Imo when making a game, you should make something that satisfies you. Chances are if you like something then there are other people who like it too. And if it turns out the game isn't as successful as you hoped, then at the very least, you have something that you enjoyed making.

Interesting idea.

I think the moral choices people make when gaming are often different from the choices they'd make IRL. Who amongst us hasn't taken down an NPC with a shotgun just because they were irritating?

You can get closer to an accurate reading of a player's moral compass if you can make them emotionally involved with the characters or the game. If you have been manipulated into caring about the fate of an NPC, you're more likely to go out of your way to help them, even if it is too the detriment of your own character.

It's that successful emotional manipulation that, IMO, is one of the signs of genuine art. No idea how to accomplish this. Good luck with the game, like I say it's an interesting idea.

Streamers will not give you good user feedback. They are not playing the game for themselves, they are playing for an audience.

It is very good that you think about validating your expections early in the process. That way you still have time to change the direction of your game if you need to. I think the best way would be to release the demo to a smaller audience, like itch.io.

Anyway, good luck with your game.

My suggestion would always be the old fashioned way. Prototype it yourself and test it. Though with the nature of yours it sounds like there's not much you can do with a prototype without just making a whole demo. My suggestion would be to just give it a shot and, like regdog said, validate the expectations early so you can change directions.

As for what I think about it. It's an interesting idea, especially the Milgram angle, but i'm worried if i watched a streamer play it, there's not much to see in the game to warrant me to pick it up myself (even with the multiple endings).

It sounds interesting to me. Whether or not I would play it myself depends on knowing more or playing a demo since it's not the type of game I usually play, but if someone I know or one of the few streamers I follow was into it I would definitely be interested to watch.

I think it's important to make the game you want to make and trust your vision. It looks good so far and I'm following you on Steam now to keep an eye on it. Good luck!

The aesthetics of your game look great. I think people will appreciate a demo, to give them a feel for the game. You can have demo on your steam page or maybe on itch.io .

Well…

One thing is you can’t know if a ‘game idea’ is a good one before battle test it.

On one hand it’s similar to writing a book or shooting a movie. Sometimes most mundane narratives have something that ‘clicks’, making it a hit. And sometimes most interesting ones have bad execution, to become instant failures.

On the other hand, of course there are some understanding about ‘what is entertaining’ and ‘how to make things fun’. There are lots of discovered rules, tropes, approaches that worked so far. Like, Game of Thrones books always meant to be a cash cow TV series, and you see traces of almost all the rules that makes a book a good TV material. So there are many sources about narrative and game design that can guide you through your journey.

Of course the concepts discussed in these sources aren’t definitive and open to interpretation. But they helped me dearly exploring ideas and hand down better experiences.

Some I can recommend are,

• Art of Game Design (Jesse Schell): It comes with a deck of cards which is very valuable for self-feedbacking.

• The Game Narrative Toolbox

• How Games Move Us

With games, it’s ‘vertical slice’s, like preparing a 10 minute condensed version of a game. You can gather lots of feedback with that. Every game had that at one point. Balatro had that, GTA 6 had that, as well as “What Remains of Edith Finch” had that. If you can pique interest with a vertical slice, it’s mostly good idea to pursue the rest from that point.

Not many mentioned that but maybe a publisher can help ?

My understanding is that the right publisher could give you good feedback for your game and can have good knowledge of what works or not. I'm not saying like some big publishers but one that shares your vision for the game and could help.

Sounds like an awesome idea.

Honestly sounds like an interesting concept. From I was.gling in blind at least your idea sounds interesting enough to warrant giving a demo a try.

My only word of caution is that you said you wanted to make a dark comedy about ethics and that's going to be a tough sell at the best of times. That isn't to say that there is no audience for something with gallows/macabre/dark satire humor, just that that group is small from the jump.

One of the more interesting takes I've seen on the trolley problem is the "double and pass" wrinkle. Where it starts with you and the person you value the most on the track on one side and a random stranger on the other. And your choice is to either sacrifice your loved one or spare both passing the decision on to the next person where it's doubled. As in their loved one versus two strangers.