General Category > Stars Beyond Reach Beta Discussion

Humor In Tooltips

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tombik:

--- Quote from: Shrugging Khan on July 20, 2015, 02:48:46 pm --- Why even give it a theme? Why not just make it a game of numbers and abstract icons?

--- End quote ---

Yeah this is a better summary to what I was trying to say. Thank you.

I know that this stance may hurt feelings, since the overenthusiasm clearly shows that they really care about their stuff, but sometimes... Less is more.

wwwhhattt:
I don't mind the humour, but it does need a huge amount of variety to stop it from becoming stale.
The only parts of SBR I've noticed with this problem are first encounters - "I'm sure that wont be a problem" - and diseases - "I blame the Evucks, even if they had nothing to do with it". They'd be much more effective if there were other lines, or if they only happened occasionally.

Mánagarmr:
Humor in tooltips and tutorials feels a touch out of place. Those things are there to help you, as the player, to learn the game and receive information. If you want to convey humor, you do this through dialogue.

Aklyon:

--- Quote from: Mánagarmr on July 21, 2015, 08:52:36 am ---Humor in tooltips and tutorials feels a touch out of place. Those things are there to help you, as the player, to learn the game and receive information. If you want to convey humor, you do this through dialogue.

--- End quote ---
Arcen rarely ever has dialogue though. There was some in Valley2 at the beginning, but most of it that I saw was boss lines.

All the AI War dialogue (besides the intro scroll on the main menu) is hidden until you trigger it through minor factions and optional to read anyway, and SBR in its current pre-diplomatic state has no dialogue to speak of (that I've seen) outside of the sayings you get for deciphering languages.
So instead, you get the humor spread out all over the place, and perhaps too often. I still think 'This will sink in the water, sir' is more amusing than 'Cannot place here' would be, though :)

Bluddy:
Coming out of lurking mode to post this.

This is a big problem in almost every Arcen game. Arcen don't seem to understand the importance of maintaining the suspension of disbelief as much as possible, or at least they don't consider it of high enough importance.

Tooltips already break the 4th wall. How can you have information about various elements of the game if not from the game devs? However, tooltips that just give you the information you need allow you to smooth over the 4th wall. You get the information, consume it, and are still within the world of the game. Tooltips that scream, "yoo-hoo! we're here and you're playing our game, remember?" are jolting. It can't ever be more than a flat game if you don't allow the player to get lost in the world.

It's ok to have a narrator who jokes with the player, a la Dungeon Keeper or Startopia. The narrator exists in the world of the game, and you expect his snide British remarks. Dungeons of Dredmore is another good example. Here, the game quickly makes it known that everything will be funny, down to the tooltips. As you play, you imagine yourself in a Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett-like version of a roguelike, where everything is whimsical and silly. The downside of this approach is that you begin to expect real humor, and jokes that fall flat ruin the experience somewhat. Also, you don't take anything in this particular world very seriously -- it's all just silly stuff, and the devs are OK with that.

The important thing is to maintain a sense of cohesion and tone, and to know what world you want the player to enter. If it's a serious world of war and survival, adding humor is dangerous to that atmosphere (though it can be done to a limited degree). Certainly tooltips should not feature anonymous devs suddenly stepping in and having a conversation with the player.

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