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Telepath: SoG - Dialogue Trees, Voice Actor Interview

by Dhruin, 2010-10-11 09:56:03

Craig from Sinister Design writes about some of the limitations of dialogue trees and his plans to include good ol' text parsing in Telepath RPG: SoG:

Writing nonlinear RPG dialog is a challenge. It is no simple matter to provide conversation options that simultaneously feel satisfying, are diverse enough to let the player role play, and which still fit well within the dialog tree itself.

There are technical limitations to consider. For any given branch, you can only fit so many reply options onto the screen at once. And at least one of those will usually be taken up by an “exit ramp” (a reply that ends the conversation)–as a principle of good design, one ought to include exit ramps at frequent intervals so the player is never trapped in a conversation that she (or the character she is playing) doesn’t want to continue having.

Because of these limitations, some situations simply aren’t well suited to the dialog tree format: for instance, answering a riddle or guessing a password. Passwords and riddles are good to include in an RPG because they allow for different types of puzzles. A locked door in an RPG might be opened by bashing it in, finding the key, convincing someone else to open it, and so on. But requiring the solution to a riddle in order to pass adds another layer to the proceedings. The player has to collect clues and make deductions in order to arrive at a solution. It’s a different type of challenge.

There's also an interview with another voice actor, playing the role of Malis.

Information about

Telepath: SoG

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Steampunk
Genre: Strategy-RPG
Platform: Unknown
Release: Released


Details