Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
discoveries or resolved riddles will prove themselves later; figuratively speaking, a
screw nut found at the beginning of the game will be useful at the final level (but the
player should take that screw nut through special conditions; otherwise, at the end,
the game will be unwinnable). You may intrigue players with such methods by en-
suring things and events are full of mystery and, in a sense, hidden. Thus, a global
puzzle flowchart should be in hand where connections between levels are shown.
It helps to close all the plot lines at the end and ensure that important subjects are
not dropped. Innuendos are good dramatic practice, but only designful ones; the arc
looks farcically, if it is not properly finished because you simply forget to close them
by discarding some story lines.
A global flowchart, showing some long plot arcs
If the game has a lot of variables involved towards the end, and they are spread all
over the levels and you are not sure that you can properly control a player's actions
(for example, the main character did not pick up a specific item few levels ago and
now they are not available), try to secure yourself by deus ex machina solutions.
Seeing that some important elements are missing in the final puzzle and cannot be
obtained again, the game should activate plan
B
, an unexpected twist. This is "nar-
rative cheating" and may look crooked, but it is better than letting the player know
that the game cannot be finished and needs to be replayed. Moreover, such turns
may be gracefully referred to as an alternative ending that especially works fine if
you indeed plan for having multiple endings for the story. Players like diversity a lot,
so different ways to finish a game are always welcomed; however, it is better to fol-
low only a single rule. Twists in the story in the game should be well expressed, and
a new progression of events must be noticeable (but not too much) in some form (via
some new phrases in dialogues, another order in items, small changes to puzzle be-
havior, and so on). For example, the legendary adventure game Blade Runner had
about a dozen of different endings. A player's community dreamed to achieve them
all by trying to play it over and over again, paying attention to all the paths of the
story.
