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Disco Elysium is also a great example of a game that makes it easy to read massive swatches of text. The designers have openly stated that they borrowed the scr

Disco Elysium is also a great example of a game that makes it easy to read massive swatches of text. The designers have openly stated that they borrowed the scrolling-vertical-bar design from Twitter.

vmception 5y ago
Disagree. Way too much exposition. It's sad that I would even be expected to qualify this, given how much fervor this digital experience that is colloquially called a game has going for it. Would be better on Audible. Its hard to separate the text display from the experience itself, since it is so integral. But I don't think that UI is special or better, amongst so many other benign and functional examples out there.
- WastingMyTime89 5y ago
  It’s very much a classical story driven RPG so more or less an interactive novel interspersed with moment of movements through pretty illustrations. Still I think it’s very good in how it does exposition through the story (until the church part where the annoying fantasy tropes turn what was an awesome game into merely a very good one).
  - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
    Genuinely asking what is the annoying fantasy tropes that you were annoyed by in the church part? Did you even need to go to a church part to complete the game? I recall it being pretty out of the way and only considered it a trivial tidbit.
    - WastingMyTime89 5y ago
      It is not strictly necessary to complete no. The whole thing with the Pale frankly distracts for the main theme of the game. I find it of little interest as an allegorical device and the explanation dolled on you about it in the church makes me think it’s not even intended to be allegorical. I think it’s a distraction which contrary to the rest of the settings doesn’t really serve the story.
      - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
        I actually found the Pale to be one of the central themes to game. I mean, the protagonist to some degree Pale’d himself, and themes of memory and perception and the connection between people is also represented in the “religion” which is fundamentally based in the Pale (in which a religious figure is lauded for finding another piece of humanity to connect to through the memory-destroying Pale).
- polytely 5y ago
  >Would be better on Audible The whole point of the game is choosing who your character is by making choices? How would that ever work in audiobook form? For me, the main draw of games like Disco Elysium is the feeling of 'being a character in a world' it creates, which is a very different then how it would feel if it was a book instead.
anentropic 5y ago
Another little game that does this very well is Knights of San Francisco: https://egamebook.com/knights/ https://egamebook.com/knights/ Just the way they reveal the text phrase-by-phrase makes all the difference. I'm someone who wants to read all the text, but if they just dumped the whole paragraph in one go I wouldn't be able to stop myself skimming past it to the choices. And the restriction feels subtle enough to be unobtrusive. I wonder if these text-based games work best on mobile (as long as it's choice-based and you don't have to type). 80 Days is a good example. I thought Disco Elysium was very well written but the walking around gets a bit tedious and the graphical part was maybe under utilised.
cyber_kinetist 5y ago
It's also interesting to see that they've done the exact opposite of what the devs from Sunless Skies did from the article. The Sunless Skies devs thought that in their previous design the reading panel was too much on the right side and was discomforting to the players and moved to the center). Instead Disco Elysium moved all text to the right and made the whole presentation like a Twitter feed on the side.

vmception 5y ago

Disagree. Way too much exposition. It's sad that I would even be expected to qualify this, given how much fervor this digital experience that is colloquially called a game has going for it. Would be better on Audible. Its hard to separate the text display from the experience itself, since it is so integral. But I don't think that UI is special or better, amongst so many other benign and functional examples out there.

WastingMyTime89 5y ago
It’s very much a classical story driven RPG so more or less an interactive novel interspersed with moment of movements through pretty illustrations. Still I think it’s very good in how it does exposition through the story (until the church part where the annoying fantasy tropes turn what was an awesome game into merely a very good one).
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
  Genuinely asking what is the annoying fantasy tropes that you were annoyed by in the church part? Did you even need to go to a church part to complete the game? I recall it being pretty out of the way and only considered it a trivial tidbit.
  - WastingMyTime89 5y ago
    It is not strictly necessary to complete no. The whole thing with the Pale frankly distracts for the main theme of the game. I find it of little interest as an allegorical device and the explanation dolled on you about it in the church makes me think it’s not even intended to be allegorical. I think it’s a distraction which contrary to the rest of the settings doesn’t really serve the story.
    - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
      I actually found the Pale to be one of the central themes to game. I mean, the protagonist to some degree Pale’d himself, and themes of memory and perception and the connection between people is also represented in the “religion” which is fundamentally based in the Pale (in which a religious figure is lauded for finding another piece of humanity to connect to through the memory-destroying Pale).
polytely 5y ago
>Would be better on Audible The whole point of the game is choosing who your character is by making choices? How would that ever work in audiobook form? For me, the main draw of games like Disco Elysium is the feeling of 'being a character in a world' it creates, which is a very different then how it would feel if it was a book instead.

anentropic 5y ago

Another little game that does this very well is Knights of San Francisco: https://egamebook.com/knights/ https://egamebook.com/knights/ Just the way they reveal the text phrase-by-phrase makes all the difference. I'm someone who wants to read all the text, but if they just dumped the whole paragraph in one go I wouldn't be able to stop myself skimming past it to the choices. And the restriction feels subtle enough to be unobtrusive. I wonder if these text-based games work best on mobile (as long as it's choice-based and you don't have to type). 80 Days is a good example. I thought Disco Elysium was very well written but the walking around gets a bit tedious and the graphical part was maybe under utilised.

cyber_kinetist 5y ago

It's also interesting to see that they've done the exact opposite of what the devs from Sunless Skies did from the article. The Sunless Skies devs thought that in their previous design the reading panel was too much on the right side and was discomforting to the players and moved to the center). Instead Disco Elysium moved all text to the right and made the whole presentation like a Twitter feed on the side.