We sat down with The Crimson Diamond‘s creator, Julia Minamata, to speak about how its textual content parser system helps to attach gamers to the sport.
The Crimson Diamond duties gamers with fixing a fancy thriller in a small city in 1900s Canada. What impressed this sport and storyline?
The Crimson Diamond was very a lot impressed by old-fashioned Sierra journey video games (introduced dwelling from the workplace by my dad), thriller tales (launched to me by my mother) and my pursuits in mineralogy and Canadian historical past. I wished to present retro avid gamers a comfortable feeling of nostalgia, however I additionally wished to introduce individuals who have by no means performed a textual content parser journey sport to attempt it out!
The storyline was impressed by the setting I create – an deserted mining city and the lodge and the encircling space. The sport began as an experimentation in pixel artwork. My inclination in the direction of genuine particulars led me to doing a whole lot of analysis in regards to the kinds of furnishings and furnishings I wished to create, which then led to selecting this specific period. From there, I began asking myself questions on who would dwell on this lodge, why they had been there, and what would inspire different characters to come back to this place.
The Crimson Diamond additionally captures a selected period in Canadian historical past. What drew you to this time? What analysis and work went into capturing the look and trend of the interval?
The principle cause I used to be drawn to this time interval was my curiosity in traditional detective tales akin to Sherlock Holmes, and the novels of Agatha Christie. To not point out, Sierra’s beloved thriller journey sport The Colonel’s Bequest! I knew I wished to create one thing that might recall these sorts of settings. I learn bits of Canadian historical past books, some mineralogy guides, a e-book that covers trend all through historical past, a beautiful e-book known as Ontario’s Ghost City Heritage by Ron Brown, and a LOT of Wikipedia!
How did setting the sport on this interval have an effect on its design?
I knew I wished Crimson Lodge to be a distant location. Setting the sport within the early 1900s was handy for sensible causes; Nancy has the liberty to snoop to her coronary heart’s content material with out having to take care of the precise authorities, and information travels slowly in these elements (the telegraph machine within the prepare station is the principle sources of stories, and it is a story level within the sport). Entry to data can be not as straightforward on this period. Nancy can’t seek the advice of a smartphone! She has to depend on her personal observations and deductions, in addition to asking different characters questions, to achieve worthwhile data.
What you about utilizing textual content parsing for gamers to work together with the sport? Why select to have gamers kind out their actions as an alternative of giving them a listing of instructions?
Textual content parsers require the next degree of engagement from the participant. I perceive that I’m asking rather a lot, however I feel, for gamers who’re keen to place in an additional little bit of effort, that interacting with a sport utilizing a textual content parser will trigger them to really feel extra instantly concerned of their actions within the sport. It’s as much as the participant to formulate concepts of what they want to do after which talk that to the sport. It’s a really imaginative and lively manner of enjoying!
Lists of instructions and dialogue bushes are useful designs to encourage participant interplay, however in addition they present the participant the restrictions of their decisions within the sport world. The textual content parser can have hidden depths as a result of the participant isn’t being proven all their decisions. I do attempt to write the in-game textual content to tell gamers about what objects they’ll work together with and doable verbs to aim. I’m not attempting to be deliberately obtuse! However I feel the dearth of express on-screen decisions can provide gamers the tantalizing phantasm of limitless prospects.
Are you able to inform us a bit about the way you designed the textual content parser? What work went into getting it to acknowledge the appropriate phrases gamers would want for a detective-style sport? What ideas went into selecting the verbs that the sport would settle for and that you just’d design gameplay moments and actions round?
Journey Sport Studio (AGS) has a textual content parser baked into the engine which made it comparatively straightforward for me to make a textual content parser journey sport. I didn’t have to design the precise textual content parser! The one in AGS is fairly straightforward to make use of.
It may be difficult to anticipate phrases that gamers would possibly attempt, although. I’ve watched lots of people stream the sport and I’ve seen individuals play it at occasions, which may be very useful. I do attempt to write the textual content descriptions and dialogue to point to gamers a number of the nouns and verbs that they’ll use. I attempted to consider as many synonyms as doable for the phrases that I take advantage of within the sport, and I’m at all times open to including extra!
