still alive! Thank you guys for everything!
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Couple of quick questions about what folk would like to see with this sorta thing(also open to any other suggestions)
A: I recently remembered some people have done the episodic thing(worked well for JimD) and thought that might be a way to go. But personally, I hate waiting for the next bit of a story. So which do you enjoy more?
B: Romance Options.I got some thoughts about this and I’m only bendable a bit one way or the other but I wanted to know what people like out of that. Many options? Emotional depth? Just general thoughts.
C: Length vs replay-ability. Part of this particular game I’m trying to make is to create something of a sandbox style deal where you can go at it for a while if you like(which means an overwhelming amount of work for me but that was the idea). However, it is a certainty already that it can go in so many directions. So which of those two do you prefer(which should I focus on more)
D: Killable MC vs Always surviving. Do you prefer having the fear of death in the game or do you get annoyed by having to start over?
That’s some junk I wanted to see if I could get a feel for before going forward. The structure of the game to my mind, at this point, is this. Three separate (but sort of ambiguously related) storylines, with side quests like a few generic jobs for each story along with events or encounters that can happen in all three. And, as I’m toying with it now, the goal of the game is to retire, comfortably, rich, or just because you have nothing left, so you can go through the main story and what side bits come up, then hit a retire option and get you score, or you can keep going and try to get more money before you retire, and get a (hopefully) higher score. By score I really mean the ending you get along with some stats of your run.
If you read all of this, thank you for your time and any thoughts you have are welcomed.
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Making Frank a rapist-murderer in the Bounty Hunter path seems a bit cliche, since it puts your character firmly in ‘antihero’ territory, instead of leaving an opening for villainous action. It also avoids the opportunity to make an interesting moral choice.
I mean, in a lawless, brutal galaxy like the one you’re describing, how likely is it that a bounty hunter would be hired for a target that actually deserved it?
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That is a really good point. I’ll have to think that one over but I also have plans for Frank(if he’s alive) so I may not change it… I’ll tell ya out right though, I’m not going to intentionally fill it with cliches but I’m not going to put a lot into avoiding them either, just because it’s all fairly derivative and I can’t pretend otherwise. Also some of my favorite stuff is filled with cliches hahaha. Still, that is solid Kailas, I’ll take that into consideration. And you’re absolutely right, it is something a of missed opportunity but rest assured there will be plenty of chances for more 'villainous action" hahahaha. I’ll think about that though and if nothing else, it is something I need to keep in mind going forward. Thanks Kailas!
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Looks promising! I’ll be watching for the next update!
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Thank you kindly! Yeah it’ll likely be a few weeks, I want to be sure I do a better job this time
As far as romances go, I like to have enough options that I can find one that makes sense for my MC for a certain play through. I think the most important thing about romances is pacing and variety. I don’t want to feel limited- as in, there are only two options and one of them is such a jerk you can’t stand them- and I don’t want it to feel like “Hey, I really like you. Now let’s get married.” Lastly, I think LI’s should be an integral part of the plot even if your MC doesn’t romance them.
This pin describes this perfectly!
For length, I think you should make it as long as it needs to be to tell the story you want to. I don’t think a longer game is automatically a better game and you can pretty much always tell when a story has been stretched out just for word count… That being said, I think it’s a good idea to make a lot of side stories that subtly change the ending. A short game can have a lot of re-play ability if you have things like Easter-eggs and secret achievements- like a near-impossible romance with a late-game NPC- or maybe getting an unusual solution to a problem (singing your way out of a situation? Throwing a slushie to defeat a your arch-enemy?) 
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Thats awesome, I mean I’m pretty well on the same page with everything you said Bjorked so that kind of plays right into my hand, thanks for the thorough answers! Any more opinions from anyone are welcomed and appreciated!
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Any opinions on dying(and having to start over) vs always surviving(and just losing stuff or missing out)? This is one I’m pretty divided on
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Dying would improve the realism–there are some things a PC logically shouldn’t be able to survive without top-notch medical care, like a bullet to the head–and it wouldn’t be much of an annoyance if you added save checkpoints. By contrast, permanent stat losses could be rather annoying.
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Man, I don’t know why but I totally forgot that you can do checkpoints(not sure how yet) but that is an excellent way to split the difference on this thought. I’ll have to figure that out, slapping my hand to my forehead for not thinking of that. Thanks Kailas!
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This might help, but it looks a little complicated. On the other hand, you can publish with it in place, unlike the other save system.
This is a ‘checkpoint system’ so it’s allowed in the final version of the game…
If you type *sm_int 3 | (gamename) into your game files just after your scene_list in startup.txt and upload that to dashingdon then I’ve heard it will have a save system there for you automatically. I have yet to test this so I cannot tell you for sure.
Oh awesome guys, thank you very much! I’m reading up on it right now. By the by, Bjorked, I did read that bit about human evolution in space. It was pretty intriguing.
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One thing I hate to admit(but maybe someone has advice on this) is I am pretty sure stat balancing is going to be an issue as this kicks up. So when I put out this next bit just keep in mind I am completely clueless on a lot of this.
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Soooo… I had done some junk (spelling and bugs) some days back, and did not actually update on dashingdon, I’m a space cadet at times. Anyway, that stuff is up now, sorry about that. Don’t think there is much in the way of new content on it, just fixes and such. If there are more errors and bugs, there likely are, let me know. I’m spending a portion of the day working on this stuff so I’ll keep an eye on this thread while I’m working.
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Almost done with demo/preview update, I’ll have it up tomorro more than likely but could be sunday
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Finally put up the new bit… Did not get done as much as I wanted to(namely side mission stuff and this deal to transition a randomized npc into a reappearing character)
But, I did get the next part of the main story stuff and I took a lot of time looking for spelling errors and coding errors this time so hopefully it will be a bit better that my first attempt. Any feedback and bug reports are greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time folks, hope you enjoy!
https://dashingdon.com/play/mememe/systems/mygame/index.php?cb=41533
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The game is set to private
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Oh wow, I feel foolish hahaha. Hopefully I got it fixed, thank you!
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