I made a tiny playable prototype for my game that transports a middle-aged divorced man named Vincent into the world of Romeo and Juliet. “Oh so it’s a romeo and juliet isekai.”
[Image of playtest, where the player is making an important choice. (thank you lucas!)]
The prototype takes you through the first few scenes of Vincent fighting with his wife and then the first few scenes of Romeo and Juliet meeting, a flashback to Vincent in an argument with his wife. and then eventually dying.
During my playtest, the player noted that the choices seemed to be less impactful on the narrative than they wanted. Specifically they wanted to see more complex choices than have choices where one felt like the “obvious” choice. They also mentioned how the paper prototype signaled to them that their choice wasn’t going to impact the storyline very much because there were only so many papers. I didn’t think about this format playing into the actual experience of the game, so this was an interesting note. Even so, they felt like they had good context for what was happening in the game (despite no explanation from me before they started playing). And also mentioned the drawings helped add to their experience of the changing worlds and differentiating from flashback and current world.
Based on this playtest I want to add more of the storyline and how the main character actually directly influences the story of Romeo and Juliet. I also want to think more about how involved their character will be and think about why it makes sense for them to exist in this world. In the playtest they are sort of magically dropped there and the player noted wanting to know more about why or how that happened. I think I need to think more about the specifics of these things rather than leaving it up to the magic of the game, so that the player can understand the world a bit better. I was also thinking about including more of the reactive narration aspects we talked about in class today, and how I can strengthen the details in between flashbacks and real world to differentiate how the character is acting in each situation.
