#i've thought about cosmic horror before but i could never do it any better than bloodborne

[voidscarredadjudicator]

I have urges to talk about the TTRPG I'm running on here but I also know that at least one of the players likes to lurk around my writing stuff so I can't talk about stuff the players haven't seen yet which sucks because that's what I wanna talk about. So I will self-indulgently vaguepost about it instead.

How many times can a robot be rebuilt before it's no longer the same machine? If it's memories are copied into a brand new body, is it the same machine as it was before or something new? At what point does a machine's life begin - when it's creator first drafts it, when it's pieces are being assembled, or when it's switched on for the first time? What if the robot's original draft is taken and completed by someone else? Who's rightfully the creator? The one who finished it, or the one who laid the foundation for it to be completed in the first place?

If someone has the memories of two different people, which person are they really? Are they both of them? Are they neither of them? If one of the sets of memories they have remembers committing horrible, horrible acts, but the flesh those memories inhabit never did a thing and the true perpetrator is long gone, should they still hold themselves accountable? If one of the two minds would despise the other, what would happen when they're forced to coexist?

How true is a friendship if that friend is forced to forget that they met you over and over again, but they always come back to you no matter what? And when that friend suddenly vanishes, and then the one you despise with every fiber of your being starts speaking with their voice, would you not feel like you're being mocked?

All I know for certain is that the sun will rise. I hope they'll look up long enough to see it.

[beetle-the-boy]

Assuming I'm nowhere near done with Signalis, I'll give my mid game thoughts on it now

Cool Things

The level design is incredible. Even with the winding rooms and multiple floors, I was never lost. Especially in the area with no map. The landmarks in that area were amazing and I literally never got lost.

The atmosphere is incredible. The lo-fi ps1 aesthetic was absolutely nailed, the ambience is phenomenal (especially in the previously mentioned area with no map), and the sound design is absolutely God-tier

The puzzles are all incredibly unique and varied. Some of my favorites include anything that uses the radio module and doing literal electrical engineering work.

This ties into the aesthetics but I especially want to laud the cosmic horror aspect. Humanity digging too deep and finding some old god that manifests as mounds of red flesh is done to death but the execution of it in Signalis is incredible. Whether or not this is thanks to Elster being unphased by it I've yet to say. My favorite part is that it only affect Replikas (as far as I know), contorting them into zombies.

It makes me feel weird to listen to the threat music and think "I love this groove

Things I don't Like

Starting with the most pressing thing for me: the world building is all over the place to the point where it becomes distracting. Many things are described with German words and phrasing but then literally in the same hallway see Chinese-esque kanji. It would've been much better if only one language was used (preferably German because it really helps give Signalis's world it's own identity) or if a completely new language was made.

Most monsters really feel like they all do the same thing: hobble towards you and swing with just different speeds and models differentiating them. I wish there were more enemies like the Kolibri and Mynah. The Kolibri are probably my favorite in the game because it requires to use a tool that doesn't have limited uses. And speaking of which

The modules should really just be base upgrades and not separate items. Hell I'll concede and say the photo module should be a separate item but a flash light that's mounted on the shoulder? I feel like the scenarios would more dynamic if there were more enemies that required you to uses other tools than gun x, y, and z.

I'll probably get flack for this but the character design is so weak. This game has a terrible case I could barely tell the difference between a Eule, a Storch, an Ara, and a Kolibri. The only stand outs are Elster because she's the protagonist, Alder because he's male, and Mynah because she's actually different with her massive suit and tiny face. The worst part to me is that these were all previously humans, so at the very least their faces would be different but no it's still just spindly thin white woman with hooves. Me and my friends would literally say "the writers barely disguised fetish" whenever any propaganda picture would crop up.

A story can sometimes be too vague. I get that it looks spooky but flashing red text in multiple languages only confuses me, especially when some of it may be important to the plot. If these sequences where replaced with the first person sequences where you walk around

Some slight accessibility options would be nice like: being able to see if an item can be combined with another, highlight important details in text, instantly swap to frequencies with data on them, have all healing items heal instantly

The scene where Elster does maintenance and meets Alina should've been put at the start of the game because the only reason I cared about Alina at all was the fact that I knew before starting that they were a thing and it was funny to yell "HAVE YOU SEEN MY WIFE???" like Marlin searching for Nemo. I can understand merit in keeping Elster's motives unknown until after the first credits roll but there really isn't any other indication that Elster should keep going down other than her really liking jumping down holes she really shouldn't go down.

Signalis is one of the best horror experiences I've had and one of the best games I've played. While it may be too soon to say for sure, Signalis holds the title of 2nd best game with gay people brutalizing each other.

[the-passenger-if]

so Malin had that interesting post on game design and some of the rules he created for Fallen Hero specifically, and tbh, I think FH has become a model for how others are creating their own from what I've seen. I was curious if you did something similar when you were planning out Passenger, and/or if there was anything different that you've been focusing on or trying to emphasize (i never give you easy questions)

I read it; Malin is, once again, the person I want to be when I grow up.

I think FH has become a model for how others are creating their own from what I’ve seen.

Hopefully; Fallen Hero is one of the best examples of interactive fiction I’ve read (it ticks all the right boxes for me and by now I think it’s pretty obvious it’s been a huge inspiration for my own work).

