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Open world RPG design notes from Enderal, a big long Skyrim mod

Radiator Blog

Whenever an NPC is about to dump backstory and exposition on you, they'll ask you to take a seat. This is a convenient diegetic way of locking the player in-place for a cutscene, while also priming the player for an extended cutscene. Diegetically, the NPC has to prepare a machine or potion, or get supplies, or whatever.

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A day in the life of a narrative designer

Game Global

When you imagine doing this job, is it mostly about crafting amazing cutscenes? How can I get this NPC to convey a specific emotion if I don’t have that specific animation in my toolbox? What is Narrative Design? Beautiful shots of heartfelt dialogue, with characters saying a great deal by speaking a few carefully chosen words?

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Indie game capsule reviews: Immortality, Wayward Strand, Cult of the Lamb, Betrayal at Club Low, Atuel

Radiator Blog

This isn't a big apocalyptic video game betrayal cutscene where a villain reveals himself and destroys a castle, instead it's a smaller deeper betrayal that instantly brought me back to being a teenager. Gradually all these advancements and upgrades add up to a NPC-driven town that can maintain and feed itself automatically.

Indy 52
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Darner's Digest, vol. 3: on the Yarn Spinner v2.0 release + a YS primer

Radiator Blog

Some games do all their cutscene scripting and even enemy AI in Yarn Spinner, because really, it's just a simple scripting language that does whatever you tell it to do. Nothing stops you from adding more commands, functions, markup tags, or new ways to process the script. // custom NPC AI script example?

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The joys of the anti-farm sim: "Before the Green Moon" by turnfollow

Radiator Blog

But the game doesn't tutorialize this or dispatch an NPC to spell it out. The game never says "each NPC has a favorite type of gift item type, and you should equip it and talk to them", you have to guess that this mechanic exists from playing previous farming games or just out of sheer luck. You're just an NPC in their story.

NPC 59
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The Lost Ark Has Found its Way

Deconstructor of Fun

Animation: Two perspectives, the separation of cloud and mud Lost Ark has a sincere visual performance, among which are various cutscenes from a top-down perspective. Despite the game’s powerful use of top-down view, the live cutscenes of Lost Ark are full of bugs. The rough cutscene). The grand scene).

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Deathloop deconstruction / design thoughts

Radiator Blog

NOT telekinesis, only works on NPCs / PvP) Havoc (temporary shield / damage buff), very useful for people who keep dying (i.e. me) or PvP buff but conceptually rather boring Aether (cloak + invisible to laser sensors, attacks cancel it, can be upgraded to only consume mana while moving). It would feel terrible.