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 expressions. The game bears a distinct layout for both creative process and scientific research; and presents insight on both. Both Adrian’s and Lucille’s struggles are presented in such honesty, there is no room to suspect that it doesn’t come from experience. The primary focus of the game is to present various layers of human communication itself: perception, personality, intent, content, information, empathy and even timing are presented here as part of the process of a dialogue. I have never seen this much elaboration put into interaction between characters in any game. Even for that singular reason, this game is a must for anyone. The game - and the book, of course, has 5 distinct endings, and it all bears a tremendous amount of replay value, considering all parts of the game can be replayed. As you discover new ways to interact with people - information about their personalities, perspectives you can acquire to evaluate their point of views, focuses of dialogue that allows you to don certain attitudes to extract particular reactions - you will discover new bits about both the story and the gameplay itself. I have been playing and replaying various scenes with newly gathered abilities for three days now, but I don’t feel even remotely close to being seen all this game has to offer. [i]Dialogue: A Writer’s Story[/i] is an experience rather than a game. A marvelous experience that would present you insight on the mechanics of human interaction itself. Please enjoy! Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ladystoryteller#curation]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

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 the gamey side elements of Dialogue, and let me see where I had successfully hit certain milestones and where I had failed to unlock certain conversations and unlockables. The game got really interesting when some of these mechanics became more clear and I had to really experiment with focuses and other elements in the game to achieve some of the harder accomplishments. The maze mode gameplay was very well crafted and super enjoyable. Especially some of the later game conversations. It was dialogue goes adventure puzzling, and it felt right. Overall, I had a really great time making my way through this game and strongly recommend it if you are looking for an interesting, different take on conversation in gaming. You might just learn something about how you think and converse with those around you 😊

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.