Happy 4th of July! 🙂
After playing any of the Arvale games, many people have asked me Why/How Wheelbarrows?
The honest answer is: it was funny.
I was editing the maps and adding all sorts of clickable things in the towns, things that people are usually doing in an RPG to search for hidden potions and whatnot; when I wondered…
What if instead of ‘You’ve found a Potion!’ or ‘You found 50 Gold!’, it actually said more interesting:
‘Your hands sift through the bag of rice (while the storekeeper isn’t looking, of course) and you disturbed the cockroaches sleeping inside… but you didn’t find anything worth taking.’
Then using that concept to make comments about the character’s current environment (similar to an old Graphic Adventure):
‘You peer off into the distance behind Highwatch Castle.’
‘It’s very dark, gloomy, and wicked looking.’
‘You smile and take some comfort knowing that the game won’t allow you to visit up there.’ (I still like that one 🙂 )
And the next logical step of course would be, Why on earth would someone click on a Wheelbarrow? Either they
a) are looking for hidden treasure (boring)
b) are crazy (interesting)
c) think their character is crazy and thinks he can talk to wheelbarrows (funny)
d) think their character might be crazy, and has a long standing rapport with wheelbarrows and actually interacts with them (damn funny) and somehow:
‘You vocalize your beliefs about the class structure in Kytar to the wheelbarrow.’
‘You exchange knowing glances with the wheelbarrow.’
‘You teach the wheelbarrow a few new tricks.’
Simple lines like these are hilarious even 15 hours into the game. 🙂
Oh and rooms like this:
Were a nightmare for me. 😉