Posted January 17, 2010
high rated
http://www.choiceofgames.com/dragon/
Fun little game that ticks a lot of good boxes in terms of ideas/philosophy behind it*. Yes it's just multiple choices, only text and way too short, but - I think - an interesting first attempt. I am not quite convinced they managed to completely utilize the "every choice is meaningful" aspect as the story is linear and each chapter plays out different (though there are some choices that carry over)/
I feel it'll be interesting to see where they go next, now that the basic scripting system is developed.
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*From the game's "Why?" page:
"We have chosen to develop multiple-choice games for several reasons. First and foremost, we like to focus on interesting choices. Many games work by surrounding interesting choices with lots of tactical play or interactions with a set of game systems. That can be fun, but it means that relatively little of the playing experience is about making choices at a high-level. In contrast, by creating a game system that is all about multiple-choice interactions, we can focus on the choices we find interesting—moral choices, trade-offs between different values and characteristics, and so forth. When you play one of our games, you should be making meaningful choices all the time.
It's worth stressing that last bit: games need meaningful choices to be interesting. If your choices are not meaningful, then you're really just going through the motions. "
Fun little game that ticks a lot of good boxes in terms of ideas/philosophy behind it*. Yes it's just multiple choices, only text and way too short, but - I think - an interesting first attempt. I am not quite convinced they managed to completely utilize the "every choice is meaningful" aspect as the story is linear and each chapter plays out different (though there are some choices that carry over)/
I feel it'll be interesting to see where they go next, now that the basic scripting system is developed.
----
*From the game's "Why?" page:
"We have chosen to develop multiple-choice games for several reasons. First and foremost, we like to focus on interesting choices. Many games work by surrounding interesting choices with lots of tactical play or interactions with a set of game systems. That can be fun, but it means that relatively little of the playing experience is about making choices at a high-level. In contrast, by creating a game system that is all about multiple-choice interactions, we can focus on the choices we find interesting—moral choices, trade-offs between different values and characteristics, and so forth. When you play one of our games, you should be making meaningful choices all the time.
It's worth stressing that last bit: games need meaningful choices to be interesting. If your choices are not meaningful, then you're really just going through the motions. "
