LudoNarraCon & Greetings!
Many of you discovered DOLOS: Your Best Future during LudoNarraCon. More than 2,000 users wishlisted the game and around 600 played the demo!
Many thanks for this! <3
There's no better way to launch a series of devlogs so that you can follow the game's development more closely, but also react to your comments and vice-versa.
By the way, we have a Discord server if you'd like to take part in playtesting the game!
Go for it!
Before getting to the heart of the matter, a quick introduction to the team.
Did you know that DOLOS: Your Best Future was created in 2018?
Yes, yes, it's been a long time.
Starting out as a student project at Paul Valery University (Montpellier - France) in the context of a social movement against a reform of the national education system, we've spent all these years
- learning how to use our tools properly,
- producing and improving our production processes,
- develop our business,
- develop our story and universe as universally as possible.
The basis of the project is developed by 3 members:
- Dimitri BALZAN - game & UI/UX designer, developer
- Julien VERGNE - game & narrative designer
- Marie-Lou HENRY-VIEL aka Graduge Prod - music & sound designer
Together we form the author collective PLAYING PARADIGMS.
If you'd like to find out more about us, we recommend our interview broadcast during LudoNarraCon. On request, we can also tell you more about the inspirations, origins and world of DOLOS: Your Best Future.
About our tools
The game is developed on Construct 2, a game engine with visual scripting for 2D games. It's a formidable engine for
- rapid prototyping thanks to intuitive ergonomics and a browser-based debugger,
- learning the basics of algorithms (used in some schools).
We use the engine in a more advanced way. With 17 years under its belt, Construct 2 boasts a large community that has contributed enormously to the development of plugins such as Canvas, which in DOLOS are used to animate flat motion design and draw complex interfaces.
The game's dialogues are written on the free software Twine with a "home-made" syntax so that Construct 2 displays messages according to a timeline and the player's in-game actions.
Finally, Excel. We used it extensively to write the probabilities used to generate all the DOLOS applicant data (more on this below). And generally speaking, if we had to sum up our game in one word, from our perspective, it would be "data". They're everywhere: to make the game, in the game and in the game world.
Demo Debrief
Since the release of the demo, we've had a lot of feedback, for which we'd like to thank you <3
We'd like to take a look back at the demo's main features, to help you preview the game in its entirety.
But first, a few important points:
- the demo is not representative of the game's final quality,
- the demo comprises half a level, leaving 2 central features to be discovered (see below),
- the game is at a more advanced stage of development than the demo,
- and plan to release at least one more demo.
Regarding our choices made for this demo:
- we chose half the level because we're improving the other half (which was recently tested on our Discord server)
- we chose level 3 rather than the beginning to demonstrate the game's full potential. It's also a practical choice, as it's easier for us to build up all the early/mid-game features than just a a few. We recognize the frustration of landing in the middle of a story. We'll be working on making future demos more accessible about that.
///////////////////////////////////// SPOILER ALERT /////////////////////////////////////
Everything that follows will reveal the overall content of the demo.
If you don't want to spoil your discovery of DOLOS: Your Best Future, we strongly recommend you stop reading... and play the demo? :D
///////////////////////////////////// SPOILER ALERT /////////////////////////////////////
A DOLOS mid game level contains the following core features:
- play DOLOS PHASE 1 - in the demo
- play DOLOS PHASE 2 - not in the demo
- send and receive messages on CONCORD - in the demo
- discover and follow priority applicants on EXODOLOS - in the demo
- read press articles in NEWS AGGREGATOR - not in the demo
Completing the 2 phases of DOLOS allows you not only to end the level but also to read the NEWS AGGREGATOR articles. So, technically, everything else besides DOLOS is secondary. It's up to you whether or not you're interested in EXODOLOS, whether or not you chat on CONCORD, whether or not you strictly follow DOLOS' instructions, but be aware that all this will have consequences for the rest of the story.
Finally, we're obviously planning additional features in the mid and late game, but you'll find out about that later. :D
About the demo features
> PHASE 1 of DOLOS
PHASE 1 is a management game in which you have to increase applicants' potential in order to reach a required average. In the game world, this is the phase in which you feed DOLOS with data, the complementary files. Applicants' scores are, according to DOLOS, their chances of succeeding in a given course (in the demo, Law). New data will come into play as you progress through the game's story.
