dreamswarart
patreon
Votepoll: "What kind of progress you prefer to see in the Visual Novel"?
🕑 Added 2022-11-19 00:04:13 +0000 UTCHello, my dear Patrons, fans and subscribers. As you know I'm preparing a visual novel for a future launch, and I have an important question to ask you. It's spins around general progress system to use in one.
There is basically two options: Linear progression or Grind progression.
In Linear Progression you just play some kind of story, make choices and it's leads you to another scene, dialogues and etc. Any timelapses, may be represented either as "2 weeks later" or as a number of little scenes, like encounters in day 1, 2, 5, 10 and etc.
So basically you get a linear story that you read almost like a book and pick answers in the specific moments, that leads you to some other moment of the story.
In Grind Progression you face some kind of Sandbox elements. For example, there is such thing as Money, that you need to increase to get access to some moment of the main or side stories, buy something that may allow you either to progress in some quests or relationships, or buy an outfit for your or other character that may have some features. Basically at this point it can be included even into Linear type, but still as a choices & consequences, not as something that depends literally from your time investment.
The main goal is to play some repetitive, but variable things, to earn money, reputation or some kind of points that, upon reaching some value of this or another currency. For example, if you will earn 10 reputation points with concrete character, by talking with him/her 10 times in different days, it's will unlock some quest, scene, etc. Another sample, it's buying some present, service or outfit for gold, which feels more valuable when you've invested some of your time to play some minigame to earn it.
So, if to talk about pros and cons, upon my experience in playing different novels.
Linear Progression Pros:
- Focus just on the story and choices, which means you need less time to progress over the whole story, or concrete storyline.
- Very friendly for replayability and/or trying different character's paths.
- No Grind, for those who doesn't like it.
- Faster in development.
Linear Progression Cons:
- Story/Time progression may feel shorter.
- Connection with the character life may be weaker and achieving things may feel cheaper.
- Less random, immersive events and moments that may give a better feeling of the world and characters changes.
Grind Progression Pros:
- Day-by-Day progression may make the story feel more consistent, meaningful, personal.
- Possibility to view how other characters changes &/or how your protagonist, and/or relationships with him changes in dynamic but slower than in Linear progression, that allows to reveal more details about it.
- Earning or achieving something requires some time, so it's feels more meaningful and harder to decide, than just when a choice window pops up at the random moment.
- More little and unexpected events, since earning this or that amount of this or that currency may trigger them as well as specific decisions.
Grind Progression Cons:
- May create a fake feeling about length of the game.
- At some moments gameplay may feel like a Groundhog Day.
- May be annoying for replaying, especially if you already know how much this or that currency you need to achieve/trigger something, but if not, random events still can surprise.
- May feel like a boring distraction from the main story.
- Takes more time for development to be done in a really good way.
So, what do I want from you, is to answer on the question "What kind of progress you prefer to see in the Visual Novel"?
