The Book of Legends: to be released in February!

[Indinera]

it's okay, but the game is full of choices so you need to test them all

[<3Benoit]

I'm assuming you save before each choice?

[Indinera]

I'm assuming you save before each choice?

it's more complicated than that, some choices have effects much later on

[<3Benoit]

I love games where your choices affect everything, but it makes me glad I'm not a betatester. XD

[Tomas]

...the game is full of choices...

I'm curious about one thing - I've noticed that you try to offer more choices in recent games - Sylia started it and there is said to be even more of it in TBOL. Is it something that you want to do more in your games? And do you believe that choices are important for the gaming experience?

[Indinera]

...the game is full of choices...

I'm curious about one thing - I've noticed that you try to offer more choices in recent games - Sylia started it and there is said to be even more of it in TBOL. Is it something that you want to do more in your games? And do you believe that choices are important for the gaming experience?

I don't plan ahead, so I can't really say. I don't think LH will have that many choices but it will have a few important ones.
I think they are part of the overall experience - what's your opinion about them?

[Cassiopeia]

If there's just different consequences it's fun, but I don't like it if there are better and worse outcomes. I always aim for a "perfect game" and I don't want my result to be worse because of choices I've made.
If there are a lot of choices over the entire game, then it's almost impossible to figure out the "right" combination (unless there's a logic behind them). And then I don't like it.

[loof123]

It would be cool if it was like Cassi said. And if there were too many choices, it would be no fun. Romance choices are a plus though. Like choosing who you revive in LFIII!

[Indinera]

If there's just different consequences it's fun, but I don't like it if there are better and worse outcomes. I always aim for a "perfect game" and I don't want my result to be worse because of choices I've made.
If there are a lot of choices over the entire game, then it's almost impossible to figure out the "right" combination (unless there's a logic behind them). And then I don't like it.

I don't think it's that overwhelming and to be fair you get to pick a school and I guess their worth depends on taste (I could probably come up with a poll about it when the game is out xD)

[Indinera]

It would be cool if it was like Cassi said. And if there were too many choices, it would be no fun. Romance choices are a plus though. Like choosing who you revive in LFIII!

ahaha you should like TBOL lol

[Cassiopeia]

Polls are always fun!!!
And I agree with Loof, if the choices are just a matter of taste I do like that too. The revive thing in LFIII was really cool!
It also had certain effects on the game (like getting the Brussian Tunic for Marion when you revive her), but nothing essential. There's no right or wrong. That's how I like it.

[Indinera]

Polls are always fun!!!
And I agree with Loof, if the choices are just a matter of taste I do like that too. The revive thing in LFIII was really cool!
It also had certain effects on the game (like getting the Brussian Tunic for Marion when you revive her), but nothing essential. There's no right or wrong. That's how I like it.

Then TBOL is definitely in your field of liking lol

[Cassiopeia]

Great!
Hope it's out soon cause I've almost finished SLD ......

[Tomas]

I think they are part of the overall experience - what's your opinion about them?

I believe that it's a "complicated matter". It's true that if done right, choices can really add deep to the game. The problem is, that most of the game simply do it wrong. I will list a few examples of it:

1. One choice being "better" - something like a) Save person A and get reward for it. b) Save person B and get rewaard for it. c) Save A nad B and get both the rewards. Something like this isn't "making a choice", it is "finding an optimum".

2. "More games in one package instead of choices" - In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you could play either Light Side (Good) or Dark Side (Evil), but in my six playthroughs I've never chosen anything else than the Light Side answers in dialogues. In other words, one choice at the beginning of the game (Light/Dark) would be enough. What's the point of such choices?

3. Choices that don't matter. A typical example: You can a) save someone or b) let him/her die. If you choose a), the person dies in next event/quest/chapter anyway and you get the feeling that your choice was pointless.
The reason for this is simple and it's the biggest problem of games with choices. Alowing the player to make story-shaping choices means branching of the story, i.e. the story needs to be different depending on the choice (because if they aren't different enough than the choice might seem irrelevant) and that basically means to write two or more stories instead of one. Now if there more subsequent choices, the number of story branches rises exponentially and what's worse, the player only experiences a part of it. If the game offers ten "story lines", then in one playthrough it's possible to experience one and the other nine stories are "unused".
And because games have limited budget, it is usually only possible to make either long game without choices or short game with choices but not both. To (partially) avoid this, the game makers often use something that I could call "story nodes" (I know, it sounds stupid, but I couldn't think of anything better), i.e. the story "branches" in one "node" and "connects" in another. The save/let die --> dead anyway is a typical example and unfortunately more often than not it leads to the choices that don't matter phenomena.

4. One more thing that I consider to be a disadvantage of choices is that sometimes the player doesn't have the guts to make the interesting/thrilling choices. Imagine that LF would offer some choices and in the end, you would just save everyone (no deaths, no sacrifices), but the story wouldn't be as thrilling.


To sum it up a bit, I would say that a few important choices can make the game more interesting, but extensive using of it isn't probably worth it.
Good example of how to make it right is who to ressurect in LF3 - there's no obvious best choice and it really made me to think about it. I wanted to revive Leona, but I also couldn't disappoint Brussian. Choices like this help to create deeper bond to the characters.
It's also important so that the choices aren't just "black and white" but more "shades of grey" - the good example of it (and imo the game when it comes to choices) is The Witcher 2.

P.s. Quite a long text, I guess, but "choices" is an interesting topic and I felt like writing something about it.

[Indinera]

I don't want to really judge how it works in TBOL.
I do think it's pretty interesting though. You'll see and let me know.