As i wrote in the previous devlog post, visual notes were on the list of things to do before the release.
But why i want to implement them?

Visual notes in games

Notes are not something new on games,
they are pretty common both in horror games and point and click adventure
but is good to keep in mind why they are useful

For me the main reasons are these two:

1: Give a backstory context to the player

why the in game notes were written down?
who wrote them?
these little questions can give a story context to the player,
look at the notes in "Slender: The eight pages"

Who wrote this note?
a kid, calligraphy and drawing suggest it
Why this note was written?
to describe the slenderman

The player get these informations,
he don't know exactly the child who write the note,
but he understand it.

Furthermore like all horror games and novels the things are not really clear, this help the player to have his own suggestions.

2: Hints on how solve a puzzle

sometimes hints on how solve puzzles in point and click are hidden in notes, look a this example from Detention by Red candle games

Is this a fortune teller poem, or a hint?
there is a wheel in the game?
probably the wheel is a way to reveal an hidden door...

How i have implemented notes in Night of the ritual

to give a bit of characterization to the notes i written down with my own hand
i tried to use a kinda of some weird lettering, like this one:

-SPOILER-
is not only a quote from a lyrics of a californian band,
but is also an hint!
-SPOILER-

The Notes are always readable during the game,
for this reason i have implemented a navigation note interface,
depending on wich note you will examine or not,
you will see them on the screen.

Even if may seem an easy task it was challenging! Here a preview:

And you? what do you think about notes in games? let me know in the comment!

Thank you for your reading