Dialogue: A Writer's Story

[b]“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ― George Bernard Shaw[/b] [i]Dialogue: A Writer's Story[/i] is Tea Powered Games' first project, and a brilliantly complex visual novel with genuine depth concerning communication. I do love visual novels as a genre, but it has been sometime since I've played one with this much insight, perspective and replay value in it! Here, we take the role of Lucille, a young author who has been working for an online literary magazine for some time now. Lucille published her first novel a couple years back - titled Mosaic - but it hasn't been quite successful. Now, she is trying to write her second novel, and struggles with the content she wishes to put out. Our story starts as Adrian Torres, a biochemical researcher moves into to the flat across Lucille and unwittingly becomes the inspiration for her new main character. As the story progresses and narrates the year that she has written her novel, everyone around Lucille - her neighbor, her family, even her characters themselves - become part of the creative process; and we shape her interactions with people around her through various dialogue expressio…

I really enjoyed Dialogue. The game generally follows one of two main gameplay modes 1) More real-time-esque conversations where you are conversing with another character choosing between different discussion points generally lumped into one of 4 character traits; and 2) the more maze-like, less linear take on conversation where you traverse an architected conversation, prodding at points here and there, and using knowledge you discern to progress the conversation. The first play though was a relaxing experience going back and forth between these two modes. I was able to learn about the characters and get a feel for how they reacted to different types of conversations points. Additionally, there is just enough unlockables to entice that gamey feel. What abilities I unlocked in my first play through were engaging and added deeper layers to the game play. The unlockables did a nice job of being sufficiently gamey, while all supporting the endeavor of meaningful dialogue and drew me back to Lucille’s writing situation and how she could progress her story by talking to those around her (and to those in her head). After completion of the game, it pulls off the hood a little more on th…

Not happy with a lot of the limitd dialogue choices, and the price is way too high for a game that's only a few hours long.

The game is not perfect, the story and characters could be more complex and meaningful and the writing itself should me more emotional and express better the emotions and the personality and the struggles of the characters. But I think the Exploratory conversations are a really cool idea that allows the player to have an "active role" in dialogue mechanics. I like the idea of gathering thoughs and use them to change the topic of the conversation. There is room for improvement but I think It's a delight when developers try something new. I would like to see this game formula in other games.