Tutorial #2 Skills (1/2) (Patreon)

Let's talk about skills, there are 26 of them in total and there will be more, probably.

I want the player to have freedom of choice. To achieve this, I added skills as a resource that can be used to solve problems. There are other resources: money, health, Alice's power, friends, etc.

Many quests will have multiple solutions and it's good to have some reserve on these resources to have more options, but not necessarily.

You can play as you like and still get the desired ending. For example, the game can be played without ever using Alice's power, although in some moments it will be very useful.

By adding skills, I wanted to meet 2 conditions:

1. They should not interfere with a player who just wants to play a regular visual novel.

2. They should be easy to level up, without boring grind.

I think I managed to fulfill these conditions for the most part.

How to upgrade skills?

There are skills(traits) that reflect the behavior of the character. There are 10 of them, I already mentioned them earlier: Aggressive, Stoic, Shady, Smartass, Honest, Benevolent, Passionate, Rational, Diplomatic, Cruel.

Every time you react in one way or another in some situation, you increase the corresponding trait. These skills affect the gameplay more than others, as you will have more options in the dialogues corresponding to your character and style of play.

You can't avoid to level up them, since you have to choose something each time, right?

You can't be Kind and Cruel at the same time. Sooner or later, you will be locked in three main and two secondary character traits.

Next, there are skills that are tied to the plot and are upgraded only during quests. So you definitely won't miss them and the process of leveling up is also connected with interesting adventures.

And finally, the third type is skills that are upgraded when you use them or fail to use them. As they say, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Fighting, dancing, stealth, etc. Basically, these are additional skills, and you can completely ignore them, but sometimes they can be useful.

Whether you need them - decide for yourself.

We'll talk about how to use skills next time.

P.S. There are some technical problems on Patreon with adding images from several countries, including mine. Only attachment available, sorry about that.