"You are the MC" games-How much First Person is too much First Person?

HopesGaming

The Godfather
Game Developer
Dec 21, 2017
1,702
15,280
Hey there FranceToast. Nice to see you're trying to make a game.

My preference is all about how the story is.
If it's with minimal/no story -> only first person. I don't need to learn anything about the mc, and hence he can be visualized as "me."
If it's heavy story -> can honestly be both. All depends on how well written it is.

I use a mix of both perspectives. Depends on the scene and events. But the only reason why I have done that is that the mc is not an avatar that is supposed to be you, but rather someone with a backstory and character-depth. The players are then supposed to shape the mc the way they want him to become on his journey.
 

FranceToast

Active Member
Donor
Jul 31, 2018
562
894
Hey HopesGaming!
Well your game is way out there in terms of being aspirational, LOL. I mean, you have a great story and engaging characters for a pure VN if you wanted, and a whole progression/game/life-sim built *alongside* the whole thing, which is pretty unique.

But this does bring up an important point-I can still 'relate' to the main character in your game, despite it not being 'me', and despite him having his own origin story and motivations. I do kind of regret setting up those cameras now though, lol, I don't want to disappoint my new family.
 

desmosome

Conversation Conqueror
Sep 5, 2018
6,008
13,880
I dont think any one type of presentation is better than another as long as the game is developed consistently with the POV in mind. In most games, adult or otherwise, you are generally playing the role of a preset character with some roleplaying element thrown in. Its probably much easier to write a compelling plot with this type of approach since it opens up any type of POV, narrator, and scenes where the MC isnt present. I think a lot of people would still consider this as "you are the MC," but maybe you are thinking of a more strict definition.

A big problem with the MC being the avatar of the player is that there is no character creator for these rendered CG games. This plays kind of a big role in the immersion i think and limits the POV to 1st person/3rd person backside view.

So if you want to frame the story as if the player was really the MC
1) 1st person predominantly with some 3rd person view form the back during sex scenes

2) Whether internal thoughts are acceptable depends entirely on the writer. "Oh my god, my sister's ass is so fine." "Im so horny right now." This kind of stuff is crap really. If the writing is good, a mix of actual thoughts and narration of MC's feelings do not take away too much from the immersion and adds to the story if used sparingly and appropriately.

3) You shouldnt be able to read other characters thoughts in this type of game, but you could read their reactions. "You see her smiling." Or "She seemed frightened by that exchange."

4) This one can be ok if it adds to the story. You can still have an omniscient narrator but frame the game in strictly 1st person POV i think. I guess this depends more on how you want the plot to play out and what kind of story you want to tell. Tbh its probably hard to tell a good story when all you have is the POV of the MC. cRPGs like baldurs gate or pillars use omniscient narrator and that doesnt make the game any less immersive. Which brings us to the biggest hurdle for MC being the player's avatar....

You need ALOT of text variations. Notice how in pretty much all cRPGs, the MC doesnt say anything unless you choose what to say. In these games, you also have companions most of the time who can do alot of the talking for you. Its probably nearly impossible to do something like that for a VN, but there should be at least one dialogue choice prompt for every major conversation which drives the rest of the dialogue for that encounter. A very robust morality/karma system is probably needed along with relationship scores.

I dont know why I wrote so much since I dont know anything about game development though lol.
 

FranceToast

Active Member
Donor
Jul 31, 2018
562
894
3) You shouldnt be able to read other characters thoughts in this type of game, but you could read their reactions. "You see her smiling." Or "She seemed frightened by that exchange."
So, maybe the upper right hand corner 'hints' in Acting Lessons are similar to this-maybe text in conjunction with the CG expressions to make sure the player is reading my crap rendered expressions correctly.

I dont know why I wrote so much since I dont know anything about game development though lol.
It was perfect and if you want to keep going please do-look how much I wrote and I don't know a thing yet.
 
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Retro

Retired
Former Staff
Sep 7, 2017
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I personally prefer where its a mix of first person with 3rd person but your face is obscured. One of my pet peeves in games that have a hard 100% FPS rule is when the girl kisses you and their mouth and tongue takes up the whole screen as if they're kissing your eyeballs (or the camera is in your mouth). Creeps me the fuck out.
 

FranceToast

Active Member
Donor
Jul 31, 2018
562
894
I personally prefer where its a mix of first person with 3rd person but your face is obscured. One of my pet peeves in games that have a hard 100% FPS rule is when the girl kisses you and their mouth and tongue takes up the whole screen as if they're kissing your eyeballs (or the camera is in your mouth). Creeps me the fuck out.
LOL! The whole kissing thing in FPPOV is tough-I like how kiss is that smooch lips expression, and FRENCH kiss is that tongue comin' for you.

If you have any good examples of kissing rendered/staged well, let me know :)
 

Domiek

In a Scent
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 19, 2018
1,902
9,573
I assure you, I am completely ignorant of just how much work goes into this stuff, LOL!
The best advice I can give is to "just do it". I spent 6 months learning Daz, 3dcoat, coding, etc before releasing version 0.1 of my game. I thought I was prepared, watched story telling tutorials, read writing prompts, researched camera direction etc. I was wrong.

Until you start making your game, there is another 25-50% of stuff you'll run into that you've never thought about. My 4th release is coming out in a couple of weeks and I already have a growing list of "lessons learned" too apply for the next game.

Maybe just create a short story first, something you can finish in a few months and get a taste of how things are done most suitably for you.
 

Johnny-Doe

Oh Yes Daddy™︎
Donor
Game Developer
Aug 12, 2018
1,236
12,260
So, maybe the upper right hand corner 'hints' in Acting Lessons are similar to this-maybe text in conjunction with the CG expressions to make sure the player is reading my crap rendered expressions correctly.
Exactly!
Life is Strange did that and Acting Lessons used it as well,its the best of both worlds imo
 
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