Side-Write: Destruction by Choice

If we're being honest, part of why I decided I needed to get Project Voice shipped out before the end of the month was because I realized I had already done far too many side-writes about it by this point. Still, usually I'd do the side-write "about what I've been working on," but I don't have a lot more to say about Project Voice at this point.

Technically, Project Wild One also doesn't have a lot of established lore or world-building at this point either for me to expand on-- but I realized I do have some ideas to explore around it, and stuff that might be beneficial to go into as something of a refresher and exploration as I get ready to tackle the project again. I've been doing a few of these lately, and I'm not sure if folks enjoy Side-Writes that are more focused on discussing writing and game crafting now and then, or if you'd rather I tried to stick more to "in-world" stuff and insight into the lore and such? Let me know!

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In most of my projects so far, the story has a lot of very linear elements. Which is to say, while you can make some important choices that significantly change what happens, there are also very long stretches where you can't make any choice at all, and indeed are simply reading along as things happen whether you like it or not. Hopefully they're an enjoyable read, and sometimes the behavior of your character is based on the choices you've made in the past, but the nature of presentation for these sections can make it hard to stay immersed or engaged, when that's what games should be best at.

Project Wild One is my big departure from that style. I've been very excited about the concepts it's letting me explore and the possibilities for much stronger player immersion and control, but there is a very large design question looming over the project as it stands now. Arguably my biggest strength as a creator is my writing, in making characters and stories that are interesting and engaging. But how will I deliver on these aspects in a game like this, where you're supposed to have free choice to do whatever you want from one moment to the next? Where the forming premise the gameplay encourages is literally that you cannot speak with others that you encounter, and maybe not understand anything they say either?

Should I just wrest away control for elaborate "cutscenes" you can trigger at certain times, betraying the strengths of the game to cram some actual story in there? Can I possibly make a story with meaningful characters when you can have so many choices for what to do to "ruin" the scene at any time? To contradict yourself or do the absurd at the worst time? Maybe it would be possible, and as a project in its own right you might try to make, say, one character that will react somewhat realistically to any sequence of a wide variety of actions with fully narrated behavior and logic behind all of it, with its own meaningful story extending from how these things turn out, even though that would grow exponentially more complicated with every step and approach an infinite amount of work quickly.

Or should I instead try to focus more on a "system," to have no particular paths fully written out but to try and make any and all characters better at interpreting and responding to your actions, and give them short, emotive responses to help each feel alive? That feels like a solid piece of the foundation, but it can be easy for characters to quickly feel "same-y" then, and even any attempt to add arbitrary variation from one character to the next can quickly turn into "types" of NPC the player recognizes, which can kill immersion in its own way. How can you make people in a system with so much freedom feel real and alive without putting an infinite amount of work into writing an infinite number of possibilities? How can you create those charming, magical moments when you actually feel like you connect with a character? Where does the sweet spot lie?

One of the big strengths of this type of gameplay is a certain kind of moment that can happen when you get sufficiently immersed, when you're free to make your own choices, following your own logic. When you can express yourself in the game, you're adding the first piece of the puzzle. The other piece is that when an NPC responds, they do so in a way that you like, and that feels like something born of another mind reacting to yours. The trouble is that if you can clearly see it's just generic behavior, same as any other character, then it's harder to get that moment of connection, of feeling like someone's on the other side of the screen, or like you're "doing this thing, WITH someone." What if... moreso than lurid description of a certain action (or more likely, generic description that tries to sound saucy without contradicting a million other variables) the descriptions were better about describing *why* the character does something? What if more variants were focused on showing that these characters are thinking and feeling things, and deriving their actions from that? It can be pretty damn hard to make those thoughts and emotions seem realistic, but it can be much more meaningful, I think, when a scene says whether a character does something to you because they are fond of you, attracted to you, afraid of you, or something else. Maybe the special touch I should be adding to this genre of game is emotional context.

I was already wanting to do better about making characters act realistic and do things because they "understand" what's happening and feel a certain way about it. I assumed a lot of it would be hidden, but maybe that's exactly what needs to be on the surface. Even without words, someone's actions can speak loudly, especially if you can see the emotions driving them.

Still, I think there's a certain expectation, and a desire, for unique characters and unique stories, for at least some parts that are a little more "fully written." I'm not sure if that's true, and maybe that's something I should try holding a poll for sometime, but it's been a big question to me how exactly to pull that off. The "big cutscene" is probably the worst solution. A compromise might be to have "longer stretches" of narration and actions happening before you can choose an action again, so your freedom is sprinkled in throughout the sequence of events, letting you only screw things up in a limited capacity. Or what if... having "control" of yourself was part of the game's mechanics in a way, and you can literally "lose control" of yourself in certain situations and do a series of things before you can come back to your senses? Maybe as a "penalty" or as part of some objective.

One interesting idea I've been working on is that of a "mutable cutscene." Something where you can choose to trigger some kind of clearly labeled "special event," a more elaborate, hand-crafted scene... but you're still choosing actions throughout it. The difference being, you can get some clue as to what each action would do-- maybe some wouldn't make a difference, but others would change the course of events, either sending you down different branches or even canceling out of the event because you decided you've lost your patience with this creature and just want to fuck them or something. If you're choosing each step of the way whether to "allow this to continue," to alter it, or to leave, then maybe that would let you "live out" the "cutscene" in a more immersive way? In other words, allowing you full control, but only writing elaborate sequences for some key paths, while not *removing* any of your options but making them simply revert to normal gameplay if you choose to do something too disruptive. This might be a lot more satisfying in general I think, if I can make it intuitive enough to navigate. The main drawback I can think of is that the player might easily lose investment or "get bored" with some scenes, especially when they have to keep working to find the right way to "just get on with it." If you find an area in a game where a story starts up when you show up, then ends without consequence if you just wander off, it tends to suddenly feel meaningless. Maybe there would have to be consequences for interrupting, or each event could only be triggered once per playthrough.

It's a tricky balance finding the right answer without committing to something that will suddenly bury the game in a mountain of required work. There can be many enticing ideas for how to make things better, but scale is absolutely something that needs to be controlled with extreme care, or this game could easily collapse under its own weight. I can be pretty greedy and ambitious about these things too, so I have to be especially vigilant. There are some good possibilities here, but it remains to be seen how practical they are in application.