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[dukope]

Suddenly, Mods

If you've poked around in any of the beta's asset directories, you may know that all the game's assets are editable. Part of this is because Haxe/NME doesn't have an asset packaging system built in. Part of it is because I thought it would be cool if people could see how the game was set up.

While I never planned it, people have already started modding the game. This is a weird feeling for a game creator; especially when the game isn't done yet. There are some cool mods and some tasteless ones. Given the game's subject matter, this isn't surprising.

For the latest beta, I decided to address the issue. There were two options:

    1. Lock down the assets and prevent modding
    2. Support mods properly

I first implemented #1. That meant writing a build process to bundle/encrypt the assets and an in-game module to load/decrypt them. Haxe/NME made this amazingly easy and it really drove home the power of the language and tools.

I was pretty set with that when I came to my senses. Once the assets are out (as in the previous betas), it makes no sense to suddenly lock them down. It's a dick move, even. If I liked a game enough to spend my time modding it, I'd be pretty pissed if the next build disabled mods. Even if they were unofficial. I got my start in games with Quake mods and have some understanding of the effort and devotion that goes into modding.

Ok, so I decided #2 was a better choice in the end. At least for the pre-release builds.


Proper Support

Adding proper mod support wasn't that hard. There are 3 important things in my opinion:

1. Make them easy to distribute
Again, Haxe/NME pulled through here. There's a great exsiting api to extract zip files in Haxe. Using that lets modders zip up their asset directory into one nice .ppmod file that's easy to download. A .ppmod can by played by saving it next to PapersPlease.exe and drag+dropping it onto the executable.

2. Don't require overwriting original assets
The currently available mods are basically just a zip file of the entire beta, including the exe and all (edited) assets. This is wasteful and unsafe. I know I'm less likely to run a strange exe than I am to run an asset-only mod. Working over the original files is also a painful way to develop a mod and it's better to have a set of "override" assets instead. This allows including only the edited assets in a mod, which increases the likelihood that it'll work across multiple versions of the game.

3. Assign visible credit
This is the most important for me and there are two parts. First, it has to be clear that I didn't create the modded content. This is especially true when someone makes a tasteless mod. I don't want people to make a connection when seeing one of those and "Created by Lucas Pope" on the title screen. Second, good mods are a lot of work. If someone puts in the time and effort to make a mod, I want them to get credit. When running the latest beta, the game displays the mod name/author on the title screen and links to the author's website.


Reaction

We'll see. Even with a more complete modding system, it takes a few additional steps to create a mod now. Some people are already complaining about this so I guess you can't win sometimes.

Hopefully a few good mods come out of this, but for now I'm turning my focus back to finishing the game.

[melos]

Hey, could you document how you did encrypt the assets with #1?

[xclpr]

An idea.

[DustyDrake]

Nerd Cubed did a video about this too:

[melos]

i smell victory in your future.

[gimymblert]

yep this game has a perfect timing, it's fun, it's new, it deal with complex matter, it's mechanically sounds and narratively sound, it taps in modern imagination, it feels personal, it's a modern game in all aspects, it's a winner

[Impmaster]

I played this and it is one of the most original games I have played in a while. I did note a few complaints though. First of all, I didn't realize how the end of day thing worked until it told me I had to save my son. I also didn't understand how I got money. And most of all, I need censoring in the strip search portions. Bit odd playing that around my friends.

Overall, it's great though. I placed in my german friend's name in the tally, and I hope to see a Kenneth Tagscherer in someday. 

[kleiba]

I believe not having censored strip search pictures is crucial to this game.

[DannySpud]

I downloaded this game after seeing Nerd³'s video on it. It's really good! A couple of things bugged me while playing though (I haven't read anything on here, if this has all been covered then ignore me).
The omniscient supervisors make my "job" feel pointless. If they know I let someone through who shouldn't have then what's the point of me checking myself? Also if I get caught every time then I never have a reason to give someone the benefit of the doubt.
The way I'd love it to work in an ideal world is that every person with incorrect papers has a chance to be either a genuine mistake, a terrorist/agent/smuggler or a government plant to check on you. Rather than knowing whether you got it correct or not, letting terrorists through increases the amount of terrorist attacks reported in the news (giving a chance that one of your family will be killed or injured), attacks that happen at the border (shutting down the border early so you get less money) and increasing the security checks you have to do (taking more time per person so you earn less money). Letting through government "secret shoppers" gives harsh fines, letting through innocent mistakes does nothing.
This way the player has a direct impact on the country.

Another little annoyance was that there's no point detaining anyone as its far quicker to deny entry.

By the way please don't remove the nudity in the scanning like some people want. That creepiness you get from it is perfect.

Sorry for rambling, I really like the concept of this game and it fired my imagination a bit.

