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[GAME CHOICE THEORY] How do you create a story game where choices actually matter? Is it just a case of having different endings? Sure, you could do that. Or you experience entirely different modular story nodes that activate & deactivate depending on dynamic conditions. [1]
As the developer of this game, I’ve long perused the idea of choices mattering in a game. How can you transcend the game being a detached set of variables you tinker with joylessly? What will make you more involved in the process? Shouldn’t choices feel more like real life? [2]
The idea of “weighted consequence” comes from the nature of the retry cycle. If you can retry quickly, it cheapens the consequence. Retrying slowly can be agonising and lessen the correlation between cause and effect. So how do you make choices feel weighty? [3]
I’ve decided to explore “weight of consequence through sheer quantity” in this game. Disco Elysium recently this by tying story branches to extremely frequent skill tests, akin to D&D. And it seemed to be very effective. [4]
But what if you took that immense set of choices sprawling in so many different directions, and brought down its scope to something incredibly personal and linear? I aim to do that with “Paper Thin”. [5]
Many conversations lengthy and labyrinthine. Having their own distinct gameplay loops, and testing customisations with several new endings. All told within severe restrictions - non linearity within linearity. [6]
But hiding all stats and numbers unless absolutely necessary (e.g. when a skill is tested) so as to serve the minimal aesthetic. This gives enough information about the current decision but doesn’t give players a customisation option to ready themselves. This isn’t that game. [7]
In summary, a choice can be made to feel weighty or important if the connection can be made with later events. But even if a choice leads to a consequence, how are we to know it could not have led to something else? [8]
It could have been something parallel entirely. Which is why each creative art is a letter to a being or a non-being. It is a message with texture and content that can be interpreted or correlated with any other event. [9]
In an even more concise summary... are you feeling paper thin? [10]