The heart of the game is these complementary files: you have to guess which ones are likely to increase the potential. Each type of file has its own way of working which you need to understand by observing all its variations: variable values (3 or 0 subscription(s)), variable words (of good or bad quality) or even an addition of the two.
With the exception of the 3 EXODOLOS applicants, all applicant information is procedurally generated. So if you start a game again, you'll never find the same applicants, and you'll never be asked for the same average. In the demo, only Nabil, Samantha and Sophie's scores remain the same, but we're working on adapting them too, to keep the difficulty extremely controlled.
At present, it may be very difficult, if not impossible, to select the 3 EXODOLOS applicants in PHASE 1.
> EXP in DOLOS
It's a bit like your health points but in a company. If you're at 0 EXP or below at the end of a level (after PHASE 1 and 2), you're kicked out of Dolos Incorporated, you have to start the whole level over (game over).
EXP is lost or gained depending on the results at the end of each PHASE.
To summarize
- the faster you play and the more strictly you follow the rules, the more EXP you earn,
- the slower you play and bypass the rules, the more EXP you lose.
Finally, EXP is also earned by completing challenges, which are ingame (diegetic) achievements that increase in difficulty with each completion.
> Chatting on CONCORD
Most dialogues on CONCORD remain optional, as you don't need to read every message to advance the game. Better still, the characters you're chatting with aren't waiting for you. Our aim with CONCORD is to create a narrative as real time as possible, and in line with your actions in DOLOS.
Indeed, in the demo, your interlocutor reacts differently depending on how many EXODOLOS applicants you've selected, but it's just as possible not to download EXODOLOS, whether out of disagreement or forgetfulness, leading to other narrative branches.
Also, not responding is a choice like any other, with its own set of consequences. For example, by ignoring your interlocutor, he or she may be prompted to follow up, change the subject or just stop the conversation altogether. This is an important rule that we try to apply throughout the game.
Finally, you'll chat with more than one character in the final game. Already in the demo, the identity of the interlocutor is not the same according to your choices in the main menu. As the game is still in development, we plan to improve certain aspects of the dialogue system, to make it even more readable and dynamic.
> EXODOLOS and influencing DOLOS
EXODOLOS is the 4th application in the game, available from level 3, the demo level.
There's no need to download EXODOLOS, and you can even finish the whole game without it.
It's thanks to (or because of) EXODOLOS that the game becomes difficult.
Basically, each level asks you to help certain applicants disadvantaged by DOLOS who, without your intervention, will be working for life in jobs they didn't choose.
- Helping them means committing deviations in your work, which can cost you EXP in DOLOS (and get fired at worst case scenario).
- But helping them takes the scenario in other directions, starting with the future of these applicants, which is no longer the one foreseen by DOLOS.
What will you choose?
Among the EXODOLOS applicants are the decisive applicants (in the demo, Nabil, Samantha and Sophie). Like an "EXODOLOS' main quest", you receive a lot of biographical information about their lives. You may (or may not) feel empathy and a sense of injustice towards these applicants, which may (or may not) make you want to respect their wishes and thus fight internally against DOLOS. There will be around ten decisive applicants in the full game, and the fate of each of them will evolve according to your choices and as you progress through the game.
In addition, on the "Influences" tab, EXODOLOS delivers a more extensive list of these applicants, sorted according to their level of priority. Together, these applicants can lead the DOLOS learning algorithm to different narrative branches.
We're planning a "full-screen" mode for reading the biographies of the decisive applicants, as well as audio playback. But overall, EXODOLOS is the most finalized part of the game today.
What's next?
We're working on several projects at once.
But the most worrying of these is testing several levels in a row - the first ones - in order to
- produce a more initiatory demo,
- develop the save system,
- integrate and test the dialogues at the beginning of the game (already written).
In addition, each level has its share of micro-evolutions (such the new complementary files in PHASE 1) and therefore its bunch of micro-tests.
At the same time, we're correcting PHASE 2. Some elements will be simplified, while others will be added to increase the strategic aspect of the phase.
Most of you don't know it yet, but we can't wait to show it off!
The NEWS AGGREGATOR application will also be revealed in the next demo. It's been working well for a long time, but we'll have to come back to it to simplify the integration of translations (and therefore simplify the display a little too).
Finally, in the shorter term, we're planning a number of improvements to the features discussed in this devlog. So get ready for at least one update of the current demo.. The next devlog will cover this topic.
Until the next one!
The Playing Paradigms team