A fragment from an imaginary walkthrough to my current work-in-progress, “Ossuary:”
2. Fortitude
2.1: Joining the Knights of the Five-Sided Temple
In order to gain access to the temple, you will need to get past the outer gate. Speak to the outer gatekeeper and tell him you are a FRIEND. He will let you through.
Speak to the Recruitment Officer in the western tower and ask him about himself (“ABOUT YOU”). He will mention that he doesn’t want to be greedy about getting a better position. Sounds like a way in, but we’re not yet corrupted by Greed.
Speak to the inner gatekeeper. He doesn’t want to let you in, but it sounds like he’s a bit overworked. Corrupt him with the sin of Sloth. He’ll sit down to rest and let you in.
Speak to the Lieutenant on the west side of the keep. He’ll say he’s happy, but keep asking him “REALLY?” until he confesses that he wants the commander’s position. You’re now corrupted with the sin of Greed. Go back to the Recruitment Officer and corrupt him with Greed. He’ll admit that he’s always wanted to be a drill sergeant, and ask you to speak with the commander on his behalf.
The commander is in the center of the south wall of the keep. Talk to him about the RECRUITER, and he’ll ask that you check with the Temple Clerk about the recruiter’s experience. Go to the Temple Clerk and talk to him. He sure doesn’t seem to appreciate the effort that the Recruitment Officer puts in! If only you had a sin that made people understand the viewpoints of others.
Corrupt the Temple Clerk with the sin of Envy. He’ll admit that he’s envious of the Recruitment Officer’s experience in his job, and that he deserves a promotion. Inform the Commander, who will ask you to inform the Recruitment Officer. Return to him, and he’ll enlist you as his final act in his old job.
What do you think? Too convoluted? Not convoluted enough? Any suggestions?
Not too much, not too little. Exactly as convoluted as I would like, it seems. It looks kind of like Narthex. Will it use that conversation engine you said you tested with Narthex?
Yup, it’ll use the same conversation engine as Narthex and The Day. The art is definitely derivative of Narthex, although higher-resolution and probably more varied.
It got me interested!
How many projects are you working on right now anyways? It seems like 2-3 from my point of view. Then again… maybe all the different snapshots and excerpts are elements of a much larger more complex game. You did say the new game you were working on would be the longest one yet. Also, something like the picture above could definitely work as your signature style (and the related games), if you are so inclined (though i doubt you are).
Beneath the Waves is done, and I’m currently seeking a sponsorship for it. It’s the big one I’ve been talking about. It’s ended up being about half an hour of gameplay, so Exploit might still be bigger. “Ossuary” is my new project, and the one discussed in this post. Namatjira is my huge project that’s going to take a while yet. I’ve also got a few miscellaneous projects on back burners.
Oh and about the convolution. It’s hard to say, it all depends on the layout and how difficult it would be to find the next part of the “puzzle”. Though if it is fairly simple and easy, I would say this is a good balance. At the same time however, i’m just assuming it is a certain type of game, so, I guess, in summation, I don’t know.
It sounds a little like one that I would have to solve by spamming all my corruptions on everyone. One potential issue is that the corruptions don’t seem totally uniform — Sloth makes the gatekeeper slothful, but Envy makes the clerk ‘fess up to his existing envy and make amends for it, and Greed sounds like it’s kind of intermediate — the Recruitment Officer already wants the promotion, you’re just getting him to admit it. (Also, it seems like it might be Envy as well.)
…so, I don’t know either.
In the game, the sins will be narrowed and defined more clearly. Sloth makes a character recognize his limits and chill out. Envy makes a character empathize with others, because you need to identify with someone to envy their circumstances. Greed makes a person manifest their ambitions and desires to be above other people, while Gluttony makes a person request services and items that are selfish but not based on hierarchy.
Hopefully, the feedback that the game gives in the form of dialogue will make it a bit clearer.
The seven deadly sins inflicted in such a way as to impart virtue? I’m definetely interested.
Sounds fine to me! But, as I’ve discovered again and again, I’m more tolerant than most players.