There’s nothing more immersion-breaking than when an NPC gives the same response every time a player repeats an action. Normally this goes relatively unnoticed, as it’s such a common feature of games these days that players just ignore it, but then you play a game comes that breaks this mould, and it stands out like a sore thumbstick!
Such was my experience after playing The Stanley Parable [and later Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist], where there is a constant narration that changes depending on what the player does. It made me wonder why this isn’t used more, as it seems pretty simple, albeit a little time-consuming, to implement. Especially in VR, where you are trying to create a world that feels as real as possible.
So I thought I’d try it for myself to see how simple it was (or wasn’t) and how I could improve it to increase the immersion for the player.
Step 1
Getting the basics down
Okay, so let’s keep it simple: two objects the player can pick up and a message that changes depending on which object the player chooses.
Step 2
Making it more responsive
The next step would be adding more responses so it doesn’t seem so robotic.