Add Atmosphere & Characterization to “Thinker”

Started by fernewelten, Mon 20/09/2021 14:37:14

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fernewelten

Hi folks,

Remember Thinker?

One thing he's particularly bad at is Atmosphere (Rank #27 of 31, i.e., fourth-last place).
He wakes up in a philosophical mood in a kind of bunker, but players seemingly can't relate.
The background music doesn't seem to help any.

He seems to have kind of a forgettable characterization, too (#19).


So how do you improve on that.

heltenjon

"Atmosphere" is a bit difficult to define, so I would guess players would put different things into it, varying from world building to mood.

If we look at the games on the top of the list of this category, they are games where the player character is transported to another world/setting and begins interacting with other characters early on. (Not exactly in Nadir, but there are the letters).
Thinker starts out in a clean environment, and we know nothing about the circumstances or the world around the robot. The player will spend some time in the first room, playeing "escape the room", and probably several people will give up before coming to the second or third room.

As I experienced the game, it was the second room that was the most enjoyable. The room involves other voices, and these and the puzzles tell a lot more about what kind of society this is. And after the third room, Thinker draws his philosophical conclusions, building on what he has experienced so far in the game. Now, if you play the whole story, you get a much better insight in the robot's personality and the world he lives in. BUT, many players will never see that.

I think that having other characters to interact with, probably would add to what is loosely described as atmosphere. If people started in the second room, they would experience the best puzzles in the game and the other A.I.s and how Thinker can out-think them. Perhaps in a game jam setting, it would be an idea to put some of the best stuff first? Or at least let the protagonist meet other people in some way or another? I realize you can't simply do this in Thinker without ruining his character arc, and personally I think the game is fine as it is. But I think that the intro from your Flight of the robots game makes that game a lot more atmospheric, just because we have seen a glimpse of the world it's set in.

Perhaps adding some A.I. in the first room of Thinkerwould have made a difference? Like making the door make sarcastic comments when the player attempts to open it? (But then again, that's not in tone with the A.I. voices in the second room.)
Your Commando Raid rat game starts out with a situation between the hero and his boss, giving them both lots of personality from the beginning.

Maybe someone else can define what they would put in the category "atmosphere"?

fernewelten

So here's a conundrum that I've pondered on for a long time:

Riddles, by necessity, Halt. The. Story.

Take “Thinker”: Thinker wakes up, rises from that crate and leaves his bunker to explore the world. So he goes through that blast door, and … but no, no, no, he cannot go through that blast door, at least not that easily: A long string of puzzles needs to be solved. And that halts the story, very badly.

For instance, the battery puzzle: At a certain point, a certain battery needs to be charged. So what now? There's nothing readily apparent in the room to charge the battery with. So the player will search the room for some sort of a charging device, potentially taking hours and hours, clicking on random spots ever more frustratedly. And throughout all that search they might think: “Now let me out of that damn blast door already so that I can carry on with the story!”

What makes this worse for the player is that they don't want to expend much effort on that puzzle: They consider it as a pesky obstruction that stops them from getting on to the “good parts” of the game. If only they were through the blast door yet. And that damn bunker isn't all that nice to look at, anyway.

So yes, I see that.

But I'm stumped for alternatives. The main selling point of a narrative game, as opposed to, e.g., a book or a film, is that the player can engage with the story. And that by needs means expending mental effort. What can I do to engage the player's mind other than riddle-posing? Because the players that hate riddles seem to hate mini-games, too, especially tile-moving games. “Don't waste my time, let me get at the ‘good parts’ already.” And chore-type tasks, such as making the player fed-ex things from one part of the game world to the other, tidy up rooms, play “Where's Waldo” etc., are time-wasters, too, that stop them from getting to the “good parts”.

So just what am I supposed to do with the players in order to give them story enjoyment for ready consumption?



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