The future of "Where They Fall"
Where They Fall » Devlog
Hello from the Manateam!
Thanks again everyone for playing "Where They Fall" and having voted us one of the top games from the GMTK Jam! We are still overwhelmed by the many positive comments you have left us in the last few days. Since many of you said that they would like to see more of our game, it made us think if -hypothetically- we were to continue development on "Where They Fall", what would you like to see in a full release?
Have a nice day and keep on divining the will of the gods,
- Stefan
Get Where They Fall
Where They Fall
Throw the runes and find out what the gods intent
| Status | Released |
| Author | Manatea |
| Genre | Puzzle |
| Tags | Atmospheric, First-Person, storygame |
Comments
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The concept is incredibly creative. The full release would benefit from a bigger and longer story that doesn't only include questions about war, but also about diplomacy, village development, intra-tribal conflicts like whether to punish/exile someone. It would be nice to have more feedback on how correct we were in our interpretation. I don't know if the chief should be more specific by telling us which prediction was wrong (hinting at a branching path if we had made a different decision) or if the game should communicate that somehow. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the fun is in the vagueness.
Also, as deadvoy suggested: it would be good to have non-seeing gameplay where you talk with the members of the tribe and see how the village is developing. When the chief asks questions like who should lead the raid, it would be really good if we have met all the people mentioned and we know details about them since we talked to them: Maybe one of the proposed raid leaders is a character from northern, cold territories and on the board we spot Fehu(Prosperity) touching with Hagalaz(Ice) so we know he is the right choice to lead the raid...
It would be nice to have the chief ask questions that have more long term implications, like for example, he asks you what to do with the new haul of lumber, and you could interpret that the gods demand a new shrine/totem, in exchange for which they will reveal to you a new symbol for your seeing stones that makes seeing easier and less vague, or you could interpret that the lumber should be used for bolstering the village defenses, which gives you more leeway when interpreting the outcome of a village siege later in the future.
Maybe the we, as the see, are a character with our own needs and we need to do readings for the individual tribe members in exchange for food and clothing... Kind of like papers please, but no timer please.
Hmm.. Maybe a level where you are kidnapped by the Romans and you have to give them false information?
cool but maybe not hard
this game is great, the feeling of the next part starting and not being sure whether I did it right or not was one of the best feelings it could give.
the only complaint I do have is not knowing what the board means. it was great though and makes you think a lot of what it might mean. this would genuinely be a really fun puzzling game and makes you think through everything and could honestly be a full steam release
Hi! I just played through Where They Fall and absolutely loved it. In terms of things I would add, I would just say "more". I know it's a cop-out answer, but there's so much potential here and I'd be really excited to see where this style of game goes if taken further.
I did notice that the runes fall in the same place every playthrough, and while it would likely be a programming challenge, I think some added physics-based randomness to where the runes fall would add a lot of depth and replay value combined with a longer narrative and more scenarios.
That said, I have no experience in game design, so I don't really know if these additions are feasible are not. Keep up the good work!
I think the best thing I could say is just tell you what I loved about the game, I got really invested from the super immersive presentation, and also how simple 'reading' the runes is while talking more thought to really interpret, if you do make a longer game though, I feel like something to think about would be how, spending more time with the system of reading would let people get a lot more familiar with a lot of the, my favorite moment from the game was when they asked who should lead the night raid, I spent a lot of time looking over the board, until I looked at Fehu, and saw the 'sun' under it, and that really opened my eyes with how to look for things and what to look for and it's hard to tell if I would then get board or not if the game was a lot longer once I 'knew' what to do.
I think the simplicity of the system is one of it's biggest charms but potentially it's downfall in a longer form
more thoughts I've had as I can't stop thinking about this game, is that I think the narrative could be a really big part of an extended version too, the different paths are interesting, and I think can really add to the unsuredness of trying to 'divine the will of the gods' things happening like, maybe the answer from the gods gives a bad immediate effect, but changes things later that are much better, and could also lead to a path for players to choose of just trying to think of what would be the best option with common sense
I would suggest you use google form to collect ideas and desires for the future.
Now, about the game - I really enjoyed it, but since I only played it once I was left wondering how accurate I was with my "fortune-telling". It would be nice to add some diegetic way of saying that you as a player was "absolutely right"/"somewhat right"/"you've doomed us all!".
I feel this type of game is naturally goes great with deep story - it is possible to add story branches and/or a bunch of separate short stories that together tell the bigger story. At least I would take this game idea in this direction.
Complexity of "reading" should grow step-by-step until player is overwhelmed, sort of like Papers please did it. Maybe add timed reading to rise the tension when story needs it.
Maybe add some simple "non-reading" gameplay - talking with the tribe, studying and learning new tricks and new ways of "telling".
Hello there!
Great job in implementing multi-choice-multi-ending storyline!
I noticed that rune toss was a little predestined from above, thus the will of the gods was always the same in corresponding game phases.
I know it would be hard to balance however if rune toss be more random it could be magical feeling to correctly read gods will :)
Keep up great work!
Best regards
Bumbinu