Leaning into Horror - Devlog #4

Current game word count: 19,359 (+ 3041 since last devlog)

Another productive week has passed! Among bug fixes, spelling corrections, a few rewrites and GUI improvements, the story has also continued along at a nice pace. Although I hadn't considered it before, I might release some kind of demo in the near future since where I am now in the story has a pretty cool cliffhanger attached to it. Gotta hook those players (i.e. you), right? :)

And speaking of players... something I find super interesting (and equal parts fun and frustrating) is that I've been putting myself more and more into the mindset of an actual developer. What I mean by that is, I'll think stuff like "What will people do here?" - "What if people don't want to progress here?" - etc...

When I started the game I was mostly just doing it, you know? And now I'm thinking more and more about how others will "do it"; by which I mean "play it". This is tough! Because of course I want people to play it, and hopefully like it, but I also have a vision that I don't want to deviate from. If I listen too much to others, the game will just become run-of-the-mill (or so I fear), but if I listen too little it might end up feeling self-indulgent and, even worse, boring. It's a fine line to balance! And this, too, is one of the reasons why I think a demo, for playtest purposes, is forthcoming.

One of the aspects that I'm very curious about how people will react to is the game's horror elements. Let's talk about that for a bit.

Beware: minor spoilers for Meanwhile in Riva ahead.

Horror in visual novels

A bit into the game, you'll get a call from this guy, Cam. One of your five friends/potential love interests. He wants to meet you and talk about something private. For context, your character is haunted at night by a strange, black shape which you simply call "The Phantom". It has recently been revealed that some of your other friends have also had paranormal experiences. He proceeds to tell you about his night, and the next segment is revealed through his point of view (switching POV characters is a narrative device that I'm very fond of).

At this point, the game's atmosphere switches completely. Eerie music and sound effects take over as Cam tells the story of what happened to him last night. I don't want to spoil what he sees here for you, but suffice to say that it made my wife (who is my poor playtester) almost fell off her seat. Which brings me to the next point...

The joy of scaring

While it is extremely fun for me to see my work have an effect on someone, this sort of thing makes me question the game's, and my own, intentions. My wife thinks horror is pretty cool, and so she liked it, both the psychological aspect of it and the jumping effect of it (yes, there are some jump scares in the game as of right now). But she also expressed worry about what my potential audience might think, and rightfully so.

Is Meanwhile in Riva a horror game? No. Does it have horror elements? Yes. Are these horror elements enough to deter someone who might otherwise like the game? I don't know. That's the tough part.

See where I'm going with this? It's a true dilemma, which I imagine many developers who mix genres encounter at some point. I could make these events skippable, but so much story and atmosphere is presented. I feel like a lot of the game would be taken away if a player could instead simply get a short text summary. But maybe that's the way to go?

I believe from the bottom of my heart that if you're willing to sit down and read a few 100k+ words, you'll enjoy my game. But that's easy for me to say, I'm making it! And I love how I mix and match stuff in it. So maybe these thoughts are unnecessary, because in the end you like what you like? I'm not making a AAA game that needs to sell millions, I'm making my creative vision a reality.

So, to quote my good friend Emil,

"People are just gonna have to deal."

Indeed, indeed...!

Thank you for reading, and have a Riva-tastic day! <3

/Tymedust