Developing the story game app for the Koryo Hall of Adventures is no easy feat. Part of me wants to keep it simple and get the story app done in order to start growing it with the full story I have in mind, but the other side of me thinks that I can’t possibly keep it simple if I want to be faithful to the game’s origin: a tabletop RPG.

In that spirit, I worked on mechanics that would be part of the game experience but wouldn’t be too overwhelming, this is a branching narrative story app after all. Those mechanics are heavily based on the Risus system, and allow me to combine not only the rpg experience but also allow for the game to breathe and change some of the narrative based on encounters results. However, they are light enough to not get in the way.

So right now, there are 3 game states: story presented to the player where the choices made by the player have little impact on the narrative, choices that have drastic impacts on the narrative, and encounters. Those 3 game states allow for a good amount of flexibility in ways the narrative can move forward, and gives some level of agency to the player on how the game progresses.

This is all well and good but then, I find myself struggling with the writing of the adventure for one simple reason: I try to adapt the entire story to the mechanics in place instead of focusing on the narrative first. When looking for the right tools, as described in this previous dev-log, I was trying to find a way to visualize what happens to the story based on the mechanics. I wanted to see the game before seeing the story, and it occurred to me that this wouldn’t do.

Where was I supposed to take things from there? The answer was simple, but time consuming: make a simpler game before working on this more complicated one. It had to be a game that only focuses on narrative with little to no mechanics.

Hence, the birth of Please Help (development title).

This idea has been in my mind for some time but I wanted to give priority to anything related to the Koryo Hall of Adventures. However, the beauty of Please Help is that I know where it starts, I know where it ends, and I know how to go from where it start to where it ends. No frills, just narrative. Please Help is heavily inspired by Lifeline by 3 Minute Games. This concept of talking to someone in real time, and helping making decision via short messages in a com is incredibly efficient. This is a straight up branching narrative that removes the need to think about mechanics when writing.

So here is the concept for Please Help:

When installing the game, players are greeted by a smart home management ai agent called Eden. Eden is in charge of monitoring all elements in the player's fictional smart home grid, report any issues, and offer suggestions on ways to improve efficiency. After initial scans that clear the local grid of issues, Eden requests the player's attention on glitches than seem harmless at first, but lead to something deeper once Eden and the player start to dig into them together.

A very simple premise that creates an equally simple interaction for the user while taking advantage of the Lifeline trick of pausing the game while something is happening in the background. Ex: “I need to run some deeper scans. Give me a moment and I will ping you once the task is completed. [Interaction temporarily unavailable]”

So this is what I am working on at the moment, a very short game that involves a chatty ai agent, and some glitches inside a smart home grid. Once the game is completed, I will get back to the more complex koryo Hall of Adventures game.

Until then~