What do you want more of in IF-games?

Game Development Writing and Content
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Personally, I’d like to see more traditional-style stories told in IF form. Like a Lord of the Rings-esque adventure with interactive elements. I know it’s been done a few times before but usually IF’s settings are a bit more stationary. The MC stays in a specific location for a good chunk of it. It can be fun, but I’d like to see some more adventures mixed in.

Aside from that, I’d like to see more non-romanceable villains. I like having a clear thing to be striving against. It helps me get invested in the story more when there’s a clear objective in mind.

Also today I discovered that I apparently made my account at the dawn of the new year… Weird.

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162

I apologize in advance if this has been aforementioned…Haven’t read all of the replies yet.

What I personally think is missing from most IF games is, “real” consequences from the choices you’ve made/are about to make.

Having replayed ZE:SH tons of times(And at this point, let me say real quick,a huge thank you to Jim and everyone else who has contributed and still contributes to make this already great game,even greater.),i have to say that Safe Haven does an excellent job at that regard; rewarding you for possibly “benefiting” decisions and punishing you for “poor” judgment at different parts in the story.

For example,you have the choice to sacrifice,and by sacrifice I mean murder,other survivors whom you consider dead weight…I’ve seen in quite a few IF titles with similar “dilemmas”,only an acknowledgement with small passages of text.(Either in a summary of the ending you got at the end of the story,or shortly after such a major event happens.)

But ZE:SH goes as far as to actually make such a decision affect your group in a practical way as well![spoiler]

You got “rid of” the old-lady that was only fit to do the group’s chores? Now,you have to appoint someone else to do the task.BUT that means taking that person from their former job they were assigned to,which could be watch duty! Or constructing/upgrading the base! Or foraging! In the end it matters little,it means one person less,dedicated to one of those three jobs I mentioned above.Which can cause other problems,as having too few in specific tasks can even lead to other survivor’s untimely demise…

Following up to the same game,another example is that,you meet someone new that’s hostile towards you and your group of survivors? You may think, “How dare they! Let’s bite back at them…”.What you may have not thought of however,is that they could be in a bad moment at that particular point, so by choosing to escalate an already volatile situation,“wrong” choices can lead from alienating that character towards you and your group to even their death! Again, it matters little…As you might end up losing a potential new recruit for your group in the process! Unless that’s what you wanted to…

It’s the kind of realism that keeps you on your toes, keeps the adrenaline pumping even though you are lying on your bed reading a bunch of text!

Makes you consider every single choice you make, for it can have major consequences later on…or not,in some cases,but sometimes it’s the feeling that it radiates,that matters!

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163

Not sure how long this moody dot ink thing has been around but between that and noticing that it and dashingdon both have quicksave options, I would love to see that functionality arrive in the CoG/HG/HC apps.

I realize that’s more a mechanical hope than content hope but given the complexity of some of these titles I would love to minimize the amount of jumping through the same hoops that I have to do just to see different content.

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164

Pro wrestling.

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Actually, I would love for CoG to implement a flowchart feature that you commonly see in Visual Novels. So that you can just click on that node in the flowchart and resume playing from there. That would be a quality of life improvement in my book.

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Won’t happen. A save feature isn’t on the list of things to be implemented on official CSGs.

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I still just don’t understand why they are so stubbornly against it.

I remember someone stating there was claims that people replay less? But personally I can say it does the opposite, I play games way more when they are on dashingdon with saving mechanics, because I can test out everything easier.

Even if it were true, what would be the issue with that? Whether someone replays the entire game or loads a save, they still supported the author by purchasing the game.

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I suspect it’s multifactorial (I don’t know for sure.) If you have a save feature then it’s easier to see the rails and fake choices. Maybe they feel that’ll be immersion breaking. It also causes issues where simply going back to a save point may not make any difference if there’s an earlier hidden set variable, or a combination of actions that need to be taken. This could cause entire sections of the game to get missed. For long works I would like a save feature too. Sometimes I don’t want to have to replay a whole game if I wasn’t that into it enough to want to re-read the whole thing, but was just curious about other endings. I can kinda see both sides of the coin here though about whether having it would be good or bad for the playthroughs people are doing in the end.

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When we have games that are over 1 million words long, expecting a reader to be fully replaying to see the variations they are interested in seems grotesquely unreasonable an expectation for the reader. Especially when a lot of content might be repeat, and there is no function like in Renpy to highlight new material the reader hasn’t seen before.

The best we can do is come up with half measures, like checkpoint systems that mimic save stats with more limitations. The stubborn refusal just makes no sense to me, particularly with the increasing scope that works are taking.

Response to @FabricSeat :

If people are really not happy with a decision they made, they’ll just restart from the beginning eventually.

