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Dev Perspective: Paths and Routes
🕑 Added 2023-08-23 00:00:02 +0000 UTCHi all. It's been a while since I posted one of these (though I have multiple written up - I just stress over if they're too complicated or silly. This one seems safe. LoL!)
So I have mentioned before that a lot of my game contemplations comes from realising language that we frequently use is...maybe not as accurate or useful as I want it to be. And this is another example.
I have always had a really good understanding of a "route" in games like Changeling and Gilded Shadows - a route is really clear. It's fully separate, gives you a cohesive story on its own.
But when I started working on When Stars Collide, I began struggling to understand what a route is in this kind of game. When I asked people how they viewed "routes" in games where the routes overlap, many said that they view the routes as only including the character-specific scenes.
And this...didn't sit well with me at first.
The idea of a route being made up of disjointed scenes that don't tell a complete story on their own just felt wrong. How could that be a 'route'? At the same time. I could understand why people wouldn't want to included all that shared content as part of the character routes.
You may wonder why it matters and it really comes to communication.
I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about Ari's route in Gilded Shadows:
* Its overall length
* the amount of words you'll see on one playthrough of the route
* the amount of hours it will take you complete that "route"
* the amount of hours the total available content comprises.
But how can I communicate any of that accurately to players about When Stars Collide if I can't even define what a route is?
So I really wanted to come up with a way to define routes...that I was happy with.
The Light bulb Goes off
One day while poking around regarding this subject I saw an analogy that kind of made a light bulb go off and made me re-frame how I view routes and game structure.
The illustration uses bus routes as an analogy. The person posting pointed out that a "route" in the context of public transportation usually consists of the *stops*. It doesn't necessarily matter what streets the bus takes or what intersections it passes.
If the stops are the same, it's the same route.
The streets are the *path* the bus takes. If a bus detours onto another street because of construction, it doesn't change the route because the bus stops are the same. It just changes the path the bus took along the *route.*
Thinking of it this way helped me separate the concept of "path" and "route" in the context of games and understand a possible distinction between the two. As well as the reason they get so muddled up in my mind.
Routes and Paths
In Gilded Shadows, both the character *path* and the *route* diverge at some point in the story. Ari's route is distinct from the other routes and the path you take through his route is also unique to his story.
There's no overlap between the path you follow in, say, Caleb's route. In this way, the concept of "path" and "route" overlap a lot in this type of game.
Route 1 and Route 2 are separate and it's impossible for the path through each one to overlap in any way.
But in the other type of game, the routes are separate but the path leading to those route stops...overlaps.
In this example, Route 1 and Route 2 are indeed distinct from each other, but the *path* between each "route stop" is shared.
One of the repercussions of having a shared path is that routes, are likely to be quite similar because the path between them has to work for either route.
Conclusion
Making the distinction between route and path is, perhaps, a little pedantic.
But I always find that the clearer the mental image I have of how my games work, the more accurately I can communicate to players about them. And, in general, I just like thinking about this kind of thing.
But I doubt I'm going to be trying to force everyone else to use the same terminology I use to describe games (because that seems pointless. Ha ha.)
This is just one of my personal ruminations on the subject.
I have a lot more thoughts about this sort of thing too - some of which are more...technical...I guess? Things about how conditional and unconditional game content influences the structure of the paths and the routes.
As well as thoughts about how different types of content create important junctures that may shift you onto a specific path or route - and determine the overall shape of the game because they determine where the routes and paths diverge (if they diverge.)
But that's probably for another time.
Anyway - this was just something I was thinking about recently and wrote down to see if I could untangle it better for myself.
See you next time!
Comments
Sarah
And I will read it! I define it as choices that can make or break me getting to a desired outcome. I see it as failing if I want to be someone's romantic partner but end up as a friend or prospective partner. There was still a good story that was told, so I didn't "fail" to read or participate in a VN. But, I wanted an unfolding story of people starting a romantic relationship. It kinda sucks to think I'm making the "right" choices and then *poof* no kiss, no deep conversations, no cuteness they're just good friends or it didn't work out... There are a lot of points in BG3 where random side dialogue is actually an opportunity to earn approval or disapproval from LIs, and the level of approval determines what scenes you see with the LIs and if you can romance them or not. It is hard to figure out though and I think I'll just look up a guide '^_^
Steamberry Studio
I have a huge write up on the concept of "choices that matter" that I want to post some day. It's such a tricky and complicated topic to address though so I'm constantly editing and trying to refine my thoughts on it. But one day! One day, I will post it! 🤣
Sarah
I have been playing a lot of Baulder's Gate 3, with different characters (who have different races and specialties). I think the devs did a good job of changing even small interactions with NPCs based on who you chose to play as. It might be analogous to VNs because different character choices do matter? Like it is the exact same setting and conversation, but you can choose to be tired, friendly, overwhelmed, or sad which would change how the NPCs respond, thus giving the scene variety? I think having multiple answers that are valid (so not losing out on LI approval) help make for good variety (similar to Reverie Ebon Light).
Steamberry Studio
Honestly, after working on a game that does have a shared path set up, I found that I really don't enjoy it. I much prefer to write separate and unique story lines like Gilded Shadows and Changeling. I think When Stars Collide will be the only "shared path" style game I ever make. It's just not as fun to explore the same path five times (though I think it's a valid style of game, of course), even though I am trying to come up with different story climaxes and different character moments. In some ways, it's interesting to explore the same events with different characters, showing how different people react to a specific situation differently. But at the same time, there are a lot of limitations in how different I can make each character "route" because, as I mentioned, the path to those route stops...is the same so I can only justify so much variation between the character scenarios. I much prefer the flexibility I have when everyone has their own story. Even if it sometimes requires more writing to do it that way. LoL *stares at the GS word count*. 👀
Hailey Castaneda
I like to think of myself as a romance veteran I read, play, and watch it like no tomorrow. That being said I can 100% say I love how you path your games! Too many times I’ve felt frustrated because I couldn’t see the path the creator was trying to take with their characters but yours are ALWAYS so well thought out! I especially love and appreciate that you take the time to put into the game that lets us know whose path we’re taking and even the flowchart in GS ❤️ super Thank You on that because I got to see my favorite scenes but tweaked differently *cough* Caleb 🫣! I’ve never had anxiety playing your games and have never been disappointed and it’s amazing how each character gets their own story rather than how some creators have the “same” ending no matter who you romance.
Faith Nelson
Hey, I will happily hop down that rabbit trail with you whenever you want to go! :)
Steamberry Studio
Yeah! One of the things that sparked all these different thoughts and write ups was working on When Stars Collide and repeatedly butting up against misconceptions regarding games structured this way. And then realising that many of said misconceptions are due to how we talk about them and the language we use. The more I think about these topics the more it's a rabbit trail honestly. 🤣
Faith Nelson
I really appreciate your thoughts on this, partially because language and word choices are so personally important to me, and partially because seeing how people THINK fascinates me. I would not have come to that analogy my own, but I agree that it works well. A game with shared paths along different routes will be in many ways harder to communicate clearly about without that shared understanding, but having a way to define your own thinking about it makes it much easier to wrap that thought process up in words to hand over to someone else, complete.
