People love cRPGs, and Owlcat’s cRPGs among them, for a variety of reasons such as roleplay opportunities, choices, character-vuilding, battles… or romances. It is the latter that is the center of today’s attention. Owcat Games’ Nika Alborti and Arseniy “Thai” Krymov invite players to take a glimpse behind the scenes of creating the narrative side of the game surrounding romances and the related quests.
The developers note that you should read on at your own risk if you haven’t played Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
The first steps naturally involve a whole lot of planning and calculation. Games are complex mechanisms, and thus you need to create the roster, a brief list of all the available companions with some details. Here are some things that Owlcats take into account:
- Companions’ alignments should be balanced. Any player, whatever moral convictions they’d love to roleplay, should be able to gather the whole party and not be left alone.
- Mechanics. We need companions with different classes, playstyles, abilities, etc.
- They should cover all the major factions that are involved in the story. They would support various cultural and political forces presented in the setting. It’s important because our companions are one of the main gates through which the player gets to know this world.
- Different specifics of a particular game.
From that point on, the developers move to the romance unlock and progress. Romances stretch from the prologue to the very end, with with numerous variables and complex internal mechanics.
Unlock is the moment before a romance begins, interacting with the companion or doing something they find hot, but unlocking also doesn’t mean that you’ve started a romantic relationship. t’s the moment when you start noticing your companion, or when a companion starts to notice you. You’ve only unlocked this branch of the plot. There is a possibility of a romance that needs to be developed further.
Then, the romance moves onto events – mandatory or optional, be it dialogues, cutscenes, or other means to explore the relationship. The developers also make sure to include the ability to make your stance clear, whether you are interested or not, in the first mandatory event.
There are three more types of romance content from the technical viewpoint: Resolution, Farewell, and Jealousy. Resolution is usually what signifies, yes, the road is behind you, you are now in a steady relationship, with nods towards it being so. That comes in the “farewell”, as the party is preparing to approach the endgame and your affairs, stories, relationships, etc. need to be acknowledged.
The jealousy event is the technical bottleneck where, if you’re trying to romance two or more characters, the game should stop you at some point and tell you to choose. Of course, some characters are okay with the idea of polygamous romances, but there are a number of technical complications associated with it.
That brings the technical side of things to a close, and the Owlcat Game designers then move onto the artistic side and the writing process, before tackling the polyamory. However, the article is incredibly long and interesting, and you should really check it out on the Steam page.
