A Gameplay Pivot and Coverage in RPS

Greetings everyone!

The last few months have seen a lot of progress on Innkeep. In fact I’ve been so busy with development that I forgot to make time to post an update! I’ll work on writing something semi-regularly going forward.

One major milestone reached is that I’ve finished writing the dialogue for the demo / prologue of the game. It still needs editing down, but it’s basically all there, alongside the scripting of some cool events. One involving a certain ritual…

Along the way, I’ve also done quite a bit of work on some of the core game loop, experimenting with how certain key player verbs (eavesdropping, charming) are going to work. I implemented a book that you can examine to find out what clues you have learned from different guests, and the ability to ask guests about those clues. I also got this demo out into the hands of a lot of people in order to get some feedback.

I’ll admit, I think this journal looks kinda neat! However, the problem with this approach was that the pacing feels uneven due to the copious amounts of reading involved. I love visual novels myself. But with the setting of an inn, with time sensitive actions like cooking, and serving drinks, it’s natural for players to expect a faster paced game, one where you can get into that nice flow state of keeping different plates spinning, solving problems, reacting to new situations etc.

As it is, instead we have that flow state constantly hampered by needing to stop and read some dialogue with a character. The game wants to be two different kinds of game at once, which is the core issue.

The positive side to this realization is that it firmly demonstrated I needed to rethink my approach to those basic player verbs. And it gave me a good idea of the direction to go in. Going forward, the game will certainly have dialogue, but it will be restricted to the restful pauses at the start of each game “day”, so you get to relax a little bit before it all gets hectic again. The player verbs will be designed in such a way that a flow state can be maintained by the player, with some flavor text for clues you can scan, but little text that you must read in order to play.

How am I doing this? I’m happy to say I’ve got a pretty good idea about the approach, and I’ve already started prototyping. It should fit really nicely with the game theme, letting you do all those fun sneaky innkeeper verbs, while also keeping the pace flowing. I’m looking forward to sharing more news on this approach in a future update! Here’s a little sneak peak though for the time being. 😉

Best,

Daniel

P.S. Innkeep got covered in Rock Paper Shotgun! How cool is that?

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/innkeep-satisfies-my-craving-for-a-fantasy-game-thats-just-a-grim-drudgery-simulator