making things personal
i'm finally starting to feel like i have something to build off of.
i don't have every feature i want added into the framework yet. i still want to add in choice dialogues to make things a lot easier in menus. i want to handle the text better in general. but i have a lot here.
i made this video as a celebration to what i have done so far.
my vision of the game is to be very powerful emotionally. the way i want to do this is by nudging the person playing the game to think things over by asking questions with no black or white answers. to make these questions more powerful, i could make it more personal. if the person creates the player in the image of themselves, and names them after themselves, perhaps that will drive the emotional experience further.
that's why i added in a character creator, in short.
you can pick from a few different eyes, a few different hair types, pick your clothes, and change the colors of everything. i still want to add in a small backdrop that you can change the color for to see what colors you are choosing (4 colors is harsh...) but besides that the character creator is pretty much finished.
this is all for today. i hope you think this is all as cool as i do!
thank you!
Comments
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Wasn't expecting a character customization option, but that's really neat to see! Definitely see how it can lead to the player really investing themselves into the decisions they're making for the world. Also, I really liked the little transition screens before getting to their respective menus, and that final "How are you feeling?" screen cutting straight to gameplay is phenomenal. Thank you for the devlog, benevolent game developer, and keep up the good work :D
thank you kyle. i'm happy the intermediate screens are having the effect i wanted.
If you don't mind me expounding upon why I adore those transitions, I'd love to just rant about it real quick!
I feel that this game is one that's shaping up to really get in the head of the player and have them draw their own conclusions about the characters, the world and everything that's going on around them, as well as the choices you've made. The best part about this style of yours is that two people can play the game and interpret everything in completely different ways, and when you invite the player to think critically about things, they can draw conclusions to make the game more enjoyable for themselves.
Bringing this back to the transitions, the first thing I realized when watching this video was that the questions first present themselves to you before they then fade out and appear at the top of the screen inside the menu. This lead me to kind of take the idea of "truly think about what's happening" and apply it here. Is the prompt asking me, the player, what my name is? What I look like? How I'm feeling? Or is it simply giving me a push to do something as simply as naming my character. Is it asking the character directly? Why would it ask the character those questions? It legitimately gave me chills, and its a screen transition. I know I'm probably just sinking my teeth into things that realistically shouldn't have much meaning, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. This game makes me want to find meaning. I don't think I've ever really said it, but I'm actually so incredibly intrigued by and invested in this project of yours. Everything from the art, to the world-building, to the inevitable LORE; I'm so excited to be a part of watching your ideas develop. I'm normally the kind of person to just consume a game and never really dig into things all that much, but this one is so special that I can't help but feel pulled into it.
I apologize for the long post here, but every time there's a new devlog, I get so many joyful jitters that I just needed to talk more about this. I'm so incredibly happy and proud that you've gotten this far and I can't wait to see everything that comes next. Keep up the phenomenal work, Bennett, and I'll sit ringside supporting you. <3