Videogame Zinester

Anna Anthropy

One of the reasons I am using Klik & Play is because I found out about it in the book Rise of the Videogame Zinesters by Anna Anthropy. Last summer I picked up this book because I am a big fan of all of her games, especially The Mighty Jill Off, dys4ia, and Redder. I found this book to be very inspirational and educational because Anthropy shows that anyone can make games. In the book she talks about her relation to videogames, her issues with popular games, what will happen if non-professionals are able to make games, and some ways to start making games.

Game Progress

I have more or less figured out how to script the things that I want to happen, all I have to do now is think about the content that I want to be in the game, the art and the dialogue. I am trying to figure out how much detail I want to give each scene and how interactive I want each scene to be. The main focus of this game is to navigate through dialogue trees but I also want the player to be able to explore the limited environments to unlock things that can change the course of the plot.

What I think I am struggling with is the idea of giving the user control or limiting user control for a more cinematic experience. For example I want the player to be able to explore the living room area where they watch TV in a bird's eye view way to move around things in order for there to be an illusion of choice. For the areas where there is dialogue I want there to be a forced social interaction between the player character and the friend character who is initiating dialogue. The way I want to force the interaction is to make it so the player can either move towards the friend and interact or move away. By forcing people into these limitations I want people to focus on the choices they have.