This exactly, for me, I have dropped several stories due to the fact that I made a single choice a few times and fricked everything up. If there was saves I could back up but instead I’d have to repeat everything and I’d lose motivation to play without guides. Players should not have to look up external resources in order to just try to enjoy a game. Save states would alleviate that concern.

I do think there is a save state system you can install on steam versions of the games, but it is a process separated from the company themself. I don’t know the first thing about the process. The topic of save states has been discussed time and again, I personally just don’t get why not. Nobody is forced to use the save state system if it is added, it is literally only a tool adding to the arsenal of readers.

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Personally, I don’t think it helps immersion to not have a save system. If people are really not happy with a decision they made, they’ll just restart from the beginning eventually. In the best case the outcome will be the same as if they had been able to save, and in the worst case their enjoyment will be diminished from having to slog through a large chunk of the game again.

Moreover, if people are really against a save system, they can just not use one, even if it is there. Some may argue that people will be tempted to use it ‘improperly’ and ‘reduce the weight of choices’, but frankly, these are games. People should have their fun how they like it, and if having a save system turns out to be something a lot of people take advantage of, that just means it was a good idea to add it in.

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Or you can just backup-copy the autosave file, no separate install required (on Steam).

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Or be like me and have multiple tabs of the same choice like the madwoman I am so I don’t have to restart from the beginning :slight_smile:

But yeah, I agree with what Fabric and Phenrex are saying in general about save systems, it sucks having to start over when you get dunked on and die via a choice you’ve made or make a choice you regreted cuz it didn’t fit your character’s personality or something like that, and I think it’d be nice to have save states, or something like a checkpoint. I personally don’t think it’s immersion breaking, and even if I thought it was, I wouldn’t use it, but the option would still be there for people who want to use it.

I always appreciate when authors here implement some kind of checkpoint like in Donor (a game I recently played) for example, and it’s always saved my bacon when I fail at the minigames or the ending I want and don’t have to go back too far :smiley:

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If you are interested there is a browser extension that adds save system to complete games when you are reading them in browser. It is similar to dashington’s in function although saving-on-stat-screen bug does not seem to be a problem with it so it’s better in my opinion.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/choiceofgames/comments/ovo3eh/choicescriptsaveplugininjector_add_save_system_to/

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Or, they just don’t bother playing without code diving first, which is pretty much how I play these things now, due to the lack of a save or back button. I either have the code open while I’m playing or I just dive through the whole thing prior to starting the game so I can get my answers chosen up front. Once you have the code for the chapters, it’s not to hard to shove it into one doc, follow the logic for each choice and delete everything that’s unneeded so you have the entire backbone of your story. If you end up somewhere you don’t like toward the end, go back and change your choices accordingly. Then, when you play the game, you have your choices in a doc to work from.

Hell, when you do this, unless you are playing for achievements (which I couldn’t care less about) or to save your game for a sequel, playing the game “live” becomes utterly unnecessary. No worries about having to restart again, and no wasting hours of your life to see what happens if your MC makes certain choices. Not to mention, it’s a really good way to learn to code these games (and, if there are parts you don’t like, learn to code by rewriting them to suit you–kinda like an interactive version of fan fiction, where you mess with the game code, or like creating a mod).

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I read the code as I play too, but usually just to make sure I’m choosing options that do what I want them to. I don’t really have the patience to plan an entire playthrough before actually doing it.

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I mean, the last time I tried to code dive to see what outcome of a specific scene I would like, I ended up reading the entire game and getting even more confused lol So I would prefer to do this more easily, like just saving and then checking all the choices

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Adding to what @Reaper3 said, if you’re on Windows and own the games via steam this resource by @yasirkula can also work as a save/checkpoint system.(Besides modifying the stats).Here is the forum link for anyone interested : Save manager and editor for Steam (open-source).

Additionally if you own a Mac,by following the instructions on the GitHub page you can compile a Mac OS version of this amazing resource…BUT you will need to make a (free) account to use the Unity Editor to make a Mac executable.It’s also some GB (both to download and install) in size so if you don’t want to bother with all that, you can PM me (or if it’s in popular demand),i can share it on a filehoster for everyone to download.

Of course all credit goes to @yasirkula and the code belongs to him.

Other useful info : I tried running the Windows executable with both Wine and Crossover at first (for anyone thinking about doing this).The app “runs” just fine but the GUI is invisible,so you can’t really use the save editor-manager…

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Then cames the true big evil: paperworking. Can our hero reform the Kingdom, solve the economic crisis and uplift his people?

Also, they said a save system would ruin replay-ability in a IF game? how weird.

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Shhhhh, don’t make my fantasies unromantic or else I will begin pointing out how utterly awful relationships with supernaturals would be in real life.

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I mean, that sounds like a great premise for an IF.

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