[barley]

Censoring could maybe be optional? I really don't think it should be censored, since it wouldn't be feasible for the pictures to be censored in between them being taken and them getting to you, and it makes it kind of morbid.

But obviously some people are bothered by it (even though they really aren't very detailed), so if it was just a checkbox in the options menu that defaulted to off, that'd make everybody happy.

[dukope]

But obviously some people are bothered by it (even though they really aren't very detailed), so if it was just a checkbox in the options menu that defaulted to off, that'd make everybody happy.

This is exactly how it's handled now.



In general, I'll sacrifice message for practicality but it does default to 'on'.

[barley]

Oh, good. Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

[szron]

First of all. I freaking love the game. Being an actual immigrant and having to go through this all in real life makes the possibility to be on the other side of the stamp is awesome.

I have a fetish for details and realism. Of course by no means I want to sacrifice gameplay for useless playability but I have few ideas that might add some complexity.

1. Pages of a passport, visas
Possibility to flip pages in a passport, analyze past entries, see if an entrant has a visa in his passport (usually a page sized sticker http://www.pinoy-ofw.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/us-visa.jpg here's an actual USSR tourist visa http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaruka/2496252484/).

2. Computer system
I know we are in Orwellan 1980s but I think this would fit. "Old-school-green-text-terminal-style" computer to look up people, visas, permit, entry history.

3. "Secondary"
Make detaining easier and allow for secondary inspection where we get to interrogate the entrant. If his story checks out you might let him go and if not you can lock him up.


I'm just spitballing here but I hope that you will like at least some of those ideas.

Keep up the good work and you'll make this a CBP training software :D

[Armageddon]

I think flipping pages on passports might make it a little too complicated, at least early on. And the green text computer terminals sort of clash with the color scheme. Also I thought it was 1960s?

[szron]

And the green text computer terminals sort of clash with the color scheme.

Make it amber 

Also I thought it was 1960s?

Check the date on the calendar

[SoulSharer]

This game is great, thumbs up in Steam is all yours. Good job, sir. 

[whyareall]

A suggestion that someone made a while back that didn't seem to get notice was right clicking for discrepancies, instead of having to pull up the big, screen-covering thing that blocks you from moving documents around and wastes time when you have to take it down to move the documents around and put it back up

[SliceOfDog]

Hey, fantastic game, really enjoyed playing through it and will definitely be coming back to play later iterations. However, I noticed one potential flaw when I did a second, purposely silly playthrough. After playing through all 8 levels properly, I decided to play again and, no matter what, I would instantly reject every single person. I just thought it would be mildly amusing for a level or two, and was curious to see what would happen if I kept doing a terrible job (if there was a "you got fired, game over" mechanic, for example).

To my surprise, rejecting every potential immigrant as quickly as possible seems to be the best career choice our protagonist ever made. We get 5 credits for every immigrant we deal with, and since we get several warnings before being fined for misconduct, and the fines are only 10 credits, you can actually earn a LOT more money by instantly rejecting everyone (or possibly also by instantly accepting everyone) than you ever could by taking your time and playing it properly. In my first, real run of the game, I managed to have an average of about 5 and 20 credits savings, and that included not paying for heat every second level. In my Reject Everyone run, I managed to get to 70 credits savings, including food and heat every time, by level 4.

I'm not sure if this is actually a concern, because it basically only applies to people who are playing very badly, but it seems like it shouldn't be hard to fix. I would suggest one of three things:

1) You do NOT get paid the 5 credits for getting an applicant wrong. If I'm getting fined and still earning money, the fining system alone probably isn't harsh enough.

2) You still get paid for dealing with them, but the fines steadily increase.

3) Currently, each level you get 2 or 3 free warnings before you start getting fined. You could limit the player to 3 warnings per GAME instead of per level, or only have 1 warning per level (after level 1)

Hope this all makes sense.

(Also, completely agree with Whyareall. It was a little irritating sometimes having to flick through the book when I already knew exactly what documents they were missing. You could also have a small list to the side that shows which documents are required?)

[whyareall]

(Also, completely agree with Whyareall. It was a little irritating sometimes having to flick through the book when I already knew exactly what documents they were missing. You could also have a small list to the side that shows which documents are required?)

I wasn't saying have the rulebook pinned up, I was saying replace clicking on the lower right hand red button and its interface by just right clicking two things to point out discrepancies

[SliceOfDog]

I wasn't saying have the rulebook pinned up, I was saying replace clicking on the lower right hand red button and its interface by just right clicking two things to point out discrepancies

I know, but pinning up a smaller version of just those first pages is another possibility, that's all. I don't mean keeping the whole rulebook there, but a small list might work if adding a right-click function isn't to Dukope's fancy.