Devlog #6- Shouting

This week I’m gonna talk about a semi-original mechanic I’ve decided to use for NPC interaction.

I refer to this mechanic as Shouting and it's inspired by the way interacting with an NPC works in some 3d games, such as Ocarina of Time. There is a dedicated button to shout that when pressed will target the nearest NPC, then the player will have the option to continue pressing to cycle through other in-range targets or press select to start the interaction.

My game is not grid-based, and has much more realistic collision (as in the player doesn’t hit an invisible wall while they’re still an arm’s length away from it), so this shouting mechanic solves a lot of fiddly design issues with NPC placement. 

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To add some context to the mechanic, I added speech bubbles that appear when you first shout, varying in intensity based on your distance to the target.

I think this adds a lot of personality to the game and characters and could allow for some funny moments. It also allows me to introduce characters from a distance, teasing their existence before allowing you to recruit them.

You can scream out HEY YOU! from across the other side of the screen, but in most cases the recipient will just tell you to come closer.

Doing things this way means that I have less control over how scenes are framed, but this is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Invested players will learn that their position matters and adjust the distance they talk to people, as they would in real life. Alternatively, players are welcome to mess around and purposely start important cutscenes at weird distances to have a laugh.

Also, I wonder what would happen if you shouted out when a ghost was nearby…? 

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Thanks for reading! I’m in the process of creating a Steam page ready so I’ll be announcing that soon! Prepare to wishlist! :)

Back with another devlog next weekend!