(Valley 2) Question about the lore (re: Dying after oblivion crystal. Spoilers)

[LaughingThesaurus]

My God, score systems and gold medals and multiple solutions. Fantastic, that's what I was looking for. Is there some sort of free play level select that you can unlock?

Also, in terms of your projects, generally your games kind of have a flow you're supposed to follow, but they have never been linear. Closest to strictly linear you get is 'here's some objectives, do them and then you can fight the final battle'. Even Tidalis had secret missions and challenges and stuff.

[x4000]

In terms of a free play level select, there is the level editor, which we're planning on making unlockable in terms of ability edit which specific levels (you have to beat it in the game before you can edit that level is the idea, but right now the level editor is just disabled for non-devs because it needs more documentation and so forth and we don't want to be fielding questions on that in early beta).  But the new game plus also makes it easier to choose levels by not making you replay levels you've already completed once.  Also there's a fast-travel system that we're working on, though that's not in place yet.

And yeah we do tend to have a flow and a certain amount of nonlinearity, but I'm not certain that will always 100% be the case.  Alone At The Last will probably be the closest project that would really lack much of that.  In that project it's more about a super tight horror narrative, and to that extent it would be as generally linear as a Silent Hill title or similar.  Which is to say pretty linear, with a few minor things that go one way or another and which affect your ending, etc.

But yeah, most of our games are a lot more freeform than that, including this one.

[LaughingThesaurus]

What I meant was an instant way to just replay any level that you want to play so that you can get your high scores and stuff. I meant like, a list of levels that you've played and it's like "Hey, check it out, you got 322,199 points on this level, and haven't earned the gold medal yet." in the form of a level name, number for score, and a faded little gold icon, you know? That kind of level select. The fast travel system sounds like it's ideal in that sense.

ooh, a horror game? I'm too scared of horror games. I saw Amnesia on sale so often, I go to the store page as if led by temptation, and then... it hits me... WHY AM I HERE?! So, I flee for my life. That's like a horror narrative all on its own. So, that's looking pretty linear, then. I was just talking about what you've presently got out that I'm used to. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered time travel yet, so I can't tell you what you will make that is linear or not.

[madcow]

On the topic of lore. I loved the constant poking/prodding that the main character was a bit evil as well. Was it meant that he's supposed to be evil, or are they just mocking him?

I'm guessing as well that the monsters aren't really under Demonica's control? They're just sort of there and neutral to him?

[x4000]

Oh, I think the main character is definitely at least a bit evil, yeah. To be able to to through with the murders and so on with a straight face? The character is either really well conditioned by prior circumstances (yikes if so), or is a bit of a sociopath. But it's just a BIT, or they wouldn't care enough to actually help. Fine line to find someone just right for your resistance in that case.

The monsters are somewhat under Demonaica's command -- some of them -- but are not under his control. That's part of what he's partially achieved with the continent. But many of the monsters are still wild and not yet under control. "Sadly" Demonaica will never have a chance to finish that job.

[madcow]

Another question I thought of!  Elder talks about using you as a plant and there bein others. What I don't get is... There's no mention of him especially helping you or coming to you earlier, how did he exactly "pick you" when as far as I can tell it was a resistance decision.  He just makes it em like they were personally involved in helping you along, which I just don't see.

[x4000]

Ah yes!  Good question.  That comes on a number of fronts, some of which were subtle:

1. First of all, he's implying that he had an invisible guiding hand in some of the decision making of the resistance.  Exactly how that played out isn't clear.

2. He could have just murdered you at any time when you were coming along in your power, but he was instead kind of encouraging instead.

3. If you look closely at the mercenary operator's silhouette... you'll see that it is actually Elder!  So all those merc coins that you gathered and spent were spent with none other than Elder himself.  He doesn't have any need of the merc coins, it's just another hoop he makes you jump through to get stronger and to make things seem surface legit ("hey, why is this mercenary helping me for free?" would definitely have raised more questions than he wanted you asking).

4. This last one isn't really implied in the game as much as I'd like, but basically he was interfering with Demonaica's attempts to destroy you, and the other henchmen's ability to repeatedly find you.  Basically giving you a bit more breathing room.  There's a solid basis for 1-3 in the game text itself, you could come to those conclusions based on the source material without my help if you studied it carefully.  But for this fourth one I'm not sure that would have enough basis in the game text to be a certain conclusion, though it is logical from everything else that is said.

[madcow]

Very cool! I now doubly hope the game sells enough for expansions so I can see what happens next in the storyline (or a prequel where you get to play as demonica )   Kind of funny as my beta impressions was that the story was kind of throw away the revamped texts helped wih that though. It was still rather subtle except for a few bits and then a little info dump at the end.

[x4000]

Yeah, we had a really cool backstory, but weren't sure exactly how we wanted to integrate it.  So that wasn't really in there at all much during the beta, and then kind of was subtle of an addition after that.

[madcow]

Erring on the side of subtle is far preferable to being as blunt as a cudgel over the head when it comes to stories. Sadly most devs tend towards the latter.

[x4000]

True, I do prefer that also.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Yeah, I'm with madcow on that. The fact that it was so subtle led to this whole discussion just on clarifying things that are story-related and discovering more things about the world. It's really rather well done.

[x4000]

Thanks for that.