To the devs whose games measure their character’s weight and make it fluctuate with their caloric intake, how do you decide what food should lead to how much gain, how much extertion should lead to how much loss, how quickly weight comes and goes, and in general, picking the numbers for simulating a metabolism?
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In Tramp calorie data comes from the very many calorie counting sites and restaurant menus with calorie information - that is more or less accurate, though the game never deals in calories specifically, just their worth in fat (calories/7700). (classFoodDict.rpy)
Day to day loss is computed from the Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) formula that depends on height, weight, age, sex (utilFat.rpy has the female one).
Exercise can be computed from tables of kCal per hour of activity. I actually found the information I needed on a free bookmark from my local library, but there are resources online. (classPlayer.rpy)
Having said that, those resources are a simple starting point. There is some fudging being done to to get the game pacing right, but it doesn’t hurt to start with reality.
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I’ve got quite an elaborate way to doing this, based off the harris-bennidict formula. I use calories as they are, then the formula (calories consumed)/3,500 -BMR = weight gain.
I’m willing to go into depth if you want to know. You can message me on Discord if interested. MODOK123#5483
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Easy, I ask myself questions about what the intended fantasy is.
This is a pretty necessary skill for all of game design, so if you ever find yourself moving outside of this space or onto o ther projects, this is a goo dhcnace to really get into the habit of this -
Because designing a game is designing an illusory experience. Or, rather. It’s asking the player to engage in a bit of roleplay. To become whatever role or niche, or set of actions, you carve out for them to engage with. In this case, you’re delivering a feedee or feeder experience, so you just ask yourself some simple questions.
“What kind of weight gain do I want the player to be engaging with?”
Is it: “Slow, and steady, and realistic so the player can have a long term task to engage with, and become slowly immersed in the way a person gains weight? If so, why am I doing that? Is it because I want to simulate the feeling of giving into hunger, or is it about hard work, or is it fitting into the part of a character/story’s world and life, and this pace is helping with that?” Etcetera.
Is it: “Fast, for fun hits, and wacky antics, to sell a kind of energy, and speed, to indulge in that quick hit of fun, and dopamine, before dipping out.”
Or, is it somewhere in the middle, setting a pace for a specific vision only you have in mind? There’s tons of options, so the question always comes down to - “What’s the experience and teh fantasy I want to deliver.” Once you have that down, you can start asking yourself about other questions. What’s my basic gameplay, loop. Is fat and food the main engagement tool - Something the player is supposed to be weitghing up and running the numbers on? Is it just a part of combat and gameplay? What about if food/calories are there for puzzles, or for connecting characters.
Again, it comes down to asking what you want to do.
Because stats, are just the ways a desigenr communicates to a player. Strength, in D&D for instance, doesn’t mean anything until you describe it, and you assign certain properties. And then, all of a sudden strength is muscle, and might, explosive striking power and the ability to shift mountains.
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