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Developer's Blog: Ping-Pong Smoke Bombs and Suspicious Stats
🕑 Added 2021-03-06 01:32:58 +0000 UTCI hope everyone is having a wonderful March! For those in the same hemisphere as me: it’s almost spring! For those in the Southern hemisphere: happy autumn!
I’m not British, so I won’t be talk any more about the weather. Instead, I’d like to lay out the schedule for this month.
First things first, there’s a Mind Blind demo update dropping this weekend for Patrons that includes the rest of Chapter 7 . . . and the anticipated return of a few characters that haven’t been seen in a while. I’m not giving an exact date for this update because I have a few familial obligations that I need to work around, but it will uploaded before Sunday 12am PST.
Patrons will also receive Chapter 8 on March 26, when the public demo is updated with Chapter 7. Chapter 8 is what I consider a “betweener” chapter, mostly consisting of prep work leading up to the undercover arc which launches in Chapter 9 (I’ll talk more about the upcoming chapters below).
In regards to other Patreon content, here’s my working timeline:
March 10: 1st Mind Blind Side Story
March 12: Lady Death’s Diary, Chapter 6.5 (in which Tru recounts Death #2)
March 15: Delivery for the Damned Poll, regarding still more character customization dilemmas
March 17: 2nd Mind Blind Saucy Side, featuring Gray (and inspired by a certain Tumblr snippet about alternative applications of telekinesis)
March 19: Lady Death’s Diary, Chapter 7 (in which things get even more complicated)
March 26: Mind Blind Demo Update
March 27 (TBD): Live Q&A for UCRT Members and Hero Zeros
March 30: Monthly character interview. I’m pretty much calling the election in Gray’s favor (and will officially do so tomorrow), since he has an 80+ lead over Nick, who ranks second in the polls.
Goodies without dates: In addition to the usual Delivery for the Damned sneak peeks and Mind Blind bloopers, I hope to release a second MB side story, as well as Grayson’s route for Cupid Calamity. These two are taking backseat to completing Chapter 8 in Mind Blind, however, since I really want to get the entire chapter out this month for you guys! (Chapter 8 has romance mini-scenes which I’m pretty excited about. Shirts come off; eye contact is maintained . . . it’s all very scandalous.)
As stated earlier, Chapter 8 is mostly preparation for Button’s inevitable plunge into the bowels of hell/Vengeance, and thus the mechanics of writing undercover work has been taking up a lot of my brainpower lately. Because you will all be going undercover—but with varying levels of success. I’m playing around with two ways to measure Button’s espionage aptitude.
Way Number 1 is the simplest: it has certain answers set to be “convincing” towards *NAME REDACTED* and *NAME ALSO REDACTED*. If Button picks these answers, then they don’t gain suspicion. The suspicion meter will raise, however, if Button selects a less convincing answer and then fails to pass a stat check (which stat will vary depending on the answer).
Way Number 2 requires more investment and consideration to be put into Chapter 8, but I think it could be more fun for replay. In Chapter 8, Button will work with either Glitch or Sally to create a fake online “persona”, basically explaining their cover-story reasons for being anti-Unity. In following chapters, acting in accordance with this persona will make you believable, whereas forgetting or acting contrary to your established cover will raise the suspicion meter. Stat checks will again be used if you mess up.
Alternatively, I could implement choices which account for both methodologies, although that may be messier to code. The only real aspect set in stone so far is the Suspicion Meter (cue ominous music).
This Suspicion Meter will track how much Vengeance believes your cover story, and is similar to the meter I used to track Button’s suspicion of K, except reversed. Vengeance’s Suspicion count won’t be on the stat screen (at least, I don’t currently plan for it to be), but it will play a hugely important role in rest of the book. If your Suspicion Score reaches over a certain point, then you’ll get a frantically-scramble-to-cover-your-butt-because-your-pants-are-on-fire-you-liar moment. This moment will be an entirely additional scene (yay!), but it will also bar you from certain solutions further down the line. Like with Rosy’s assignment, failure and success both have their plot perks.
Of course, you’re not going undercover alone. You may find your partner acting in ways that increase or decrease your Suspicion Stat as well, depending on your relationship with K.
One thing that I desperately want to add at some point is ping-pong ball smoke bombs. Originally, I’d planned to have Button and Sally go through a second assignment, before I realized that it would only slow down the already longer-than-expected plot. I came up with a lot of creative (devious? slightly evil?) solutions for Room 2, however, and want to use at least some of them. So be on the lookout for a seemingly random ping pong tables, because everything on it can be used as a weapon.
Comments
Mich
The online persona sounds fun!
Alex T.
I have to admit I'm pretty partial to method number 2, it's my personal favorite. I like the idea of depending on your stats, you could create either a great or terrible cover story for your button. I also like the idea of low relationship buttons having the edge on this assignment
Critical thinking is not one of my strengths either, but I guess that's on me. I'm relieved there won't be too many memory quizzes, or hopefully elaborate puzzles? I suppose I'll just hope for someone else to save the day when button flounders. Thank you for the reply!
Jo O'Connor
In both cases, there will be stat checks that let you suceed if you pick a "wrong" answer (similar to how Assignment 1 worked). And rather than being memory based, the suspicion stat will be about Button's ability to stay in character/pick up on cues on what people may want to hear--it'll be more about critical thinking than recalling minute details of the coverstory :)
As someone with memory issues, I find it very stressful when games demand real world skills from me, especially if I wasn't asked to pay attention earlier. It's frustrating and jarring and even if I know the answer through googling, it's just no fun. I really think IF should have an opt-out for gameplay elements like this because they can get in the way of the story, and IF being accessible to everyone regardless of skill level is one of the genre's virtues. Sorry for the rant, I know this isn't a common perspective but I wanted to bring it up for consideration anyway. I hope there will be a way to progress based on in-games stat and not the player's, no matter which method you choose.
