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(+2)

I think a good way of answering these questions is by taking into account that we designed the game to get the player in a very specific mindset. 

Now, i don't think you need to look at our code (but it could help) to get an idea of how reactive minotaur hotel is to your choices. Writing a guide for minoh is borderline impossible because of how much crucial choices of the game depend on previous choices, and how small decisions snowball into bigger consequences. A huge decision such as who gets to the hotel (Nikos or Pedro) depends on do many previous choices that at most you can have directions on how to get to a particular outcome reliably, but everything else is now up in the air. 

And most of the big decisions have tradeoffs. We mentioned multiple times that it won't be possible to have all guests in one playthrough. 

So, knowing that you can't get everything, and that the best outcome for a lot of choices is subjective, and that your playthrough will always be affected by a myriad of small decisions, you start making choices that make sense to you. 

But, you know, the way this is feasible is if all the choices have small, cumulative impacts. A couple if-elses and small variable increases for a lot of small choices is manageable, but splitting the game into three big branches depending on the MC's philosophy when confronted by Greta? That becomes unfeasible. 0.3 was kind of a nightmare to write because there's a big deviation with the main character being abusive to asterion, we can't have sweet stuff happen when the MC has the day before sent asterion out to get tortured without coming off as videogamey. 

So, yes, there are choices in the game that could have a bigger impact than they do, but that would balloon the scope of the game to an unfathomable degree. I think an underwhelming amount of weight put into a handful of choices is a small price to pay for having the game get you into a habit of expecting responsiveness. 


To answer your other question, we joke about the Mc being a Chad but I think that's an exaggeration. VNs tend to go for more passive, reactive protagonists because it's more economical. Not giving your point of view character a lot of agency means you can get away with not giving him a lot of meaningful choices (that expand the scope of the game) while not having the player feel a big disconnect when the MC reacts in a way that makes you want to jump into the screen and punch him (though it still does happen). Because they don't get to act much in the first place. So, in comparison, yeah the Mc of minotaur hotel comes off as a very competent guy with a lot of agency and say over what happens in the story.

Dont get me wrong though, I'm not dissing other creators, making games is time consuming and we have a five person team writing this, whatever helps get your game across the finish line, you do you pal. 

(+4)

Thanks for the detailed response! I think your first point really does nail it and why Minotaur Hotel has been so engaging: it's not just the writing or the art or the music to put the player in a certain mindset, but even the timing of getting to choose something, no matter if it's a big choice or not, drives home certain mindsets and themes.

I had already been thinking about the times you get a choice on screen when it's the only one option and how that makes the player feel more engaged by actively getting to select it anyway, but even that is just a surface level interaction with the medium compared to something like after the kiss with Asterion: telling the player they have 3 options to stay in the moment and 1 to back away from it sets up their expectations that they get to enjoy the tender scene 3 more times before it ends. Yet when they think the moment has to be over because they've seen the 3 options and that's what renpy said they get, one more choice appears to reward and delight you because clearly the player wants to bask in the moment more, so why shouldn't they be able to? Renpy (and VN expectations) as a medium are a tool that can also be played with to drive home the themes and important messages, and it feels like so many VNs just let it be a delivery mechanism. Kudos to y'all for going above and beyond, it definitely shows.