After the ups and downs of the demo release, I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. I was going through the first few chapters the other day and I thought I’d write up a little post about some of the minigames I've already made. ^^

[Why minigames?]

Mostly for practical reasons. My game doesn’t have a narrator so the story progresses mainly through dialogue and visuals. I figured minigames might serve a narrative purpose as well.

That is to say, I definitely don’t want them to be overly challenging or frustrating to deal with. I realize a lot of people pick up visual novels for the story and not complicated mechanics. However, I do think a bit of interactivity goes a long way so I’m planning to include a few simple minigames to enrich the gameplay.

Here are examples of what I already have:

• Spell-crafting – a minigame in two parts. First, the player chooses spell ingredients according to the recipe, then casts using a timed bar.

• Spell defense – a mouse-operated QTE. The timing will be pretty forgiving as it’s mostly for story purposes.

• Shield casting – a clicking race against an emptying bar. Speed-wise, I’m definitely aiming at casual players.

• Room search – a little minigame for story purposes. The player can select an area to search and then click through the bar to progress.

• Simple clickables – mostly designed to let the player progress the story in a more immersive way.

These are obviously not polished (most of them don’t even have proper buttons yet), but the general concepts will probably not change.

Feel free to tell me what you think. ^^