What ideas went into instructing trendy gamers about this previous type of journey interface? Into creating tutorials that might assist gamers learn to work together with the sport’s world utilizing the textual content parser? How did you ease gamers who won’t be used to those previous journey sport techniques into working with them?
Textual content parser video games aren’t quite common these days. I knew that this might restrict the viewers who’d have an interest. Creating the tutorial room was my try and enchantment to those that’d by no means used a textual content parser to ease them into it. Even for individuals who are inclined to skip tutorials, the very starting of Chapter 1 repeats a number of the pointers! The start of Chapter 1 was additionally designed to get gamers acquainted with the textual content parser. The primary purpose is to stroll across the lodge, opening doorways and speaking to the opposite characters. Hopefully by the point gamers get to the eating room scene, they are going to have gotten extra comfy with the textual content parser!
The mysteries of The Crimson Diamond are unfold about all through a large space, and gamers can both discover sudden clues/mysteries or miss some issues fully. What appealed to you about making a thriller sport the place the solutions aren’t assured? The place gamers might want to do some real detective work to determine issues out?
I feel gamers need to really feel like their participation in a sport impacts the end result – that their decisions matter! The opposite aspect of that coin is that in the event that they miss one thing within the sport, that ought to have an effect on the end result, too. However I used to be cautious to make it in order that even when gamers miss a whole lot of issues within the sport, they nonetheless have entry to each principal endings by saying “sure” or “no” at a key second. I wished any participant, no matter how “effectively” they’ve performed the sport, to have the ability to come away from their first playthrough a minimum of considerably glad with the ending they get!
Journey video games are usually pretty linear. I knew I wished to create a sport that, whereas nonetheless being fairly linear, would even have some replayability. Quite a lot of of us on Twitch have streamed my sport, however I don’t assume any of them have performed it precisely the identical or noticed the very same issues. In that manner, I’m hoping their viewers will need to purchase the sport and play it themselves.
What challenges got here out of giving gamers the flexibility to overlook issues however nonetheless be capable to full the sport? How did you design your sport round many various doable routes gamers might take?
I at all times had my sights set on the principle, vital path of the sport – the principle aims which are express within the sport and that have to be accomplished to ensure that the sport to progress. Typically I had issue deciding what needs to be a part of the vital path and what needs to be optionally available. The investigation to do with Margot, as an example, was a part of the vital path! However there was already rather a lot happening within the sport already, and I did need to reward gamers for going the additional mile with that a part of the story.
The sport solely actually branches in Chapter 6, although there are tons of participant actions being tracked by that point. Chapter 7 is when the outcomes of what the participant has achieved (or hasn’t achieved) are proven. I fastidiously thought-about when to department. Branching too early would’ve meant a whole lot of additional belongings and work! Quite a lot of the branching in The Crimson Diamond truly comes all the way down to the written descriptions. These take a lot much less time to create!
Lastly, how did you’re employed to maintain your puzzles feeling “honest” in a style that may be considerably brutal with what it expects gamers to determine? How do you create puzzles which are difficult with out irritating the participant?
I truly tried to make the sport’s puzzles straightforward as a result of I knew that the textual content parser comes with its personal built-in issue. I designed the puzzles with logic in thoughts. Among the puzzles have a number of options, as a result of individuals can have totally different concepts of what’s most sensible! I additionally tried to incorporate other ways of nudging the participant in the appropriate path. Typically that takes the type of Nancy saying one thing aloud, generally it’s one thing one other character will say, or there might be clues in a textual content description or in a “loss of life message” (the textual content that accompanies when Nancy dies within the sport).
The failsafe is the hyperlink to the web hintbook that’s in the principle menu. Regardless of how caught the participant turns into, they’ve entry to a full hintbook that ought to assist them alongside. One among my priorities for The Crimson Diamond was that everyone who performs it ought to be capable to benefit from the full story and attain a passable ending.
The Crimson Diamond is offered now on itch.io, FireFlower Video games, and Steam.
About The Creator
