Hi I have more misc questions:
Who are your favorite characters?
How many quests are in the game? Can you get to them all in one playthrough, or do you have to do multiple playthroughs?
What's Nikki's favorite dog breed?
What is the name of Tobias' cat?
Has Tobias always been this cranky?
And finally: how are all the adult characters so attractive??
Ooh, these are some fun ones!
Regarding favorites: It's honestly hard to say what my own favorite is at this point! I've been working on the game so long that my interest has cooled somewhat on some of my original favorites, and some characters who I had initially conceived of as "just filling an NPC role" wound up being a lot more fun than expected.
Sheriff Pilgrim was my original favorite (especially when he's interacting with Jack!) and I do still enjoy him, but I've found I enjoy writing for Sonny and Vincent quite a bit, too. Mike is also fun... and Morgan... and a bunch of others, depending on what mood I'm in. Our main writer @kwillow enjoys Mayor North and Em.
One of the nice things about Wishbone is that we have a similar writing approach to Bioware RPGs, where each character is somebody's baby. To make writing practical, we do have to write for whatever character needs writing for sometimes, but we do also have someone who's sort of the "captain" of each character (or at least major characters).
Regarding quests: The final quest count won't be known until later in development, but I've "stubbed out" quest log code for all planned quests so far, and the end of the quest log looks like this:
There are roughly 40 quests of various types fully implemented right now, so a bit less than half of planned quests have been implemented! That 109 number covers all the character quests, story quests, and other major quests, but I might add a few very small quests to add interest to slower portions of the game. It'll depend on how playtesting goes!
You won't be able to do every quest in a single playthrough because the story does split into Outlaw path and Lawful path eventually. Once you've made certain pivotal story choices, some characters will consider you to be on the enemy team and will no longer be willing to trust you (or, possibly, even talk to you at all!), and some story moments will force you to pick one of two characters to work with.
So you'll need a minimum of two playthroughs to do everything! Certain quests might also have more than one ending, depending on how you solve the task and who you work with. The game might not be as branchy as Fallout New Vegas or Baldur's Gate 3, but it is pretty dense!
Regarding Nikki's dog opinions:
She likes all dogs, really! She can go on at length about the pros and cons and various uses and quirks of any breed. She also thinks mutts are interesting. But she is most interested in "wilder" looking breeds, like her cattledog, Sirius!
His name is Mr. Grumpus. Like his owner, he has permanent Resting Surly Cowboy face. He can often be found sleeping on the counter in the general store or wandering around town, though most townspeople know better than to bug him. He's not the friendliest to strangers!
Regarding Tobias's crankiness: He was always serious and standoffish and never the most popular or sociable person. However, it seems that he's gotten more sullen and gloomy since his mother's health started declining and he had to take over managing his family's general store. Being a cashier isn't really the life he dreamed of, and the stress of his family situation is getting to him. But maybe there's hope for things to improve...?
Regarding the characters being attractive: Ah, I'm glad you like 'em! I (and everyone else working on the project) love to design eccentrics and oddballs. I worry sometimes that we've gone too far catering to our own interests, rather than making something a wider audience would enjoy, so it's great to hear that they have appeal beyond our little niche! They're certainly not your typical "romanceable NPC" lineup, but we do hope that they find their target audience of people who want something more unconventional. :)
