Dev Log: Horror Game part 12

Nothing of interest, coding-wise, to report; simply played with a splash screen. Mostly my time has been spent on my volunteer project last weekend, since it was crunch time.

However, I've been playing a few interesting games and thinking about how they compare to this one. None of them are text adventures, of course; but this is more in regards to how gamey they are, and what feelings they evoke.

I played a tower defense game called Demons vs. Fairyland, which I 'beat', in terms of completing the last level, but I have yet to get '100% completion', meaning I haven't upgraded everything or gotten platinum stars in every level. But really, I don't care much. It's all just badges and achievements after you beat a game.

I also played Daymare Cat just the other day, which I don't think is quite canon with the Daymare series, but more of a side story, or just a bit of art. Mostly it serves as an ad for a music artist, but that's all beside the point. It's basically a platformer and item adventure combo (by 'item adventure' I mean the kind of game where you simply find items and figure out where to use them). When you beat Daymare Cat, it's game over. And yet the Daymare world is so visually interesting you wish it would continue.

Now that's more like it: a game that doesn't overstay its welcome, leaves you wanting more, and doesn't BS you with badges. Not that I'm lamenting DvF, since it's a perfectly good tower defense game (even though I've said in the past I don't like them in the first place, DvF is quite good).  What I mean is that I think a great game leaves you wanting more because it's good, not because it's addictive.

That's always been my philosophy, at least since I thought long enough about games to devise one. And with this horror game, that's also exactly what I need to do: make it fun, but not gimmicky. DvF is a game and clearly a game. After every level you see if you've gotten enough experience to level up, you look at all the little numbers, you try to maximize everything, you meticulously plan before you hit the play button on any level to make sure it goes off without a hitch. Daymare is more of a flow sort of game: you are in the game and experiencing the single play mode, there are no numbers, you simply walk around, explore the scenery, and solve some puzzles. You never leave the 'main mode' of the game, since there really is only one.  It's a game (like the rest of Mateusz Skutnik's adventure games) that tries everything it can to draw you into the unsettling world and keep your attention in it.

With this horror text adventure, I want to accomplish the same thing: create a world that creeps you out but make you want to keep exploring because it's so fascinating. And I'm also someone who finds himself desiring to stick in garbage like achievements and leveling up and numbers in everything, so I'm doing what I can to force the minimization of that stuff. Because the world is randomized, there is not likely to be any chance for such things, or at least I can't figure out a way to put any in (not that I'm trying very hard), and that's the way I want it.

In the early stages of making any game, when nothing is really playable, I have to find motivation where I can. For this game, my motivation has to come in by playing other games, especially games I don't like, or at least don't want to emulate, and say to myself "I can never find a game like xyz! Oh, my game is doing that; I think I'll work on it."

Of course, I've also got to know when to put away the addictive games. I spent way too much time on Demons vs. Fairyland already. Man, am I glad I'm not a smoker.