I’m working on The Path again now. Basically hacking away all excessive features to come to a minimal environment that will allow us to tell our story. The freedom and the agency that the “classic” Drama Princess allows for, just doesn’t work in a horror context. It’s too much fun. 😉
So we’re reducing the autonomy of the NPCs now, and increasing that of the avatar. When the NPCs are close to the avatar, they turn into Objects to some exent, offering opportunities to the other actors but not selecting any for themselves. Simultaneously, we have removed the on screen interface of the player in favour of allowing the actor to select opportunities for herself, when the player stops controlling her. It feels a bit like 8. Which was the starting point of Drama Princess, so it feels right.
So far this looks very promising. We are modifying Drama Princess to serve the purpose of The Path. But perhaps we will learn a few things that can improve Drama Princess as well.