In which our dev panics just a little.

Something I've saved for the last big push of the game build is the derby bouts* themselves (of which there will be four). It may have been a poor strategy, saving the most tedious parts for last, but here we are. Maybe I needed to get all the art and affection mechanics and endings and town maps to build the sunk cost to a point of no return. Anyway, I've been developing the individual minigame mechanics of these bouts for a while, and you do encounter most of them in the demo at team practices. So I've had things more or less planned out and built - all I have to do is piece together all the if-thens at bouts and plop in the quick time events. If you succeed or fail at one task, there's a branch. If you succeed or fail at the next task after that, there's a branch. And so on. So you can either rock a jam completely or fail it completely - or fall somewhere in between. Just like real derby, one good hit (or whiff) can change the entire dynamic of a jam. That's something I'd like to recreate, as painful as it is to punch in. I don't know if these branches encourage replayability per se, but it's nice to have some consequences, even if there is no proper game over.

 

Something I realized last night, while having my adoring husband test out a jam, is that one of the quick time events wasn't nearly responsive enough. He said he didn't find it fun. Panic set in. While I am pitching the game as story-rich, I'd still like the player to experience some of the fun and chaos of derby instead of just being led along on a leash. You spend a good hour and a half of gameplay building anticipation to play real derby! But if bouts simply aren't functional or enjoyable, then I would need to consider pruning back the minigames. I can't help but wonder if no gameplay is better than poor gameplay.

Thankfully, while I was collapsed in bed, face-down, with my hoodie pulled over my head, I did eventually come to realize how I could change the RPG Maker mechanics to be more responsive to the quick time event in question. Actually kind of an easy fix. This also leads to an improvement in one of the earlier minigames that "trains" you for the bout. So, sometimes, in the depths of despair, things do turn out for the better.

*The term "bout" hasn't been used as official derby parlance for several years, but saying "game" is too confusing in this context, so I'm calling them bouts. I'm definitely dating myself on this one.