Welcome back, and thanks for stopping by!
For this update, we’re going to shift the dialogue… to dialogue. That’s right, I did that. Let’s get into the nitty of Sun Haven’s dialogue structure!
Originally, we had settled on a simple structure that guaranteed the player would experience almost 100% of the available dialogue, but which offered much less in terms of actual options for the player. The structure looked like this:
You might notice a lack of options in this structure. We did, too! So, we revamped it. The goal of the redesign was to maximize the player’s exposure to dialogue options so that very little work is “wasted” or not experienced by the player, and at the same time maximize the number of choices the player could make. The end result is pretty efficient, and looks something like this:
As you can see, there are multiple branching trees in this model instead of one long running conversation. By having these “mini-conversations,” we’re able to keep player choice maximized without losing too much written dialogue to lack of exposure. I did have to edit it a little bit to keep some of the flavor private - we don’t want you catching on to everything before the game is even out! So rest assured that this structure offers even more than what you see here.
We’re confident that this structure will enable the dynamic conversational strategy we’re taking, especially in the context of romance and relationships.
Thanks for checking out this week’s development blog! Be sure to stay tuned for more. If you haven’t already, join our subscription list for automatic updates on our website! We don’t send spam because we’re too busy doing other stuff, but it’s easy enough to unsubscribe anyway in case you’re hesitant.
Take care, folks! Be kind, and be happy.
- Michael, Sun Haven Writer
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SunHaven
Discord: https://discord.gg/rqWx6uxmzP
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SunHavenRPG
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunhavenrpg/