Steamberry Studio

Unlockable or Chooseable Route

Added 2019-05-08 15:00:02 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone - just a quick poll to see your opinions on a thing!

We were thinking of having a hidden/unlockable route in Endgame. This route would only unlock as an option if the player had played through at least three other specific routes. (So, for instance, you'd have to play Magnus, Jack, and Caissa - and potentially any other routes that Lance's route would spoil).

But I was thinking about how much I hate forced play order myself.

I mean, first of all - I honestly don't care that much about spoilers of specific reveals. I kind of feel that the journey is the important part, not the reveal. Also, I hate having to play characters I'm not interested in prior to playing characters I *am* interested in. Sometimes I dislike a character so much I don't want to play his route at all - and if I have to do it to unlock another character, it makes me cranky.

So I was wondering if players would prefer a scenario where if they choose the "spoilery" route, they get a pop up that just warns them "Hey! You're about to start a route that contains some spoilers for other routes. Please be aware if you play this route first, the impact of certain plot reveals in Magnus, Caissa and Jack's route may be lessened. Do you want to continue??"

Then the player can choose what to do.

I feel like this is more immersion breaking, but it also gives the player control over what they play first. If they don't mind spoilers then they can choose to continue without having played the other routes first. But if they are someone who prefers to avoid spoilers...they can just go back and make a different choice.

So basically, the options are:

Enforce a loose play order by not allowing the player to enter Lance's route until they have played certain other routes first.

Once a player enters into Lance's route, they are warned about spoilers and prompted to continue or go back.

Thoughts?