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Novelist Simulator

edited September 2016 in Games showcase
Hello!

Finally put my first game up on Steam Greenlight. This game is actually not an adventure game, and yet it was made using Adventure Creator!

Novelist Simulator is a strategy simulator game in which the player takes on the role of a novelist attempting to complete a novel before the deadline while fending off stress, loneliness, alcoholism, and more.

It's a simple little game but very challenging. It took me a while to figure out how to beat it myself and I wrote it!

Check it out and vote on Steam Greenlight here:

Novelist Simulator on Steam

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Comments

  • edited September 2016
    Ummm... I'm sorry to say this but the game feels more like a prototype than a completed game. It feels like the core functionality of the game is there but there's no juice, no sauce, no topping... 
    There's no "Maximum output from minimum input." Which means, interactions feel too dead. A single player interaction should trigger as much feedback as its possible without being absurd.

    Usually you use animation, particles and SFX to enhance interactions. For example, when you choose to sit and write you could have the desk animate in some way (i.e: turn on a desk lamp, then you could even put some moth particles over the lamp) then play some scribbling sound FXs, followed by a positive sounding ding or other success cue (if successful). Next, you could pop up some text with the amount of score or experience the player has won. The fridge could animate to open, same with the door (both with "thumping" sfx). The "friends" could animate too and pop up a speech bubble with some random chatter when you click them, same with the bartender and the girl (some "hey!" voice clip or anything). Scrolling text and scrolling text audio could be a good idea too.

    Also, there's no immediate sense of rewards and penalties... there's no sense of "Hey! I've done something right!" or "Damn, if I fail more I'm going to be in trouble soon". Showing a score or experience gain number whenever the player does something right would be your best friend here. Experience gives the player a sense of progression, and if you have a level bar (+number) it's even more powerful. Also, it would really help If you could see how much of the book is completed per sitting (% or specific numbers, it needs to be concrete and easy to understand, the meter alone isn't enough). That would let the player know how well they're faring. The point is, the player needs to feel rewarded by his actions, through a combinations of VFX, SFX and score (or like in adventure games, by story progression). Anyway, remember: a player that feels rewarded is a happy player.

    Also, if one of the meters (or a specific combination of them) goes low you could have bad things start to happen, like sickness, or being too sick to work, or you could give less score/experience to the player, or completing less of the book per sitting or have setbacks which deplete some of the progress made. I know you probably already have some of these, but penalties should also be seen and felt concretely. Again SFX and VFX (animation, particles, text).

    Another approach that could help you is adding more personality to the game. Let's face it, classic adventure games usually have drab mechanics but they pull them off by having a sense of mystery or comedy. People just want to know what's going to happen next or they want to have the next good laugh.

    Finally, do be careful with the "frustratingly hard to beat" thing. That's only a plus if the player feels equally rewarded by winning (these games are usually short and casual too...). Not to mention, what you should be asking yourself isn't how hard it was to beat the game, but how fun it was to play it.

    Anyways, I see a lot of potential in the idea, it just needs some more polish to shine.
  • No need to be sorry. You are right of course. The gameplay is all there but it does need a bit of polish. I put it up to gauge reactions, but the version shown there isn't the final build that will be released.

    You have some good ideas. Thanks for taking the time to write them out :-)
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