(i never give you easy questions)

(pictured: my last 2 brain cells trying to work together)

I will take the atheist youtuber approach and I’ll revise Malin’s comment step by step to see what resonates with me and what doesn’t.

Malin: “My goal was to write interactive fiction, not a game.”

100% this. Reading the forums I realized I was a lot more into games that told me a story and had rich characters and interactions than, I don’t know, about the I shoot the gun *roll dice* It doesn’t work. Baddie shoots gun *roll dice* It leaves a cool scar on MC’s arm. I have nothing against that type of games, neither against micromanaging, it’s just there’s so many times I can go feed the goats before my brain goes away and comes back once every goat has died of starvation. I get bored, that’s what I’m saying.

M: “Trust. This was the first rule. I needed to build trust in the reader, and make them realize that there would be no game over in this book, no way to fail so badly you couldn’t get back from it.”

This too. I didn’t want to put game overs around every corner. Don’t get me wrong, it works. One of my fave WIPs is Monsters (TW for everything basically) and I died like five times before getting it right, but Monsters isn’t just about dying; I like the NPCs, I like the MCs, it’s a cool slash horror game and I think it makes more sense to die in that game than it does to do it in mine. They say eliminating the possibility of dying kills the suspense and encourages players to play stupidly; TP is a game about an eldritch abomination and their gang of freaks, not rocket science: If players are having fun I did my job.

M: “The only reason you would make a choice should be that it felt right for your character, and you wanted to see what happened.”

I disagree with this one; I really like the oppose pairs COG encourages so much, and after reading dozens of games I found that the author that makes it work best is Devon (Samurai of Hyuga saga). I loved that the most important use of the oppose pairs was to choose your ronin’s personality traits (Devon tends to get a little carried away with how every single choice must be affected by them, but that’s because he’s a more gamey author, while I’m more interested in the role-playing aspect). That’s why there’s no way to fuck up too much in my game if you choose the “wrong” option (read: the option that doesn’t align with your traits). You are still supposed to think about your Newman and what answer feels the less OOC. Some people like to play a character that has some agency of their own (raises hand), other people are control freaks (jk I love you all xD) which bring us to the next point;

M: “Immersion. The second rule, and the thing that influenced my stats and flags. They should be there to help immersion, to enable me to to callbacks to earlier events, and to tailor text to the reader. While there’s an unusually fixed protagonist in Fallen Hero, I wanted variability in how they were presented. While things like cautious/daring influences success in certain fights, that’s actually a secondary function. Instead of trying to artificially have a stat chance with every choice to make it ‘matter’, I embraced the thought that the changing text itself did matter enough.”

All of this. There’s no way I can say it better. Also ties in with MCs having different thoughts and reactions on what’s going on around them. Flavor text rules.

M: “Consequence. That being said, I wanted there to be tension and nervousness, which meant that there needed to be consequence. This was tricky, especially over three books where a lot of the consequences won’t come until later in the series.”

The consequences in my book are a lot quicker to come and bite you in the ass than in Malin’s book (of fucking course); that’s why there are flags just about everywhere and some people will be lacking one or two companions from CH6 onwards.

M: “No lock-in.” “There’s no point in which a RO becomes locked in for good, and at the same time you don’t get locked out if you didn’t start a romance at a certain point…”

Since I have less time to show you things, I had to pick and choose what’s more important for the story I’m trying to tell. For example, what’s more important: keeping the romance paths open or having more fluffy flavor text with your chosen RO. Guess which one I chose (took me 2 solid seconds to make that call I’m telling you)

As I said before, don’t try to create your own angsty path: I FEED on angst, I won’t disappoint you. Smooch that RO, hug Livvy, everything will be taken away by me raining fire on Newman and co anyways.

M: “Secrecy. One way I picked to help me heighten tension was to keep secrets from the reader,”

Not a big fan of this one if I’m being honest. I’m not mad about it or even vocal (this is the first time I say anything) I just could do without it. Fallen Hero is great and I love it, it’s just sort of weird at times when Sidestep goes like “Did they know about the blue button and the diet coke, did they?” And I’m like, “Bitch I sure hope they do because I have no idea what you’re talking about”. FH is my second favorite game (my #1 if I don’t count WIPs) but yeah, that. Maybe if all secrets are revealed by the end of book 2, and book 3 is about Sidestep (and the player) reacting to them, maybe I won’t find it so distracting.

The Passenger has its fair share of secrets (it has to) but most of them aren’t even secrets (what is Newman? where do they come from? what about the Old Ones?) that’s just how cosmic horror works. Things just are, there’s no explanation; the magic trick is always a lot less impressive once you know how it works, and some things are better left unsaid. Whatever your mind comes up with will be one hundred times worse than any explanation I might give you.

M: “Community.” “by having people share and gossip and theorize, the story became so much greater than their single paths.”

No shit I love this. And not only when someone pushes too far and breaks their own heart by being curious *cough*shokujin*cough* but also when people come up with their own headcanons, fanfics, fan comics. Reading my babies’ words through someone else’s creation blows my mind, I’m not kidding. It’s almost dissociative. Also, I write fanfiction, I read it, I’ve made fan comics and art and I know the amount of work and love that you guys pour into it and it’s always super flattering.

All in all, I guess our approaches were pretty similar. I could talk about this for days, that’s why I chose to keep it as close to Malin’s comment as I could.