How do you like being mislead?


I wanna ask everyone who's played the game for at least 30 min about how they feel about being mislead by a story. 

There was a bit of internal debate about whether even to ask this, since it kind of gives away the fact that our story intro contains sleight of hand, but honestly if you've bothered to read past the 10 minute mark, you probably noticed that something is not quite right with what you've being told. Right? RIGHT? 

I'll pretend everyone nodded enthusiastically to the screens.

Obviously there's a risk here, one of the many risks we took, to start The Remainder with you being totally helpless and ignorant.
I think in a time of uncertainty, like humanity has been in since the stone age, most people are looking for empowerment, for power fantasies, for wish fulfilment. So, when a story comes out and tells you "You Know Nothing" and "You Are Powerless", it might not be the hottest "sell".

I can also see the potential dislike of Ilar, whom I would probably dislike as well if I met them in real life. A smarmy, self-assured know-it-all who's not always the most kind, and probably has a closet the size of an average house full of skeletons.

But we're not doing this to make you feel bad. Quite the opposite actually. Since we know what could happen you figure out more of the truth from the clues in the story, we know the contrast in feeling should be quite interesting. After all, when you're completely in the dark, even a spark of light is blindingly illuminating. 

The problem is, some players really didn't like being in the dark, so much so that they quit before they made it past the initial setup. 

I'm not complaining, why should everyone like our game? It's probably very flawed, but I do really enjoy using it as an experiment to test out all kinds of story-telling ideas and seeing how people react to them.

So, how dd you as a reader/player feel about this? Were you fooled? Did you have any "aha" moments when you found out how a certain aspect of the story or character really is? How did you like that moment? Was it worth it?

If you haven't played the game yet, what are you waiting for? ^^

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Comments

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(Finished through act 2) I assumed that I knew nothing and might not be hearing the truth or was being manipulated. That just added to the mystery and the feeling of importance of choices. 

One thing I find myself wondering is how much my choices really matter. A relatively trivial example is the portrait. It was rather important to me to pick a different appearance, but when I said that wasn't me, I got no other choice. A more important example would be the choice I had to make at the end of act 2, which was made for me. Was that because of choices I made earlier, I find myself wondering, or was it not a choice that I had in the long run? Am I already locked into an ending which that choice represents? No idea, lol. I have to play again and see if I can make something different happen there without making an even worse choice, which I'm pretty sure I could have made earlier--but then maybe that wasn't what it appeared either, although I feel like it was....

Lol, in any case, the beginning didn't really make me feel misled.

Hi, thank you for playing ^^ (I replied to the portrait question in the other comment) If you play more you will see that your choices drastically change what happens and no ending is set in stone. For the sake of not spoiling anything, I’ll just say that this is not a story which can be absorbed in one playthrough. By making one choice you are giving up the other. Or maybe a missed opportunity will lead you to a completely different place.  :)

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It's extremely interesting and compelling. Great job on making something truly mysterious and unique! :)

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Tbh I actually thought the unreliable narrator, and tension between information revealed/hidden were actually some of the most intriguing parts of your storytelling! 

Far from turning me off the story, it was a motivation to keep going, and come to my own conclusions about the truth. <3

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You're the kind of reader we were looking for. :)

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Do what you set out to do. Dive into the depths of the story you envisioned and forget everyone (all of us) outside of it. Playing safe in art is often an easy sell, but rarely is it memorable for long.

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Oh, most definitely good sir and/or lady.

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Well -- I actually just finished a book with a major misleading plot point (the proposed love interest turns out to be a traitor and animal abuser *insert Britta meme here*), so I can tell you exactly how that made me feel. 

I was nearly screaming. I cursed the author's name and jumped in my bed - causing quite a bit of concern to my cat. When I calmed down, I propped up my pillows and kept reading until the book was finished.

The twist did its job: it displeased me, but it kept me hooked.

Misleading the reader is a tool; I believe there is no 'good' or 'bad' metric to its use, only effective and ineffective. I thought it was effective enough when I played The Remainder, but when a hook induces a reader to read more yet there is no more to read, the reader's only options are to scream in the comments or to wait quietly for the next part. I believe while some readers may have quit early on, they may very well return when the story is complete and the mysteries are available to unveil.  Of course it makes it difficult for a dev episodic releases, but it takes patience on both sides, I think.


I personally am waiting for more Remainder to be done before jumping back into the eel whirlpool. :^) I loved getting one of the very first looks at the game, and look forward to how it shapes up in the future!

Thanks for sharing, I had a suspicion many people are waiting for the whole story as well, but part of my de:finition of a good story is one that doesn't quite satisfy the reader 100%. Maybe 99%, but not 100%. :p

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I for one absolutely LOVED walking into the (very messy) situation at hand without knowing a single thing! It made the progression of the story much more immersive and real. The emotions hit harder (trust me, I cried loll) and the little tidbits of knowledge that would surface, or we would uncover/drag from Ilar's stubborn self felt all the more significant. 

Perhaps this is just me, but meeting Ilar as a character who is for all intents and purposes very lost and confused only made me attach myself to them all the quicker. If this were a real situation, I would have most likely done the same, so being given the chance to experience The Remainder's events as I would have had I been isekai'ed into this realm felt very refreshing. 

All things considered, I think you guys did a lovely job!! Feel free to mislead me as much as you like, haha! 

P.S. I am so tremendously proud of all of the love and hard work you have put into bringing The Remainder to life! You have created something truly beautiful and I really hope you are aware of that. I still remember playing the demo for Act I for the first time, back before it had been officially released, and screeching about it in your itch.io comments section (sounds much like what I happen to be doing know, no? XD) You've come so far and I'm very happy to have been given the opportunity to see your skills grow and your story flourish. 

Thank you for sharing The Remainder with us!!!!

Much love and support, 

Ha Neul ^_^

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I can't think of anything clever so say when someone is so supportive, except thank you so very much and we hope whatever we do brings you much enjoyment!