Sierra-Style OR Lucas-Style Dialog...or both?

[Joseph]

YO!

Ive searched without luck, but Ive got this burning question and I cant seem to be able to sleep at night without it being answered! Ive also got a burning itch between by legs but thats another story.

Ok, well...is it possible to have sierra-style dialogs, with the portraits...but the character onscreen also has a lucas-style animation where you see his mouth moving, etc...so you can have both "at the same time"...?

Also, do you guys think it would be a good idea to give the player the choice of lucas-style dialog or sierra-style dialog in the game?

I thought of doing both, and then in the settings let the player decide which they would rather play with...I know this would increase the amount of work, but it could make the game more "like-able" by all, no?

[Crimson Wizard]

YO!
Ok, well...is it possible to have sierra-style dialogs, with the portraits...but the character onscreen also has a lucas-style animation where you see his mouth moving, etc...so you can have both "at the same time"...?

I guess you should script some custom dialog system where portraits would be GUIs or something and displayed manually. Or, as opposite, manually run character animation during speech. I am not sure what's easier though.

[deadsuperhero]

I really prefer a hybrid of the two. Allow me to explain:

For anything that uses the dialog system, I prefer using a QFG4 full-portrait style. Artwork-wise, it's more work but I find it's really immersive to the story when done correctly.

However, for anything that doesn't use the dialog system, a LucasArts speech style is the default.

Then again, I'm also one of those people that really enjoys having the character also be the narrorator. (So he'll basically talk about everything you look at).

[Phemar]

Personally I prefer the Lucasarts way of doing dialogue, but at the end of the day it's all down to personal choice.
You have to decide what works best for the style of adventure game you're producing.

As for giving the player choice between the two dialogue options, I personally wouldn't do it as I think if you add too many features to a game you tend to distract yourself from the main objective: Making the game fun! Not everyone is going to like your game, so it's useless to try and implement the widest range of features as this is distracting. Concentrate on implementing a good story and good puzzle design and you will have yourself a good game irrelevant of the type of dialogue system you use.

So choose the one you prefer or you think works for your game the best! There's no right or wrong answer as everyone has different personal tastes.

[Joseph]

Hi dudes,

Ok, Ill try to relax then...the game Im working on is just for fun anyways...I guess I just want something everyone might enjoy...

I think Ill find a way to manually run character animation while he speaks and the portrait is shown at the same time so theres both...but it might be a bit too much though.

Has anyone else ever tried both at the same time?

[Charity]

I don't know that I've ever seen a game that had both speech styles running simultaneously.  Honestly, my initial thought is that it would probably be a little distracting, as you have a "voice" attributed to two separate locations on the screen.  Technically this is true any time you use the mini-portrait style speech, but when the rest of the screen is largely static, the portrait gives the illusion of sort of taking over the display, as it places focus on just the face and text/voice of the speaker.  Still, I would be interested to see it in practice.

Having a flexible gaming experience isn't a bad thing, though.  It is true that some players have specific tastes regarding how they interact with and perceive the game world, and others just like to tinker.  From a player's perspective, I've rarely felt that having these types of options, especially if tucked away in a discreet menu somewhere, ever distracted the playing experience, and in a few cases (especially with things like controls) having the option to change things has really helped my immersion.

From a designer's perspective, I'm not sure I agree with Phemar, unless perhaps you are working with a strict deadline.  Adding additional features to a game takes time and energy that you could theoretically be devoting to story, art, puzzles, etc., but unless these resources are very limited, adding a couple of menu options and simple animations shouldn't be enough to significantly handicap the other aspects of your project, and the extra scripting may help you figure out some things about the game engine and design in general that will be valuable in future projects.  That said, it is certainly possible to get completely bogged down scripting extra features and never actually get to your main project, especially if you go overboard, and try to make all the extras before you get to the rest of the game.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as you will still learn a lot, but it is something to keep in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind is that while extra features can be fun for a player to fiddle with, sometimes it is just as good to show confidence in your own vision for your project.  Letting players change their characters' names, for instance, is neat, but it will rarely be missed, and may not even be that appropriate in a game with a serious story where the default names were chosen for a reason.  In the case of LucasArts vs. Sierra style speech, your own aesthetic vision for the game may well mean more, in the end, than your players' general preferences.  Portraits let people see their characters up close, and can help show characters' emotions in a way that can be difficult to pull off with small sprites, on the other hand, Lucas style is less intrusive and possibly less work.  If any of these or other aesthetic considerations are important to the intended thrust of your story or the feel of your world, it may be better to pick one and go with it, instead of going out of your way to let players opt out of part of the experience of your game.

In the end, you can't please everyone, so focus on pleasing yourself and your target audience.  Anyone else is a bonus.

[Leon]

You  mean like in DuzzQuest?