Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
When you wake up feeling depressed, will you struggle to get your work done or give up and
do something else? In
Depression Quest
, some of the
choices presented to the player are visible
but unavailable, a way of conveying the limiting feeling of depression (see Figure
). These
kinds of choices—and even absence of choices—can feel powerful for players because they
can potentially affect the resolution of the story. It's exciting to imagine that, through picking
one option or the other or figuring out how to unlock all the possible choices, you can change
the course of events, creating a sad ending or a happy one for the characters involved. At the
same time, it's worth noting that nearly all branching stories are still authored stories.
7.6
Although
they have many paths that a player can explore through her actions, all the paths have been
placed for her to discover.
Figure 7.6
Facing a decision in
Depression Quest
, including one unavailable choice.
Game creators sometimes talk about how we give players the
illusion of choice
. The conversa-
tion of a game is based on a structure we've created, and even the verbs at the player's disposal,
the ways she has to push into the system and mold her own experience, are predetermined.
