Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Along with randomly generated play areas, unlockable playable characters and unlockable difficulty levels, alternate endings are a means by which developers can create more replay value in a video game with only a moderate increase in cost. There are a number of great examples of multiple endings, but the biggest example I know of is Chrono Trigger for SNES (later ported to PS1, and likely to appear on the Wii Virtual Console before too long) which had something like a dozen distinct endings, not all of which were clearly “good” or “bad” endings.

A branching storyline (now the image makes sense, ya get it? haw haw) creates depth in a story and, ideally, takes a great game that you loved playing and gives you a reason to play it again. But if a game has different endings with different outcomes and the choices you make in the very beginning of the game make big changes in the storyline later on, you can find yourself, after beating an exhausting game, wondering if you really want to go through all that again, taking the chance that you’ll miss that one decision.

In Chrono Trigger, there was a section in the beginning of the game where your actions over a sequence of events had dramatic effect later on when you find yourself on trial for something you didn’t do, and witnesses to the events at the beginning of the game will testify before or against you. In this particular case, the verdict doesn’t matter because of a particular corrupt official who locks you up regardless, but it really felt like a very interesting experiment at the time.

Another example is Dragon Quest III, originally on NES and later released on Game Boy Color, which is where I played it. At the beginning of the game you’re confronted with a dreamlike quandary where your actions define your character’s traits at the start of the true game. Unfortunately, simplistic localization makes it unclear what you’re doing even while you’re doing it (ie, if I walk out the door am I going to join the army or am I running away?) so the lesson there is that the choices you make in a game with choices must be clear and straightforward.

Here’s the part where I ask what you think: would you prefer a game to have multiple, branching storylines, or one more complex path so that everything can been seen on a single playthrough? Here’s what I think: Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker was a great game, but when I found out it would take multiple runs through the game to collect all the statues for a museum, I immediately dismissed the idea. So there’s my vote against multiple runs for collection quests. But what about for drastically different endings?

I’d tell you what brought this on but I promised myself I wouldn’t mention Castlevania in this post… Oh, d’oh!