monstersouls
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Future of the Animation Viewer Mode?
🕑 Added 2021-05-29 04:29:18 +0000 UTCI want to get your thoughts on what direction the Animation Viewer should develop in the future.
Right now the viewer contains a collection of the characters and animations from the game. However, not all animations are present because I felt it would be too spoilery. I wanted to leave some scenes to be discovered in the game itself.
If I were to move towards integrating it more into the game, I could make it so that the characters and animations are unlocked in the viewer after the player discovers them in the game.
On the other hand, that makes them much less accessible for people who might be interested in supporting the Patreon to gain access to the animations, but aren't really interested in playing the game too much.
The standalone option
I could make the animation viewer it's own standalone application. It could have all the animations unlocked and freely available to view without too much extra hassle. For people who don't have the time or the interest in playing the game why not let them have at it? Since it is much less complex than the actual game it's also, in theory, easier to port to android, which is something I get asked a lot and from analytics I can see it is the second biggest demographic after windows. Don't take this as a commitment though because I'm not sure all what that would entail at this time.
The only downside I could see is that the sense of discovery would be a bit lessened in the actual game itself, but if the viewer was a separate app there would be at least a little barrier for those players who don't want everything spoiled. Maybe it is kind of a moot point anyway if you are here supporting the development of the game there's not a whole lot of mystery. Development takes time and I need some way to keep people interested.
In short:
Standalone to make it more accessible in an attempt to boost pledges.
Integrated to make it more like a reward for playing the game, unlockable animations.
And I'm not adding a "why not both?" option because I'm going to make you choose a priority, no sitting on the fence!
In the end there probably won't be any major changes in the short term. I'm still deeply invested in creating an immersive story driven RPG but it really is a lot for a solo dev to take on. The transition from the prototype to development on chapter two was greater than expected. I hope that I can reach a point of stability so that I can spend more time on content rather than upgrading all my two year old code from a time when I never even expected this project to be a long term thing.
Feel free to add your thoughts as well.
Comments
Daniel C Williams
I like the cheat code option as a compromise. Better yet, you can make that a reward for higher tier backers who want to support the project but can't be bothered to devote time to playing through an unfinished product.
Caelum
I do like unlockable nature of the integrated version (and I think including hints might be nice, if some of those animations are gonna be hard to find). But for those with a little less patience, lol, would a Cheat Code be difficult to add? Not gonna help with the porting issue, but might make a few more people happy, and those who still wanna unlock them don't have to worry about spoilers.
Dante
Personally I like the integrated option better as it feels more rewarding/motivating to play the game. Also the thrill to explore the whole game looking in every corner and be surprised by like secret sex animations, I don't think I would do that if only a warning in the menu would prevent me from achieving the same result. I guess it's a different audience, not necessarily smaller or larger. The hero dreaming about 'unlocked animation viewer' of his former adventures could also lure more players in a longer term.
