I want to love this game so much more than I did. Within its structure, it perfectly nails the existential frustration of trying to stay focused AND productive AND happy while pursuing a creative life. The game is rich in positive, honest vibes.
Getting as much writing work done as you can is the key goal; but just as in life, there are side tasks that catch our attention, for better and for worse. Indulging in a time-sink activity like social media bums your character out, but spending a day in the park with your wife reminds you of the importance of interpersonal connections in a beautiful way.
If only the actual writing part of BAD WRITER felt fleshed out. Once you get enough "idea points" from your side activities, the writing process is just: 1.) Selecting the option to write, and 2.) Having the game spit out a story title pulled from a repetitive word generator (The Drowned Dragon, the Red Dragon, the Super Dragons were just some of the titles I got). Then, you select the option to submit to a publisher, wait to see if you get accepted, or try again if you're rejected.
There isn't a clear logic to the story submission/publisher reception system. None of your stories receive genres or other detailed descriptors, and the publishers are equally vague. It turns into a system of just throwing stories at the potential buyers over and over until an acceptance just occurs. It's disappointing, and it begs for systems with more depth (letting us have more involvement in what gets written, getting rejection feedback so we can strategize how to re-submit, etc).
As a fantasy of how creativity is fostered through an equal dose of work and play, encouragement and rejection, hope and despair, BAD WRITER hits a few emotional highs. That said, the main draw of playing as a writer has nothing going for it. You don't get to FEEL the creativity, you're just told creativity is happening. I can only recommend it in that I hope enough sales will give developers Riddle Fox Games a chance to try something like this again on a larger scale.
Getting as much writing work done as you can is the key goal; but just as in life, there are side tasks that catch our attention, for better and for worse. Indulging in a time-sink activity like social media bums your character out, but spending a day in the park with your wife reminds you of the importance of interpersonal connections in a beautiful way.
If only the actual writing part of BAD WRITER felt fleshed out. Once you get enough "idea points" from your side activities, the writing process is just: 1.) Selecting the option to write, and 2.) Having the game spit out a story title pulled from a repetitive word generator (The Drowned Dragon, the Red Dragon, the Super Dragons were just some of the titles I got). Then, you select the option to submit to a publisher, wait to see if you get accepted, or try again if you're rejected.
There isn't a clear logic to the story submission/publisher reception system. None of your stories receive genres or other detailed descriptors, and the publishers are equally vague. It turns into a system of just throwing stories at the potential buyers over and over until an acceptance just occurs. It's disappointing, and it begs for systems with more depth (letting us have more involvement in what gets written, getting rejection feedback so we can strategize how to re-submit, etc).
As a fantasy of how creativity is fostered through an equal dose of work and play, encouragement and rejection, hope and despair, BAD WRITER hits a few emotional highs. That said, the main draw of playing as a writer has nothing going for it. You don't get to FEEL the creativity, you're just told creativity is happening. I can only recommend it in that I hope enough sales will give developers Riddle Fox Games a chance to try something like this again on a larger scale.