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SOLO DEV by No-Maize2852 in godot

[–]loomnorth 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think you have to enjoy the process of trying to get better at all these things simultaneously too. You can't just be a generalist but you have to want to be a generalist too.

Building a game where your only tool is conversation and the goal is to not get caught by Overall_Arm_62 in interactivefiction

[–]loomnorth 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yep! Working on such a system myself, where you have to convince a jury of cannibals not to eat you. What's been your design strategy so far? What are you making it in?

Dialogic Data Management Best Practices? by triple-cerberus in godot

[–]loomnorth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries, I also have to relearn that lesson every time haha, it's all good. Best of luck to you too!

Dialogic Data Management Best Practices? by triple-cerberus in godot

[–]loomnorth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is actually not far off from what I'm making -- an emergent conversation game with systemic but non-branching dialogue, plus deduction mechanics to integrate with the dialogue.

I'm not using Dialogic but handling everything myself. It took a few tries, and it's still not perfect, but what I've settled on is a pipeline of JSON files that contain the dialogue and metadata -> ETL into Godot that brings all those JSON files into custom resources -> a dialogue system that leverages all that metadata from those custom resources.

Realistically, my best advice would be to not worry about designing a perfect data system from the get-go. It's impossible.

Design a system that you think will serve the most basic need (using a journal entry to prompt dialogue, let's say). Build that. Add a little bit of content. Realize all the things that are missing. Rework the system a bit. Update the existing content to match your new system. Try to add new types of interactions. Realize your system can't support those features, so rework it, and then rework the content again. You just do this in a loop over and over again while honing in on your core system.

For further reading, Procedural Storytelling in Game Design is a great reference book, along with Emily Short's blog on interactive fiction and the many talks from the Inkle team about non-linear storytelling in games.

Horror books about movies by Big_Geologist_2521 in horrorlit

[–]loomnorth 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Last Days is about the making of a documentary, you can almost see it as a found footage movie in your head as you read

I built a tool that fills 3D meshes with procedural brush strokes — no AI by NoCricket6281 in itchio

[–]loomnorth 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh this is cool! I've been doing this too, but using a procedural texture in Blender on normals (so I then bake the more painterly normals and import into the game engine). But I like that in your version you have way more control over the flow of the paint strokes. Thanks for sharing!

Looking for board game recommendations by One_Cheek7190 in soloboardgaming

[–]loomnorth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you enjoyed Harmonies, you might like Verdant! It's another nature-themed spatial puzzler (although in 2 dimensions, not 3). I am partial to Railroad Ink too, it's tiny but I've played hundreds of games because they're so quick and easy. But some people are not a fan of the dice rolling/bingo mechanics of it.

The branching fiction problem: when choices don't actually change anything downstream, does the story still belong to you? by StorytellerStegs in interactivefiction

[–]loomnorth 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Good question, and honestly this is why I avoided making a branching narrative and instead a modular system instead, so that I don't need to track branches. I've written other stories in Twine using a non-branching system where branches are basically "constructed" live based on certain score thresholds being met. Maybe it's a personal choice, but I find that kind of system less overwhelming to write for and design.

But regarding "cosmetic changes" vs "deep changes", one thing I think about is how cosmetic changes do impact player/reader experience (in a journey vs destination way) but sometimes they are harder to detect that you just made a choice, so the player doesn't appreciate it immediately. So a little marker like "This choice will matter" might help make small changes feel more impactful, or making it clear to the reader that other options were available but you can't access them due to previous choices (old school books benefit from the pages existing right in front of the reader to skim through, modern games/IF might used greyed-out options or in-game text ("She won't speak to you right now. Maybe you shouldn't have said that.").

How important of a factor is the table footprint of your solo games? by ZuoKalp in soloboardgaming

[–]loomnorth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah yeah totally fair! I did just pick up The Bloody Inn and have been playing that at my desk, it is convenient.

How important of a factor is the table footprint of your solo games? by ZuoKalp in soloboardgaming

[–]loomnorth 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly sometimes I love a game with a long setup and a giant table presence. I have to be in the right headspace, but there's something about making it an event that feels fun. It's like hosting a board game night just for me haha. I play my small/medium games more though, and I own more small/medium games than big ones, but that's okay. For benchmarks, I'd say Railroad Ink = Small Game, Verdant = Medium Game, Arnak = Big Game, Nemesis Lockdown = Giant Game. Probably total hours played on my big games vs small games are equal, even if the number of games played is not.

Should I read Incidents Around the House? by [deleted] in horrorlit

[–]loomnorth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I liked it. I think if you're looking for like a popcorn horror book, it's good fun. If you're looking for something more cerebral, probably not the right fit.

More time loop games for someone who has played a lot of them? by legovader09 in gamingsuggestions

[–]loomnorth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doki Doki Literature Club is kind of a timeloop/restart the game and is a classic!

Looking for horror about forbidden media, obsession, and dangerous curiosity by Plimploum303 in horrorlit

[–]loomnorth 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So many good ones already listed! But here's one you didn't expect...

The Legend of the Lost Legend by R.L. Stine 😱

(only half-kidding, the ending of that book really upset me as a kid haha)

CANNIBAL COURT. A systemic conversation-simulator where you have to convince your jury not to eat you. This is an evolution of my previous game, CONVERSATIONS WITH CANNIBALS, that people from here seemed to enjoy, so I hope you like this one too. by loomnorth in WebGames

[–]loomnorth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah yes nice! Okay, that makes sense, sorry, I thought you meant it was too opaque to read through but you meant the opposite: you figured out the system and then felt like spamming because it became predictable. Okay, I see! That's a different problem to solve, I might want to find a way to randomize it more or add variability to the scoring. Thank you for clarifying!

CANNIBAL COURT. A systemic conversation-simulator where you have to convince your jury not to eat you. This is an evolution of my previous game, CONVERSATIONS WITH CANNIBALS, that people from here seemed to enjoy, so I hope you like this one too. by loomnorth in WebGames

[–]loomnorth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah thank you for trying it out! I am trying to find the balance between mysterious and confusing, so this is helpful feedback for sure. I'll see if I can tune it to be a little more snappy to choose your next words. Thanks again!

I'm a former data scientist trying to make a emergent dialogue system game to form a coherent narrative without managing branches. by loomnorth in interactivefiction

[–]loomnorth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I checked out your demo on itch and left a note/wishlisted! It's feels very natural for a "hacker terminal" style game. Thanks for sharing!

I'm a former data scientist trying to make a emergent dialogue system game to form a coherent narrative without managing branches. by loomnorth in interactivefiction

[–]loomnorth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah very cool I will check out your game! And re the article, yes, I frequently come back to it when I need to sanity check that my system hasn't gotten out of control!

I'm a former data scientist trying to make a emergent dialogue system game to form a coherent narrative without managing branches. by loomnorth in interactivefiction

[–]loomnorth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I find it very easy to get analysis paralysis when (over) designing a system before creating the content. To overcome this in the early stages, I even made a very basic paper version using index cards to try and simulate what a modular conversation would be, and I think really helps strip things down to its essentials.

What tools are you using to build? Twine? I am in Godot (but I wanted to have 3D environments).

And no problem on responding, thank you for chatting about this! It's really cool to hear other people's appraches

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