Gameplay Mechanic a Month: Conversation Editing

Month 7 - July 2013

Mechanic Description:

In this month's gameplay mechanic, you can choose which options characters say in their speech bubbles, ie edit their conversations and instantly see the result of the entire conversation.

The player is presented with a comic book style page where two characters are talking. You take it in turns to play as each of the characters. You are only able to edit the speech bubbles of the character you are playing, so you can only change half of the conversation on any turn.

In each editable speech bubble there are 2-3 options. Once you choose an option, the comic book will change to show the results, which may mean that the two characters can talk for a bit longer and not end up in awkward silences. Keep going back and forth until the conversation reaches a point that you are happy with it.

Playable in the following game:

Back to the First Date

Platform:

Web

Genre:

Interactive Graphic Novel

Game Description:

The game was made for Molyjam 2013 and is based on the Peter Molyneux quote: "I wish I had some time machine and could go back two weeks. You live by your mistakes, for sure."

Two time travellers, Sofia and Rajar, met at a Doctor Who convention and decided to go on a first date. Sofia subscribes to the vehicle-based mode of time travel (as seen in "Back to the Future"), while Rajar subscribes to the closed-loop model (as seen in "Hot Tub Time Machine"). Their first date didn't go as planned, since they argued over everything from time travel theory to who pays the bill.

Two weeks later, both of them decide that they can help the date go more smoothly. Help each of them travel back in time to attempt to fix what went wrong so they are not alone in the present. Can you help these two scientists see eye to eye and live happily ever after?

The game was featured on a number of sites:

• Kotaku
• US Gamer
• Indie Statik

Screenshots:

Start Screen On the start screen you can choose whether to start playing as Sofia or Rajar.	Initial Setup A comic with the mini backstory.
Conversation about Wine You can read through the date as a comic. Several scenes happen where the characters have different topics of conversation.	Conversation about Time Travel Machines Both characters seem to be saying all the wrong things and not getting anywhere.
Sofia's Choices When playing as Sofia you can help her choose more appropriate topics.	Rajar's Choices When playing as Rajar you can select what he says.

Gameplay Instructions:

Go to the website and begin by choosing whether to play as Rajar or Sofia.

• Read the introduction and begin your time travel experience.
• If you are playing as Sofia, click on her speech bubbles to change what she says.
• If you are playing as Rajar, click on his speech bubbles to change what he says.
• When you are happy with the changes you have made, finish your turn.
• Next you'll be playing as the other character to try and improve their side of the conversation.

Note: The game is pretty much complete as far as we were concerned with development. However, you as a player may not get a sense of completion. Perhaps consider whether these two characters are meant to be together at all....

Downloads:

This month to play the game you simply go to backtothefirstdate.com. You can also see the game on the Molyjam 2013 website. If you would like to access the code and make your own game, you can get it from GitHub.

Team:

This month I worked with a number of other people in a team to create this game during 48 hours for Molyjam 2013:

• Jolie Menzel
• K Gadd
• Tiff Chow
• Jung-Ha Kim
• Cliff Warren
• Colin Bayer

Analysis:

An analysis of the gameplay mechanic written by me in March 2015.

Context:
I created this game for a game jam with a friend who was working at Telltale Games. Based on some social conversations she’d had with colleagues, she wanted to experiment to see if we could do a game with storytelling that was a multiplayer game. We realised that was beyond the scope of a game jam game. The final game was envisioned as a pass ‘n’ play game, but ended up working perfectly fine as a one player experience as well.

What Went Right:        

           
• The art and the speech bubbles were relatively easy for people to understand right from the get go. There wasn't much need for explanation.
           
• The fiction behind the story worked well with the mechanic. As in, both characters had a time machine, so that was why they could keep “trying again”.
           
• SPOILER!!!! The fact that there is no "happy" ending was great. People got a bit frustrated, but that was the entire point. Some people just aren't meant to be together. It would have been better if we had have put in some sort of hint that there was no correct answer.
       

What Went Wrong:        

           
• It very quickly could become a massively long game and also could lead to choices that didn't really matter or didn't change things.
           
• Having "act"s where people had to get the "correct" answers in, might have worked. But we didn't have the time to explore the options fully.
           
• It seemed a bit gimicky and might be very difficult to implement for a more fully fleshed game.
           
• Having to switch characters to try out all solutions was a bit frustrating when trying to find the ideal solution. It meant you had to go back and forth a lot more than if you could just change both character’s speech bubbles at the same time. Then again, this was part of the point of the game.
       

Hug Rating:
4 hugs

Verdict:
Neat idea and well executed. This might be something you could put inside a larger game as a little mini game, but probably doesn’t scale particularly well for longer games. Also, justifying the core mechanic with a different fiction may or may not work as well as time travel.