Dev diary: Bangkok gameplay model
So far, Female Agent has been heavily scripted. You pass from one scene to the next in a predetermined order (e.g. you can’t visit Oceana before you visit Corinthian).
In Bangkok we want the player experience to move from control to freedom. You’ll have the freedom to decide your agent’s movements.
Here’s an example of how a typical gameplay loop might work:
Starting a new day
Your agent wakes up alone in her budget hostel. She drags her yoga mat out onto the balcony, and plans her day while she does her morning stretches.
She picks a daytime activity from a list. Today her options are:
Carry out surveillance on some Thai gangsters she’s investigating. (Allows her to advance this subplot; risks raising suspicion if she’s spotted.)
Go shopping (allows her to buy new clothes/other items).
Spend the day at Hua Hin beach (allows her to reduce her stress).
Train at a Muay Thai fight camp she discovered earlier in the game. (Allows her to increase her fighting skills and reduces stress).
Visit a tourist attraction. (Allows her to reduce her stress.)
Next, she picks a /nighttime/ activity. Tonight her only option is:
Work at The Hard Cock Cafe (because she has a shift booked).
Having planned her day, she picks the outfit and makeup she’ll wear to the first activity, and then travels to its location.
Location, location, location
Activities take place at locations. Each location has a number of repeatable things she can always do when she visits.
For example, at the beach she can always sunbathe (topless or not), swim, and rent a jet ski.
Each location may also have one or more side quests that may trigger when she visits. Side quests are unique storylines that appear once per game. Side quests can be short or long.
An example of a short side quest at the beach: an elderly swimmer gets in trouble in the water. The agent can attempt to save his life.
A longer side quest: some Royal Thai Air Force fighter pilots are playing volleyball next to her, Top Gun style. She can ignore them or flirt with them: if she gives one of them her number, she unlocks a series of dates with him.
Day/night progression
Once the agent has finished the daytime activity, she’ll segue to her chosen night-time activity. (In this example, she heads back to her budget hostel to shower and pack her stripper outfits for her work shift).
The night activity unfolds just like the day activity: each location has a repeatable gameplay loop and occasional side quests.
When the night activity is complete, she sleeps and the cycle repeats, perhaps with new options.
Adding new content
Our intent is to add new locations and side quests continually, packing the game with new options and new content. Eventually, Bangkok will contain limitless possibilities and surprises for you to enjoy.
Comments (8)
Ohhh modular exploration sounds awesome! =D
Sounds good so long as the morning balcony yoga can be done in the nude :P
Sounds great, I just hope the freedom has a good narrative heft to it. I find in a lot (most, really) of life sim games the novelty wears off quickly, and I become like Tank staring at the Matrix code: click here to raise stat x, then click here to increase money, repeat. The side quest system and continual content updates sound very promising, though! I'm hoping this will mean a lot of variety to the scenes with Kate's clients (maybe they'll even have *gasp* personalities!), as opposed to 'and now the exact same 3 page sex scene plays out for the 17th time'.
I'll be honest - this sounds like what I was hoping the next phase of content would entail. Sandbox plus scripted events you can trigger. Now, hopefully there are still hypnosis options in Bangkok... ;)
I must agree here that I prefer story-driven content over freedom of repetition. But maybe that's just because nobody has ever managed to do it in a manner that would make it very interesting. But with your writing skills, I got faith despite the concept.
Will some of these actions be more or less for increasing stats, while others will be scripted scenes? It might be just me, but I mostly found the repeated events in Newlife a bit boring... But that could be due to lack of material. Your scripted scenes are very good though, so I hope that Bangkok won't be completely different from the intro missions.
Here the tricky part will be to maintain things interesting despite the repetition
Yeah. My plan to address this is side quests, randomisation, and lots of locations. Fingers crossed.