Ophidian Wars is designed to evoke the satisfaction we felt when playing the old school (classic) action/RPGs. But we're also aiming to advance the genre and offer players something innovative to chomp on. No point in simply trying to rehash what has already been done.
Inner Monologue (or "IM") is a new mechanic that revolves around the interaction between the player and your character's thought (in this case, Maya). Ever wonder what your character is thinking? Why can we usually see them talk, but not think?
For me, it seemed that the real portal to understanding and relating to a character is by understanding how they think. IM will allow players to view Maya's thoughts during her adventure - both while exploring the world AND while conversing with NPCs. The idea here is to offer greater depth to the player's adventure by enriching the exploration experience. By allowing the player to see how Maya thinks and reacts, you get a better sense of her, the world that she is traversing, and the other beings she encounters.
So while it's not entirely novel to clue players into a character's thoughts, the idea is to go a step further and build it out fully. It's one thing to add richness to the story/character progression by offering a window into the character's mind, but what about how it relates to actual gameplay?
Not only will players be able to observe Maya's thoughts, but an important gameplay element will be interacting with those thoughts. Paying attention to IM will help players learn and react to certain events, picking up clues as to how best handle situations. During conversation, Maya's thoughts may govern the dialogue and help you pick up on subtleties (i.e. "Why does he look so nervous?"). While exploring, IM may provide helpful clues, or warnings. It's up to the player how to react.
Functionally, the IM window will pop up directly above the dialogue window (as shown in pic). This allows players to quickly observe Maya's thoughts and if need be, react or take note as they choose.
Do you likey? Let us know what you think.
As we work more on the dialogue system, Craig has been tasked with creating portraits that we can use in the dialogue windows. I thought these two paricular portraits were cool as a pair because they really show the diversity of races in Ophidian Wars.
Meanwhile, Bryan is working through the complexities of dialogue tree system as well as the interaction of the "internal monologue" system. Put it all together, and we should have a nice clean, unique, and efficient method of relaying communication between the player and the characters. That makes it sounds way easier than it actually is. ;)
