Incidental Interactions in a Serious Game

[Creed Malay]

I'm working on a fairly serious game at the moment - there's humour, but I'm trying to keep it dark and underplayed. Something I've always admired in AGs games is whenb the author takes the time to put in a reaction for just about every interaction - using a wall, or the sky , or taking a building, or talking to a rubbish bin, you know - and it's something I'd like to try to do in this game.
WIth the more serious tone, though, I'm not sure what to do. In a "wacky" game, it's eay to stick jokes and cheery nonsense in, but I'd rather keep a more "real world" feel here. See, in real life, it's unllikely that you'd take time out to be all comedic when you touch a wall, or try to chat to a beech tree, and using simple descriptions - "It's made of wood and covered in bark"."It's just a brick wall" - seems kind of redundant.
Are there any serious games that have this level of interaction, or does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance...

Davy

[After]

Here's a thought. Mood comes down to style to some extent, so instead of pedantic descriptions, do more of a fragments of consciousness approach:
"elaborate patterns ... fading" of some old wallpaper.
"rough, and somehow comforting to touch" of a tree (specifically the bark where you touch).
"whoever lived here ... their personality feels still present." of the comfy chair in an old abandoned house.

In a given area, the incidental interactions can contribute to the general ambience or mood.

And you can still have humour that plays off the feel that you're trying to create.
For example, the character is alone, but feels watched, and so relieves the anxiety by acting as though someone else is there. "Oh, after you." stepping back from a door and gesturing before using it. "Anyone else for tea?" while making tea. That could be both funny and unsettling, as the player doesn't know it's coming, and has a moment of trying to figure out what just happened.

[Haddas]

Interact with brick-wall = "- Why would you make me strike a brick-wall? It's a just another goddamn Brick-wall

[Anym]

I don't know whether it fits with the main character you have in mind, but perhaps if he's depressive because of the death of his girlfriend or something, you could perhaps add memories and emotional reactions to the descriptions.

Brick wall: "It's just a brick wall, just like the one where you kissed her for the first time all those years ago. The memory pains you."

It also works for female protagonists.

Brick wall: "It's kinda rough to the touch, but not too rough. Like his ushaven face in morning, when you were already awake, and he'd still be sleeping next to you."

And it also works for settings without a lost love.

Brick wall: "The bricks are red. Dark red. Just like the blood of Bobby and O'Reilly and all the others that died in that god-forsaken desert... No, NOOOO!"

The sky: "You've always found it funny when people saw shapes in the clouds. 'A ship' or 'a cow' they'd say, and look at you strangely when you suggested 'a brain tumor' or 'a landmine'."

Rubbish bin: "You wish that you could say that talking to a rubbish bin was the craziest thing you did in some time... but the guys back at the asylum would surely beg to differ."

Rubbish bin: "It's full of stuff people don't want anymore. In a way, just like this part of town - the rubbish bin of society."

It might also be a device for some optional, additional character development. Just don't overdo it. Some descriptions, perhaps most of them, should be only destriptive. You might want to replace "you" with "I"...

The sky: "Looks like rain. I better get home. My cough is already bad enough."

Rubbish bin: "It's full of stuff people don't want anymore. Used handkerchiefs, a half-eaten bar of choclate, empty bottles, a green plastic bag. Whoah, this has to be the ugliest shade of green ever."

On the other hand, it might seem sadistic to have your main character experience his past again, just for the sake of atmosphere.

I think you got the idea. Don't know whether this works or not. My design experience is close to zero, so perhaps I'm just talking rubbish.

Rubbish bin: "Heh, rubbish. I once knew this fellow... what was his name? Anemo or Nymo or something? Man, he was talking rubbish all the time. 'Just don't listen to him', they all said, but I did it anyway and now, look at me!"

[Snake]

You could have it so it if you choose to TOUCH the wall to EXPLAIN what the wall FEELS like to the player, since maybe there might me something special about it, eventhough it might not pretain to the storyline or puzzles...instead of having the character explain why they don't want to hit it, which is lame.

Maybe instead of having the player SAY something to the garbage bin when it is clicked, have it react as if the player wanted to taste it. So in this case the character would say something according to that. You could also do that with many other objects.


--Snake

[m0ds]

If you run out of action ideas and resort to descriptions, just think of it like a story (imo). For example, interacting with a bin may cause the player to say something simple yet descriptive as "It's rusty, smelly, and hasn't been emptied for several weeks".

That kinda thing.

[Joelman]

remember SQ6? not thge best of the series, but there was one line that stuck with me, when you click to talk to the dead rat stuck on the thugs wall "I'm not putting my lips on that!"