Yeah somehow the youtube links always embed gigantic here. Works for me though, cause I liked all those UI and presentation suggestions! Well done!
Even for someone pretty familiar with D&D and BG games, I found a lot of the stuff in char creation felt hard to parse with more back and forth than I would have liked. I also like that idea of asking the player some prompt type questions to help determine what kind of character they might enjoy. Or even better if those types of choices had knock on effects for the actual story paths in the campaign, so sorta taking the temperature or reading the room. If they player is say interest in a more heroic or a more villainous type of experience, or maybe heavy or light on say romance. Nudity and Gore is toggle on/off like we have to opt in, but they could probably have arranged a whole series of variables there that might have customized the gameplay to varying degrees. Maybe Gore is fine, but Spiders not so much, or Snakes, who knows, but the game could take stock of that without necessarily showing all the cards up front. I guess there's another sense in which as a player, I might not really know what I want until I see it, but I just like the idea that the game takes some sorta initial survey and then we get a gloss on it. Similar to how the Dream Guardian, or the Dream Lover from EA, could be used to gauge what sorts of visuals the player enjoys, and then maybe adapts that into various NPCs or people we meet along the way. That's more than just an interface thing I suppose, but think it's a cool concept and a way for the player to start teasing things out for themselves. I particularly liked the HUD suggestions and combat tutorial with the information staged out more.
One thing that is interesting to consider, regarding the usability or how many new players need to ask a friend or seek out information online about how to play or use feature X or whatever. Weirdly I think that may have been a boon for the sense of community that developed around the game. It's a little strange for a game that is mostly a Single Player experience probably, but rather than being intuitive but solipsistic, it's almost like the game was overly complex but also communitarian/friendly about the challenges of playing D&D. Like there are all these little opportunities for min/max and curious one off rules, insights or tips and advice, that players had to give each other, because it wasn't forthcoming in the tutorial or in the manual or particularly easy to spot maybe. The Wikis and encylopedia type stuff that is referenced outside the game for how to play the game, or play it well. That was kinda unique. Not sure if it worked out, but there is a sort of triumphant feeling of actually finally getting ones head around some of this stuff. Or helping someone else to do that, after the fact. Well anyway, again, cool video! Nice designs!
