Moral Choice- Looking for Feedback!

[DarkBooDev]

Hello everyone.


I was wondering if someone could give me feedback on my idea for the central game mechanics for my game, "Penelope".


In my game, the main character will be given the option to either save, slay, or assist 5 creatures in a sort of moral choice style system similar to the Mercy/Genocide route mechanics from Undertale, with the different options affecting primarily the endings but also reactions with other characters and the environment in the game, also kind of similar to the "Mary", "Garry", and "Doom" counters present in the game "Ib".


Additionally, my game will revolve around puzzles that the player will have to solve in order to progress, with most of these puzzles taking place in an alternate world similar to our own but possessing a dream-like quality to it. The puzzles will also be affected by the moral choices, with the character being able to skip entire puzzles outright if they make certain choices with regards to killing, saving, or assisting the creatures.


I was throwing around several ideas for these mechanics, including tying the moral choice system into the puzzles by giving them multiple solutions depending the players' choices, making them question-driven choices like in the game "Catherine", or keeping the puzzles self-contained from the moral choice aspect of the game.


If someone could give me feedback/ideas for the different puzzles and the moral choice system it would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you for taking the time to read my post, and have a great day.

 

[orochii]

Yeah, the puzzle by itself can be the way you make your choice. You need restrictions and some other variables that make one solution be easier but less rewarding, maybe. Or just different solutions, all equally hard, that appraise the player's cleverness.


Let's say you have a puzzle where you need to move a pillar out of a space. You can put it in three different places, each of them differing in how hard it is. You need to remove things from its path, you have something to limit your moves, maybe? And... yeah. So if you put the block in a certain space, it falls down and destroys an important item for someone. If you put it somewhere else, it flips a switch that electrocutes to death someone. If you put it at the top (?), it blocks something you need for a next puzzle.


Check what could come next, what your characters are and what they care for. And what your character cares. This could give you something to work with.

 

[RocketKnight]

Keep in mind the concept Evil/God it's the same coin with flipped faces, so depends the way you wanna play; Can be good, can be neutral, can be really mean, but in the end it's really doesn't matter they are just vision with different perspective,

 

[DarkBooDev]

Yeah, the puzzle by itself can be the way you make your choice. You need restrictions and some other variables that make one solution be easier but less rewarding, maybe. Or just different solutions, all equally hard, that appraise the player's cleverness.


Let's say you have a puzzle where you need to move a pillar out of a space. You can put it in three different places, each of them differing in how hard it is. You need to remove things from its path, you have something to limit your moves, maybe? And... yeah. So if you put the block in a certain space, it falls down and destroys an important item for someone. If you put it somewhere else, it flips a switch that electrocutes to death someone. If you put it at the top (?), it blocks something you need for a next puzzle.


Check what could come next, what your characters are and what they care for. And what your character cares. This could give you something to work with.

That's kinda what I was thinking, where you could be either benevolent or malicious in the world and that would ultimately affect what choice you have in dealing with the creature. Also, I wanted to play on the idea that the "True" path would be where you neither saved nor slaughtered the creature based on the task given to you by the different NPCs, but by listening to the creature itself and asking what it wants, leading to another puzzle, making it the "harder" but more rewarding route.

 

[DarkBooDev]

Keep in mind the concept Evil/God it's the same coin with flipped faces, so depends the way you wanna play; Can be good, can be neutral, can be really mean, but in the end it's really doesn't matter they are just vision with different perspective,

I really like this idea as well, and had incorporated it into the story. Both the "hero" NPC and the "villain" NPC have morals and justifications that can be seen as either evil or righteous. I'm currently working to see how I can incorporate that into gameplay.

 

[Bonkers]

Well instead of good and evil, there is chaos and logic.  If the player completes the puzzle in the intended way as opposed to subverting it or completing it in a non traditional sense that may be a good indicator to take a different route.  An example would be creating a puzzle that requires making a bridge, but choose to swim or jump across.  This clearly shows someone not following the laid down rules which the game establishes or infers.  


You mentioned the world having a dream like quality to it, why not allow the player to will the environment to suit them?  An example would be disbelieving a wall or obstacle exists.


While you may want to emulate Undertale, it's important to realize that you could potentially end up making it fall short of what you are intending.  The point--.


SPOILERS UNDER CUT

Spoiler

Sans is the clear judge for the player should they choose the genocide path, and following that would cause it to look too similar.


You could even have the player manipulate the puzzles to do the killing for them and turn them into traps.  Lots of possibilities.  

 

[DarkBooDev]

Well instead of good and evil, there is chaos and logic.  If the player completes the puzzle in the intended way as opposed to subverting it or completing it in a non traditional sense that may be a good indicator to take a different route.  An example would be creating a puzzle that requires making a bridge, but choose to swim or jump across.  This clearly shows someone not following the laid down rules which the game establishes or infers.  


You mentioned the world having a dream like quality to it, why not allow the player to will the environment to suit them?  An example would be disbelieving a wall or obstacle exists.


While you may want to emulate Undertale, it's important to realize that you could potentially end up making it fall short of what you are intending.  The point--.


SPOILERS UNDER CUT

Spoiler

Sans is the clear judge for the player should they choose the genocide path, and following that would cause it to look too similar.


You could even have the player manipulate the puzzles to do the killing for them and turn them into traps.  Lots of possibilities.  

Thank you very much for this feedback! I was having trouble deciding about emulating Undertale for this very reason. However, I differ in the fact that the alternate world I'm in is sort of like Purgatory/ not a paradise, but the hero NPC sees it as such and doesn't want it to fall apart, or have his dream fall apart *nudging at the main theme* and desires it to last forever, whereas the "villain" NPC views the world as a prison and a boring and meaningless place and longs to travel to a different world by destroying the current one. I don't want him to be as malicious as the genocidal force in Undertale, more like the "ends justify the means" archetype. There is more to this story, but I feel elaborating any more would be spoiling it.


I'm trying to plan it where the villain NPC influences the environment the player is in based on if their actions align with his morals, and he'll end up changing the puzzles to sort of "help" the main character, kind of like Flowey if you choose Genocide in Undertale. I would like the puzzles to follow that sort of duality though, if that makes some sort of sense, since the whole thing in Genocide Undertale is completely skipping the puzzles because you played by your own rules and not the rules of the game. In my game, I'd prefer the "play by your own rules" to be the true route, where you aren't subservient to either characters will.


The "dreaming away" of a wall is a VERY interesting idea, one I haven't even considered yet. Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[VicWhite]

We have seen about good and bad. What about slightly different choices? Ying and yang, Progress / Loyalist, Techinicity / Nature? It's just an opinion, but i hope it helps. Looking forward to know more about PENELOPE.