Devlog #15 - Girl Talk

heyyyyy it's a check in from your favorite chickens. we've been hard at work on the dialogue update, which is admittedly not a very glamorous process and there's not a ton to talk about that we didn't cover in the devlog about the dialogue studio. but we're just about at our halfway point, so we thought it'd be a good idea to share some of our favorite additions, and talk about some new flags and changes!

a big one is a new trigger: "DEAL_CONVO". you may recall from our survey about dialogue that we asked when you'd want longer conversations to trigger. the way it currently works (with what little we'd written) is that there's always a chance for a longer conversation to trigger during the deal phase, in between all the "gimme a card" variations every character has.

now, it's going to be a rare chance that at the end of each deal round, the characters may start talking to each other. this is where we'll have them talk about their lives, hobbies, or each other--stuff that'll let you get to know them and their dynamics a bit better.

here's one between meredith and noriko:

and one between rosalie and joker:

we've written a whole lot of these so far and it's been a Ton of fun. but we've also taken a look at where the characters needed more dialogue. we were stunned to discover that for a lot of the triggers (got a good hand? lost a round? pulled a natural 21?) the characters only had like, 3-5 lines. that's NOTHING. so we've been working on padding things out a bit better. one of the big ones is the START dialogue--the first things the characters say to you when the game begins.

here's one from prill that takes advantage of the new "PRESENT" flag. the characters now know who's at the table with them, or in this case, who's not!

possibly the biggest change we'll be making with this update is that the gamblers can now... actually win money. one of the questions that's come up a lot (and has been plaguing Us in turn) was "why do they stay at the table when they run out of money if they can't actually earn more? why don't they leave?"

the answer is now: they Can [LG: again]. gamblers can now continue earning money after they start stripping, and leave the table when they reach a winnings threshold, different to each character. each item of clothing will be assigned a monetary value, and can be offered as collateral on a bet. for example, if syd bets her boots and wins, she'll get money And keep her boots. but if she bets her boots and loses... there go the boots! during the strip phase, any money they earn, they get to keep, so while things will get spicier, they'll also get riskier for you as the dealer. you don't want them to hit that threshold before you've totally stripped them!

but if they do... we've got dialogue for that too.

we'll definitely be looking for feedback on this new mechanic once it's been added, so look forward to that! it should add a level of challenge to the game it was somewhat lacking (and therefore make it easier to lose and get the joker scenes! which will be relevant for this update as well...)

so far we've added roughly 293 new dialogue nodes, and our goal is to double that by the time the update is complete. we want this game to feel RICH. thank you for your patience as we plug away at it!

--TT