[Once A Villain]

I think some people really like this (like me), and others think it breaks up the flow of the game. I'm referring to stuff like Gabriel Knight 2 and 3 where you play Gabriel at times and Grace during others. Or a game like Day of the Tentacle where you had three different playable characters all trapped in different time periods. I think some of the first games where I remember seeing this were the Alone in the Dark games. In AITD2 you play a portion or two as the little girl. Anyway, I'm going to make a poll to see what you guys generally think about this. And please try to explain after answering the poll why you do or don't like this.

[Melanie68]

I really liked playing Nico in BS2 - she was a refreshing change from George (who can be a tad whiny at times). Also playing the different characters in DOTT was nice because it was nice to deal with the different personalities.

Sometimes with one character, you can get a little tired of them and it's a nice change of pace to play someone different. In some stories it wouldn't work very well.

[Lucien21]

I like playing as multiple characters it can give a fresh perspective to the games.

Day of the Tentacle was my favourite game partly becaus of the way it handled the interaction of puzzles between the characters.

On the other hand I felt Broken Sword 3 wasted an opportunity to have more puzzles utilising both Nico and George at the same time.

[eriq]

I have one thing to say....

DaY of ThE TeNTaCLe!!

[Once A Villain]

How about voting then eriq?

[KriD]

I don`t think I`ve encountered any adventure game with multiple playable character where this element has damaged the flow of the game or lowered my playing experience.

In addition to those mentioned above, I also liked when you got to play the second character in Post Mortem. It was a surprising twist, in which you viewed the story from a slightly different angle.

[Ninth]

I don't mind it. If I were to think about it, I would say that theoretically it would hurt the pace, but in actual games I've never had this problem, so I voted Yes.

[SoccerDude28]

I've never enjoyed playable multiple characters like I did in Indigo Prophecy. It is so cool when you reall care so much for both characters, and while encountering each other, you have to choose your responses to try to screw both as little as possible.

[Once A Villain]

My favorite use of multiple playable characters in an adventure game, as far as how it factored into the actual gameplay, would be Day of the Tentacle. However, my favorite overall is The Beast Within. I just think the form of that game is nearly perfect. The way Gabriel and Grace trade off chapters and then combine for the climactic final chapter.

[Junkface]

Yes, particularly when the characters offer different outlooks or styles of gameplay. That was something I really enjoyed about Gabriel Knight 3. If the characters were too alike though, it would probably just dilute the focus of the game.

[fov]

Originally Posted by eriq

I have one thing to say....

DaY of ThE TeNTaCLe!!

I presume you saw this?

I like it, sure, as long as it's done well. Breaks up the narrative and can make for a more complex story. I think it needs to be a fairly consistent back-and-forth throughout the game, though. There's a very short part in Moment of Silence where you play as Deborah... that felt really out of place to me, because I was so used to playing Peter. I never really got to know Deborah so the fact that I was playing her for a really brief period felt more like a gimmick than a necessary part of the story. Felt the same way about switching to Marcus and Tyler in Indigo Prophecy. (I was fine switching between Lucas and Carla though... it's really their story more than anyone else's.)

[jjacob]

If it suits the game, then I'm all for it. I liked playing different characters in DOTT and Broken Sword, and I'll probably love it in Dreamfall.

[LiquidWizard]

Well Sanitarium was really good at having multiple characters. Day Of The Tentacle too. So, my vote'd be for "Yes, if it's done well".

[Steve Ince]

Originally Posted by eriq

I have one thing to say....

DaY of ThE TeNTaCLe!!

This game couldn't have existed without playing multiple characters.

[Starflux]

Originally Posted by LiquidWizard

Well Sanitarium was really good at having multiple characters. Day Of The Tentacle too. So, my vote'd be for "Yes, if it's done well".

Sanitarium wasn't really with multiple characters... they were all different versions or embodiments of you, so it didn't feel like you were leaving the main protagonist. And that's the biggest danger with having two different people to play with; you lose sight of the other (most often) and then feel less involved with them when you switch back.

[samIamsad]

It can put pretty awesome twists on the gameplay (see Dott or Fahrenheit). I'm still baffled that Maniac Mansion is an 80s game. Overall, I don't care, as long as the game is actually doing something interesting to keep me entertained (instead of youknowwhatI'mtryingtosay) Heh.

[Once A Villain]

These responses and this poll in general are really helping me and my friend with our adventure game project, so thanks all. I wanted to make sure this is a well liked feature before writing it into our game. By the way, some of you may remember we were thinking of doing our game in Flash. Well, that's a no go. Flash just can't do what we need it to do after all.

The next best thing for us is Virtools I guess, since that's what the Syberia games used. Unfortunately, to get an evaluation version of the software you have to fill out a form and one of the questions is: "What is the budget of your game?" And the MINIMUM is $50,000. Virtools is apparently not for indie designers. The full version of the software is $9,500. So, we still aren't quite sure what we're going to do... However, we are working on the art, music, writing, and puzzle design until we find the program we'll use to put it all together.

[Steve Ince]

Try using the Wintermute Engine.

[cardician]

Or, try this:

Adventure Game Studio

A lot of great stuff can be done with this little program. A lot of greats have been created or redone with it. Of course Wintermute Engine is also a viable candidate.

[jjacob]

You could try making your first game (?) with one of these tools, you'll gather experience to make your second even better, perhaps by then you can afford Virtools Developer