Wow… so much to respond to. I’ve been sitting at work reading these without having the ability to reply and going nuts. So let me catch up a bit.
@HanonO: All that you said resonated with me. I, too, can get overwhelmed by too many links and underwhelmed by too few. And when you click on a link and lose all the others… it becomes a bit stressful. I know as the game author, I liked being able to put links on anything, even concepts or emotions. I was hoping from the player’s point of view, it afforded a sort of freedom, even that was only an illusion.
I also agree that as a game author in such a situation, it places more of a burden to make that illusion stick. I knew that I wasn’t living up to that implied contract even before others mentioned it, by the latter parts of the game being more sparse. I regretted that, but I also ran out of steam, in that it worked end to end and I’ve been putzing around with it for over two years(!), and I’m looking to what the next step can be in my mind already. I’m just glad people were able to squint a bit and see what might be possible. I’m going to have to be darn sure I live up to the promise next time. (Actually, the game didn’t start out with that particular aspect of the UI. Originally, it was a parser + link game, inspired by “Blue Lacuna”. But the keyword engine I have didn’t work so well for parser input (I discovered), and I found myself wanting to deliver things on mobile devices. So the shift. I’m not sure where the idea of turning of the link display came from, but it freed me up to do some things I thought were cool - but at the cost of needing to do more work that I didn’t do.)
And I have been pondering creating a tool for this. The core engine could work as well fronted by a parser (I’ve a proof of concept in some Quest test games), but it needs a way to edit all the responses, which Quest isn’t good for.
Overall, I couldn’t have hoped for a better review, and I thank you.
@Emily: Thanks so much for the write up. I could only have hoped it was good enough (or different enough) to attract your interest, and I’m glad I succeeded. I think I covered most of what you discussed in the part above. (I wanted to go back and address anything I missed, but I can’t seem to get to your site right now. I’ll try again later.)
@matt: I’m actually a bit shocked. That word hadn’t even occurred to me in the context of this, but now that you mention it, I can see where it might come in. Let me address this in a more open way:
[spoiler]The basic idea behind this was that torture had failed. So a more subtle approach was needed. The game has evolved over time. Originally, Spon was meant to be the protagonist, someone trying to get into the mind of someone who was threatening innocent lives. The idea was more of gaining the PC’s trust, with you as an accomplice, directing the PC via answers to questions. So you have the offer of a cigarette (relaxation), Spon’s rant against the Empire (camaraderie), the visuals of Spon’s wife and daughter that he has been taken from… all of these were meant to make the PC feel that Spon was on his side. The fantastical, horrific nature of the prison was as well meant to pit both you and Spon against this evil place where you will be punished forever.
As it went along, especially as I got closer to the end, I began to feel a bit dissatisfied. What if people didn’t view Spon as the protagonist? What if they wanted to resist? And so I began to play up a darker side to Spon, and those variants and endings went in. Ultimately, the player has the choice to resist, and nothing bad actually happens, other than that it’s a reboot and start over (from Spon’s point of view). You can actually get to an ending where Spon doesn’t succeed, where the bomb goes off, and there is retribution against the people and possibly even Spon.
For me, that is the theme of this: that violence begets violence. It’s a no win situation. The Empire destroys the PC’s family, and he retaliates with violence himself. His violence sparks more violence in further retaliation, and the cycle never ends. Unless someone stops it. The ending where the PC confesses was not meant to be driven so much by fear of spider or torture as much as by regret (I failed to put in the part where Spon talked about the effects of violence on those he knew, but it was a plan for a while) and realization that others are just like him and he was becoming what he hated. (I hope you don’t mind me using “he” in this. The gender of the PC is not specified, but I’ll go mad trying to generalize my pronouns.)
Now… if you get the PC to confess, then the disaster is averted, but he is executed. Not quite so satisfying an ending. So you play again, and this time you don’t give in - and people die. Also not so satisfying an ending. That’s intentional. Violence is a no-win situation. (There actually is another ending, probably a bit corny and not so easy to find, where you remain principled and resistant but also let Spon know how the death of your family affected you, where he actually ends up regretting his part in things himself and decides to help you. The bomb is averted, and Spon spirits you away under the guise of determining more about the group you belong to (which you don’t). I’m not sure how unrealistic that is, but it is there.)
I don’t know if this addresses anything you were feeling. Obviously, since you had a reaction I didn’t even anticipate, I didn’t do my job thoroughly enough. I don’t know if any of the above will change how you feel or felt, but… I took a shot.
And though it’s not really relevant - but you did bring it up - I’m an American transplant in the UK, taking roots slowly for the past 5-6 years, and I have no love or tolerance for torture. My thought is it’s always a failure and not justified. What worries me is that another story I wanted to pursue actually did involve direct torture, but it was to be a failure there , as it should be. Now that you bring it up for this game, though, I wonder if I have subconscious issues to work out. [/spoiler]
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. It’s more than I could have wished for, and more than I even expected!