I actually don't really like to write things, but after playing this game, I always have some ideas in my head, so I feel that I can simply write them down and organize them.
After playing the demo, the game showed beautiful graphics and expressed themes that resonated very much. The game's trailer and demo are very direct to give the player the most core experience. I didn't lose the desire to explore the whole game because I had already experienced the core of the game. It should be because I am the target core player of this type of game, and others should have a different demo experience. Of course, there are also many game demos that have lost interest after playing, because I already know what kind of experience the game will give me, and these experiences, after a short contact, there is no greater curiosity and do not want to continue this experience.
At the heart of the game is: business - story - parting. Parting sounds more like the end of the story, but from a game design standpoint, parting is actually the beginning of the story. How to face the parting is the initial point of the game, around this point, the game is designed to explain how to let go from different aspects, and finally calmly face the departing character and promote the character's change of mood in the face of the upcoming parting. At the same time, the game designs "trivial" tasks in order to establish, strengthen, and consolidate the emotional bond between the protagonist and each character, and the management gameplay is also designed for this emotional bond. Through "repetition" to grind out a sense of connection.
Building the gameplay of the business, I personally feel that in this game as one of the elements to promote the development of the game and establish emotional connections, it has made a good service. The gameplay of the operation is picked up, and the playability is also sufficient. But at the same time, I think the gameplay is good, but it seems that after stripping or designing other gameplay, it has no impact on the expression of the game theme, and the gameplay actually does not have a strong service to the core theme of the game. Players don't build a lot of houses and weave a lot of cloth to deepen their connection with other game characters. The business gameplay is more about providing a way for the player to play. Of course, there are still ways to play that can bring a sense of connection, such as cooking, which is a peer-to-peer emotional exchange, so it is still more effective.
So, we can think about the question, if we want to strengthen the connection between the protagonist (player) and the game character, what else can we try? One of my thoughts is "shared experience". Experience the past between the game's characters together. For example, personal favorite interactions are sawing trees with kittens, helping elderly Alice walk, and so on. The protagonists in the game do participate in the experience events of each character, but they are more obedient, and there are not many opportunities to cooperate with each other to complete an event. In the story of Xiao Xia (Snake), the player helps Xiao Xia overcome the fear of the "dragon" in his heart and bravely accept it. Although Xiao Xia completed the change of mentality with the help of the protagonist, the inner change process, the words did not express it strongly. Personally, I think it is possible to design a process for Xiaoxia and the protagonist to work together to complete the fight against the "dragon" and help the sea dragon to remove the root of the disease, and feel the change of Xiaoxia's mental state in the interaction. One example of what I think more closely in the game is one of the tasks that the protagonist and Xiao Xia accomplish together - meditating in the mountains, and I feel that at this moment the two characters are a community experiencing this moment together. After experiencing these moments of having you and me, the inner changes in the character can be transmitted to the player more deeply and reasonably.
So what kind of interaction can make Xiao Xia and the protagonist have a stronger sense of connection? While designing the gameplay, we want to combine a passage from Xiao Xia.
"Some people think that meditation is the pursuit of hollowing out the mind. But it is impossible to let go of the mind. It is a beast, savage and fierce, violent but full of care. Hatred, curiosity, fear, both destructive and loving. Just like a dragon, it is uncontrolled and you must let it soar freely. ”
Because of the design factor (illness) of the character of Xiaoxia in the game, it is not suitable for Xiaoxia to make violent and exaggerated actions. At the same time, Xiaoxia herself likes to meditate, and I think it can be designed to resemble the picture structure of the meditation task: Xiaoxia meditates in the mountains, and the text symbolizing Xiaoxia's inner activity will appear in the open space on the right. Different words have different emotional colors, and the protagonist needs to jump to the text that appears, and press different keys according to the emotion of the text to be jumped. If the pair is pressed, the reward is made. If pressed wrong, it will fall, but when it is about to fall off the screen, the dragon will appear and save the protagonist. Sometimes dragons appear to disrupt the protagonist's jumps. Here you can echo the setting of the dragon in Xiao Xia's lines. The player fails or successfully presses the key, without designing scores or material rewards or punishments, I think it is more appropriate to change the determination or pain of Xiao Xia's expression according to the success of the button.
The above is just a small game designed by myself according to my own ideas, not necessarily a good game design, but I think it can strengthen the emotional connection between the protagonist and Xiao Xia. If you have a better design idea, you are very welcome to discuss it.
Let me just write about it here. Writing these ideas is not to say that the game is not good or the feelings are not in place, but just to talk about how you might design according to your own ideas.