I rearranged the messages in the screenshot to filter out most of the fluff from discord. I missed a question or two at the end, but you can find it in the details below.
Timestamps are UTC+0 time.
Here's a transcription :
seth dickinson — 3:30 PM
Hey everyone, I'm Seth. I'm writing SN2. Glad to be here, Obraxis encourages us to jump in. Boy this chat moves fast.
lucent — 3:37 PM
seth how do we end up on the planet
Aryon — 3:38 PM
Spoilers, we're not sharing plot points at this time.
Cyber-Lights — 3:37 PM
only one question, can he not change the story after 80% of the work is done to get two half stories slapped together like bz?
Aryon — 3:37 PM
The story post EA1 is still to be written, hence you never know when things may change. That's the point of Early Access 🙂
Radar07 — 3:36 PM
Q: What kind of authors/stories have influenced you the most?
seth dickinson — 3:39 PM
Great question! I have done a lot of reading on Tom Jubert's inspirations for SN1—I lifted some narrative devices from his game The Talos Principle. I'm also a big fan of an essay called "What's The Point If We Can't Have Fun?" by David Graeber.
On the science fiction front I'd point to STARTIDE RISING by David Brin, A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA by Ursula LeGuin, the Skinner novels by Neal Asher as a kind of anti-inspiration, and the lore around the Natural Selection games
On the video game front I'm a huge fan of SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI
OSWEG — 3:37 PM
what does the writer does, like the story or what?
seth dickinson — 3:39 PM
You write all the words in the game.
Sepotato — 3:40 PM
Isn't it Ilegal to say share things about a game in development without permission?? Especially the story, features, etc
Aryon — 3:40 PM
We are under NDA yes.
Radar07 — 3:40 PM
Q: Will players be able to influence the storyline? Will there be multiple outcomes?
Aryon — 3:41 PM
Spoilers - We're not sharing specifics at this time, but I can say there's cool stuff cooking.
Chuckles — 3:37 PM
I would want to ask @seth dickinson about the challenges of delivering a new story and when approaching the narrative how choices are made between the storytelling style from the first game, vs. the second
seth dickinson — 3:42 PM
It's a third, secret thing, but the protagonist doesn't speak and I am trying very hard for a sense of loneliness and isolation—this world is supposed to be a little more initially hostile than 4546b and I want that that to soak into the story too.
One important thing for me is that the player discover the story while pursuing their own goals, rather than being called directly to story locations. I think it's a lot more rewarding to go looking for lead for a recipe and find story along the way than to just go to the story signal and get some dialogue.
Of course, you have to give people direction if they're stuck or lost for a while. It's a very difficult balance I'm still working on.
Wrong — 3:43 PM
but the protagonist doesn't speak
yay thats finally confirmed
seth dickinson — 3:48 PM
In the current design you can express yourself and make some small (or not so small) choices, but it doesn't involve your character speaking out loud.
I'm interested in letting people express themselves to the game about their own internal motives and feelings — like you could decide between "I hate this planet," "I love this planet," "I respect but fear this planet" and the game would acknowledge your opinion. Even if you aren't making a big story-branching decision, I think letting you register how you feel about what's going on is immersive.
00 NOOBwork02 — 3:41 PM
do u have a good idea of how you want the story of sn2 to be?
seth dickinson — 3:43 PM
Yes, there's a pretty firm idea of where we're going - though of course things will change over the course in development.
Sepotato — 3:42 PM
Q: Will we have some side quests like in SBZ?
Aryon — 3:43 PM
Likely but possibly limited for Early Access.
Gruff — 3:43 PM
seth are you working alone?
Aryon — 3:43 PM
hehehe none of us work alone, we have teams 🙂
Edit: formatting.
