“It’s not about saying more. It’s about saying it better.”

This week we dove into the dialogue scripts with fresh eyes, refining the Yes-or-No Mystery mechanics and reviewing the full experience flow with our instructors Mike and Scott. The result? A Priestley who feels more alive, more present, and more fun to talk to, all without adding pages of new dialogue.

The changes were surgical, but the impact was immediate. We focused on two categories of improvements.

The first was emotion words. Priestley’s lines were technically correct before, but they read like instructions from a manual. A line like

“Prepare your own sparkling water”

“Prepare your own sparkling water. Let’s start!”

“Prepare your own sparkling water” is functional. But “Prepare your own sparkling water. Let’s start!” suddenly has energy.

“I love how it looks now”

“Good job! I love how it looks now”

A reaction like “I love how it looks now” is fine, but “Good job! I love how it looks now” makes Priestley feel like he’s actually with you, cheering you on. These are tiny additions, sometimes just two or three words, but they transform a character from a narrator into a companion.

The second was concrete examples. One of the trickiest parts of the Yes-or-No Mystery is getting players to understand the rules quickly without a long tutorial. Previously, Priestley would say something like “You may ask me questions to uncover the truth. I will answer with yes or no.” Clear enough, but abstract. Now he follows up with:

“For example, you could ask is the liquid sweet, or does it have a color. I’ll answer any questions like that.”

“That one added line does more teaching than a paragraph of explanation ever could. Players immediately understand the format and the scope.

Instructor feedback pushed us further. Mike and Scott challenged us to integrate all three drawing frames into the gameplay (not just one), shorten Priestley’s feedback responses so the pace stays snappy, and reconsider how the yes/no rules are communicated. They also flagged that some of Priestley’s longer reactions could be replaced with emotional shorthand. Sometimes a gasp or a laugh does more than a full sentence.

The theme of this week is one we keep relearning: the gap between a character who talks a lot and a character who comes alive is often just a few well-placed words.