Iterate Yes/No mechanic as per Cara's suggestion (see footer).
[x] Replace Yes/No buttons with dialogue choices (see screenshot)
[x] Modify event json file to incorporate this dialogue
[x] As a placeholder pass, just add the dialogue "Yes" and "No" to the relevant choices
[x] Do not add this to the Master branch until Cara has completed a full first pass of Chapter 1 events
Cara's Email
I also have a minor concern to raise here. Over the course of writing the narrative, I felt that the "Yes/No" dichotomy of the answers was very restrictive for the narrative. At first I felt that perhaps I could write around it, but playing the demo of this Chapter One solidified my concerns. I think there is also a relatively easy solution to this, though not as simple as the Yes/No. The gist of it is this:
A "Yes/No" binary causes leading questions. "Do your homework? Yes/No" is a choice that almost anyone would say 'Yes'. Whereas, "Do your homework or spend time with your girlfriend?" is a choice that presents a second option that sounds more appealing. The first choice asks "Do you want to be a good, responsible person? Yes/No" and the second choice presents a decision between two activities.
The goal of the game is to trigger learning in the player. If there isn't temptation or tension between two choices, the player won't learn more than they already know. Everyone knows they should do their homework. The problem is when you would rather do a more pleasurable activity instead. Keeping the Yes/No dichotomy doesn't offer many learning opportunities.
Removing Yes/No allows for more interesting scenario outcomes with minimal coding effort. Take the power outage scenario - as written, the power goes out. If the player has high mindfulness this doesn't negatively affect them, but if the player has low mindfulness this upsets them. In other words, this is an event without choice. If we remove the yes/no dichotomy, instead you can choose between "Redo your work" or "Call it a night." Then, with high mindfulness, the player is able to redo their work. Without it, the player gets upset and gets nothing done, and would have been better off taking a break for the night. That way, the player is penalized for not minding their emotional state in the moment of making a choice rather than penalized for having low mindfulness upon entering the event.
The solution to this problem would be keeping the two option functionality of the game as it exists, and then "wallpapering" over individual choices for each event. So essentially, rather than a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" icon, replacing those two icons with words that represent your two choices: "Homework/Relax" or "Skylar/Work." By spelling out the choice we're asking the player to make, it becomes a conscious decision between what they value in the moment, rather than an automatic decision based on what will win them the game.
Iterate Yes/No mechanic as per Cara's suggestion (see footer).
Cara's Email