Trials Of Taihra-Firanae

This game was supposed to be simple. Supposed to be.

TTF originally started as a contest game. There was a vague outline (trapped in cabin, magic book, TG, trials to become a man again) and some idea of where things were going to go. Unfortunately, when I sat down to plan things out, a simple paragraph in the design document, written as a stream of consciousness brainstorming, kind of changed the entire direction.


Stats for the player:
Name (obviously)
Gender (male, female, herm)
Strength/Willpower (personal fortitude, affects checks requiring pure power and resistance)
Intelligence/Ability (personal skill, affects checks requiring deftness and knowledge)
Charisma/Looks (personal beauty, affects checks requiring manipulation and guile)

Just like that, I'd kind of locked myself into something much more complicated.

Several things changed from the design document. There was originally supposed to be about 10 kinds of TFs. After some additional planning, the list increased to almost 25, then up to 34, before being cut down to about 15. Many of them were variations on the same transformation (Princess/Innocent Princess/Empress, for example), but they were there.

The trials were originally supposed to be simple, short tests, a room or two, maybe a character, but when I realized that some of the transformations fit together in theme quite well, in surprising groups of three, well, all bets were off and things went out the window. I also realized that with the stat system I'd included, I needed to include some stat checks, as well as opportunities to increase those stats.

The stat system in particular was kind of an interesting development. I knew it would be a scale, because any kind of stat system needs to be both numeric and based on a scale of some sort. What I didn't know was how to include increases, so I kind of winged it. Eventually, I figured out that either using the stat in a particularly difficult situation, or using the stat in a situation where it's not your strong point, would be the best way. I cribbed that particular method from Quest for Glory. Stat increases are still somewhat random, in that identifying situations where you can earn a stat increases is almost impossible, but I think that makes it more interesting.

One of my private joys is that, after a few days of playing the incomplete version, people had discovered two possible "real world" transformations and assumed that I had based it on karma, like the first trial transformations, so they figured that was it. None of them figured out that there are, in fact, five real world transformations, and that the methods for finding a particular transformation was nebulous and mysterious. Which is exactly what I wanted.

Text games have a relatively low replay value. Not to disparage any particular game here, but when you're done with, say, Sierra's SummerContestGame (which I personally believe is a fantastic game, by the by), you're pretty much done with it. Sure, there are some variations with what I like to call Early Endings (where the game ends before you reach the real ending), but once you reach the ending, you've pretty much seen most if not all of what the game has to offer. What I strive for, what I find the most difficult to implement but the most rewarding, is giving players options on how they play through the game, options that have a very real effect on how the game progresses.

In TTF, for example, the Bimbo real world TF (which I'm guessing is one of the most frequent results for most players) doesn't seem like it does much in terms of gameplay. But did you notice that, if you give the shopkeeper a blowjob, you normally have two options? But that if you're starting down the bimbo path, that you only have one? It doesn't seem like much, but the second trial will have more variation on that particular mechanic.

So, that's some thoughts behind Trials of Taihra-Firanae (a name I totally made up, in case you're wondering).