on writing games

slay the state

Slay the Princess takes reacting to the state very seriously.

Practically every major action you take has an impact on the story.

There are very subtle and interesting examples.

For instance, it’s not the same to attack the princess as soon as you enter the room as it is to try attacking her after you’ve been talking with her.

The game reacts to the fact that you take the time to talk to her.

Unfortunately, the game only uses boolean variables (true / false) to define the state. (except at certain times when it considers how many times you ‘revived’, but it’s not very relevant).

Despite this, it has so many other strong aspects that the fact we are just following one path or another doesn’t come across as a disadvantage, but undoubtedly it is a structure that has been seen a lot.

Narratively, I think the greatest value of this game lies precisely in its reaction to your actions.

I believe there isn’t a single action that doesn’t generate some kind of reaction, whether it be at the level of the story, or with the Achievements.

If I had to choose one thing to recommend about this game to any writer, it would be this.

Players expect the game to react to their actions, the more dramatic the action, the more dramatic the reaction they expect.

We should never forget this, let’s avoid the frustration of giving options that have no effect, please.