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 posh thriller in a small city in 1900s Canada. What impressed this sport and storyline?
The Crimson Diamond was very a lot impressed by old style 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 offer 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 strive 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 lots of analysis in regards to the types of furnishings and furnishings I wished to create, which then led to picking 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 style of the interval?
The principle cause I used to be drawn to this time interval was my curiosity in basic detective tales reminiscent of 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 will recall these kinds of settings. I learn bits of Canadian historical past books, some mineralogy guides, a guide that covers style all through historical past, an exquisite guide referred to 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 practice station is the primary sources of stories, and this can be a story level within the sport). Entry to info can also be not as simple 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 realize helpful 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 a substitute of giving them a listing of instructions?
Textual content parsers require the next stage of engagement from the participant. I perceive that I’m asking so much, however I believe, for gamers who’re prepared 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 energetic means of taking part in!
Lists of instructions and dialogue timber are useful designs to encourage participant interplay, however additionally 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 believe the dearth of specific on-screen decisions may give 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 fitting phrases gamers would wish for a detective-style sport? What ideas went into selecting the verbs that the sport would settle for and that you simply’d design gameplay moments and actions round?
Journey Recreation Studio (AGS) has a textual content parser baked into the engine which made it comparatively simple for me to make a textual content parser journey sport. I didn’t must design the precise textual content parser! The one in AGS is fairly simple to make use of.
It may be tough to anticipate phrases that gamers may strive, although. I’ve watched lots of people stream the sport and I’ve seen folks play it at occasions, which could be very useful. I do attempt to write the textual content descriptions and dialogue to point to gamers among 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 fashionable gamers about this previous fashion of journey interface? Into creating tutorials that will assist gamers discover ways 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 programs 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 attraction 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 among the pointers! The start of Chapter 1 was additionally designed to get gamers acquainted with the textual content parser. The primary aim 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 snug with the textual content parser!
The mysteries of The Crimson Diamond are unfold about all through a large space, and gamers can both discover surprising clues/mysteries or miss some issues totally. 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 believe gamers need to really feel like their participation in a sport impacts the result – that their decisions matter! The opposite facet of that coin is that in the event that they miss one thing within the sport, that ought to have an effect on the result, too. However I used to be cautious to make it in order that even when gamers miss lots of issues within the sport, they nonetheless have entry to each foremost endings by saying “sure” or “no” at a key second. I wished any participant, no matter how “nicely” they’ve performed the sport, to have the ability to come away from their first playthrough at the very least considerably happy with the ending they get!
Journey video games are typically pretty linear. I knew I wished to create a sport that, whereas nonetheless being fairly linear, would even have some replayability. Lots of people 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 means, 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 of full the sport? How did you design your sport round many various doable routes gamers may take?
I at all times had my sights set on the primary, vital path of the sport – the primary targets which are specific within the sport and that have to be accomplished to ensure that the sport to progress. Typically I had problem deciding what must be a part of the vital path and what must be non-compulsory. The investigation to do with Margot, as an illustration, was once a part of the vital path! However there was already so much occurring 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 accomplished (or hasn’t accomplished) are proven. I fastidiously thought-about when to department. Branching too early would’ve meant lots of further property and work! Lots 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 simple as a result of I knew that the textual content parser comes with its personal built-in problem. I designed the puzzles with logic in thoughts. A number of the puzzles have a number of options, as a result of folks may have completely different concepts of what’s most obvious! I additionally tried to incorporate alternative ways of nudging the participant in the fitting path. Typically that takes the type of Nancy saying one thing aloud, generally it’s one thing one other character will say, or there will probably be clues in a textual content description or in a “dying 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 primary menu. Irrespective of how caught the participant turns into, they’ve entry to a full hintbook that ought to assist them alongside. Certainly one of my priorities for The Crimson Diamond was that everyone who performs it ought to be capable of benefit from the full story and attain a passable ending.
The Crimson Diamond is on the market now on itch.io, FireFlower Video games, and Steam.
About The Creator
