I went back to the original idea from the GDD as we ended up going working on an improved version of the sentence puzzles, but I mirrored the UI for no real reason, so I flipped it back around.
I think it’s better if we cannot see down to the character knees and it helps give the impression of a first person POV.
This is the tone for the sentence which the player would insert to sandwich the sentence. The spoken tone would be flat is not used, which wouldn’t always be a problem. Questioning tone would be included to ask questions without them coming off as statements.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zdybkhv/revision/2
If more tones are needed, the player would have the option to cut and add another half in to combine them. To know whether or not to add a tone, the player would have to look at the NPC dialogue box for reference.
With the scissors chop the tone, after this drag another half in. The unused halves will remain in the ☁️ bubble until a new sentence can be created.
Conversation starters/initiation
Something that’s missing from the game is the ability to initiate and lead a conversation, so I think there should be a way to do that.
E.g. clicking on the MC sprite to get additional options like
*Ask question? * -> *specific* or *else*
*Convo starter* -> *click NPC or background for prompt* or *select options that MC is knowledgeable about*
Kind of like ‘The Sims 4’ whereas the player you have the power to take action and lead conversation between the characters, which they just do on their own otherwise. Sometimes players try to fix relationships between sims by forcibly making them interact which sometimes goes wrong.
These options would be prewritten depending on how well the MC knows about it.
e.g. if it’s the MC’s interest or if it’s a basic preset like “it’s a beautiful day today”.
This may prompt the players to always use the presets instead of trying the hard version which would perhaps involve doing another puzzle, which in this situation would be used like a breakthrough of some sort which will lead to no longer having to do hard puzzles the more you pick them, symbolising the MC settling a little more.
When pressing ‘Specific’, the option comes up to click the NPC or Background.
In the drawing circled red, the mouse is clicking on the notebook the NPC is holding. Clicking it added an image of the notebook in the ☁️ bubble which the player will be able to use in a sentence. Eg. In this example two more options may pop up with either writing or a cute drawing to symbolise the MC wondering whether it’s a notebook or a sketchbook, so wanting to ask the NPC about that.
When I brough up this idea to the group, my teammate Nam said that this would be a little complicated because it would allow the player to click the MC whenever they felt they had to do something specific, which isn’t good as would overcomplicate the game, so I suggested that instead only at specific times can the player click the MC, background or NPC, which would be shown by some sort of glow around the clickable object with the chance to miss it if not clicked fast enough, leading to missing out on specific dialogues and the loss of extra friendship points. He was more convinced about this idea, and my other teammate Cindy really liked it as well as it added interaction and immersion, and secret options that players would be on the lookout for, to collect, and get the best possible endings.
The dialogue would follow a linear narrative even though story wise, the MC is acting on their own, which is somewhat conflicting with the gameplay feel as the player wouldnt be the one to infer they must do something specific, but its better than before.
Animation idea for UI
This idea is cool and intresting, but it would require rearranging the UI again to have the input and output boxes be right next to each other, which is kind of ugly, but I would be happy to play around with this!