game writing is a TRIAL

I've been working on a game. Nothing ridiculously fancy (god knows that my game development skills are just nowhere near that level right now), but as technically complex as my abilities allow. And, of course, it's narrative based - so even though I can't exactly say the UI is going to draw you in, I'm pretty confident in my ability to breach that gap.

This is me trying to sell you my game. I say sell, but it's free. I want you to play my game and tell me what you think. And to do that, I'm going to sell it to you.

And also write constructive criticism for myself and tell you what new updates you can expect. You're not going to be able to run around a cool open world and fight monsters just yet, but this is a start!

Let me start by telling you what my game is about. You play a patron of Planetary Guides Enterprise, a galactic tour guide service that specialises in planetary exploration. You, as the customer of this particular tour, get to choose the way that your experience is directed. Of course, you always start off with the classic standard beginning (which I personally enjoy, because yes, drama is fun, but I do love science fiction theories and being shown cool planets. Plus, I don't want you to miss out on some of my absolutely next level Paint creations. If you don't have a reference image, you gotta make it yourself). But, quickly, your experience will descend into something more sinister, and exactly how this plays out is entirely dependent on the choices you make throughout the game. Every choice has consequences. Choose wisely.

Now, I love this game. I'm kinda stoked about how quickly I made the first storyline considering how many bloody passages I had to create in order to branch off the narrative to create multiple choice-dependent plots. However, it won't stop there. This isn't the kind of game that I feel I can leave with just one story, knowing how many things could happen in the universe! It's planetary exploration - that provides a set-up for so many completely insane storylines and, so, there are two major updates lined up in the near future for two additional tour options, so even if you play through the Light tour, you can come back and play the upcoming Dark and Void stories. Fun, huh?

Due to these additional updates and choice-dependent storyline, the replay value is high, which was one of my intentions when coming up with the basic narrative for this game. I've just come from a creative writing degree - I've always loved the idea of writing for games, but I've never actually had to apply my writing to the technicality of a game. It's not just thinking about the narrative anymore. There's the replay value, the amount of control the player has and when, the sounds, the images, it's how the information is displayed and how the UI can be woven into the narrative and compliment it - it's adding aspects beyond just words to read. I've always loved experimental writing, but this is experimental in a way I've never thought about before, so as excited and up to the challenge I am, I'm aware that I've probably missed the beat on some of these aspects. But! Fear not, this is just the pre-production version of my game. I plan on improving the story that is already there because I deem it necessary. Especially now that I'm expanding the reach of my game through this blog post - I want people to tell me what they didn't like, because then I can fix the bumps that distract the player and expand my knowledge, yada yada. All that good stuff.

This is the best my game creation has ever been, but the worst that it'll ever be again.

I don't remember who said that.

Let me give an example of something I'm editing for the next update: I love the information that comes with Tougie, our more eccentric tour guide, because (not to toot my own horn) I can talk absolute crap and sometimes make it seem sensical. That's pretty much my creative subgenre in a sentence. I think the planet theme and info is pretty fun, but I don't think the way it's displayed is particularly effective for a game. People love information in games and fun facts, or things they can look back on (especially the sci-fi enthusiasts like myself), but no-one likes playing a game and having to sit there for five minutes not playing or interacting with anything while they read a screen that doesn't change at all. If you wanted that, you'd be reading a book. There's definitely a better way to relay that information while still keeping the gaming part of your brain stimulated. It's more difficult because I'm working with what is essentially black screen with words, still images and the occasional sound effect when appropriate, but there are a bunch of cool mechanics I probably haven't thought of coding yet to add some spice to this experience. It's a trial and error period (quite literally: I've made an entirely separate game to test out different forms of relaying this info because moving around passages in my actual game sounds like something I want to avoid doing at all costs. It wouldn't really cause any damage or mix anything up, but the idea of moving things around unnecessarily sounds disgustingly tedious. I'll do it when I have to, which is not now. More efficient solutions always exist).

Another issue is the pacing of the narrative at the end. As I've said before, I'm pretty confident in my writing abilities. Obviously, lots of room for improvement - there always is - but I like the things I write. Most of the time. But again, I'm not experienced in applying my writing abilities to a game format, because it's so incredibly different to just writing a story. It's writing with several hundred other things to consider, and sometimes, it's spending an unexpectedly, slightly worrying amount of times trying to balance your wants for a really cool narrative with the limits of gaming. It's slightly easier in Twine format because you rely on words more than most of its counterparts in studios, etc. do, but if you wanted a giant moon that the player can walk across, you've got to consider whether the other means of production, like animation, can allow (did I consider this for my own game? You'll never know. But, let's say someone, who is not me, did. With my abilities and budget? Definitely not possible in the next couple of years because I can write words and basic code. I cannot do that).

But, this is me selling my game to you. Warts and all. It's got improvements that'd make it significantly cooler, but I still think it's pretty rad at this point. If you like space and sci-fi, you'll love this. Plus, I'd consider this a nice branch between strictly gamers and devout readers, because this is a little bit like interactive fiction, with the aim of being significantly more interactive. And, if you play the game, you can see how absolutely brilliant I am with Microsoft Paint (which I am, very).

If you do play it and have a moment to shoot me a message or leave a comment on the game, please do. I am very good with constructive criticism, improvement is cool.

Here's another link:

Planetary Guides Enterprise, At Your Service

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