YOUR PRIORITIES

Definitely story and characters for me. I try to make each character as fresh and distinctive as possible. I try to avoid RPG cliches (though it doesn't always work :p) and just go for something new and different.

My graphics may not be the best in the world, but I feel that my storylines and plot development are often very strong.

author=Reijin link=topic=8.msg48#msg48 date=1180936717
I believe in an RPG, the story should ALWAYS be the first thing on your mind since you'll be reading a lot. If someone doesn't like the story, it doesn't really matter how many bells and whistles you have.

I couldn't disagree more!

The GAMEPLAY should front and center of your RPG. If someone doesn't like playing your game, they won't. You will read a lot, but you play 10x more.

I focus on gameplay before story, and reward the player frequently for playing. And Fun. I try to make it fun (very subjective, I know).

To make my game fun, I try to maximize the enjoyment of the core gameplay. I do this by paying careful attention to balancing, trying to give interesting skills to the party members and monsters, and having a wide (but balanced) assortment of equipment to equip.

Secondly, I minimize dialogue and simplify the plot. It's fairly digestable and easy to get into.

Thirdly, I reward players frequently. Exploration is encouraged, quests are varied and frequent, and are often rewarded with items or information. I play little graphics when you find an item. I play a little ditty every time you complete an important part of the quest. Things like that make the player feel good about playing the game.

I vary the difficulty. Some areas are more difficult than others to go through. I try to mix it up because otherwise the gameplay becomes tedious. Challenge is always a draw to a game.

The role of the Player is direct and obvious. You are a HERO. Go kill badguys. This is closely linked with a clear objective.

I am trying very hard to add replayability (hence the large numbers of classes you can choose from) BUT I am not satisfied with my work so far in this area.

I try to remain consistent with my game world. ie- All Ghosts are immune to physical attacks. You often find treasure in cabinets. You can find scrolls on bookshelves.

Anywho, from the book Swords & Circuitry, some ingredients of the Classic RPG are:

1. Immersive Exploration
2. Epic Story
3. Combat
4. Interim Quests
5. Grabbing Treasure
6. Resource Management
7. Problem Solving

Some ideas for rewards:

Glory
- recognize victories (ie- messages, animations, little ditties when completing a major quest)

Sustenance
- things like healing potions and whatnot that help keep the player alive long enough to get the other rewards.

Access
- open up new areas. (ie- keys)

Facility
- skills/equipment that make the player's character stronger/better


Also, use Excel to keep track of it all.

lol..... ditties.

Gameplay is always my top priority. Frequently I'll think of a battle system or some other system first, then base everything else around it as I think of it. I couldn't care if there's a deep plot or not, I would be fine with them staying at home and occasionally going to the store to buy strawberry cake if the characters are good, the gameplay is fun, and there's humor (Not a stupid kind of humor). I actually hate it when they make the plot incredibly complex and throw so much stuff at you.

My priority:
-Gameplay
-Good Characters
-Humor
-Music
-Art
-Story

I have tons of paper/word documents/excel sheets on battle systems, some other systems, balancing characters, and those kinds of ideas. I like a good variety of things to do as well. I want to make the game fun to play before I do anything else. However, I don't consider difficulty as a part of this, and I tend to keep my games in the Easy side of the difficulty scale. I think higher difficulty levels just get frustrating more often than they are fun. Once I got that down, then I go and think of the characters and how they'll interact with each other, their personalities, and how they'll respond to situations.

I usually like to put in humor in the games, I just can't go without doing so now, I get bored when making a completely serious game. I'm not a fan of dark games or horror games either, I like lighthearted stuff.

Then comes Music. Personally, I find Music to present an atmosphere better than artwork can, I would rather have a great soundtrack with bad graphics than great graphics with bad soundtrack. Hearing stuff like Final fantasy music, Grandia music and so on really ruins the atmosphere for me. So even if the game I'm working on doesn't have original graphics, I would really want the soundtrack to be original.

Graphics are next. Even though I like doing graphics, it alone doesn't make a good game, but can make a game stand out and create a nice atmosphere if done well. I'm not one that thinks that graphics aren't important, but they aren't as important as the above for me. As long as the game doesn't look terrible or incredibly generic, then I'm fine.

I've been mainly doing platformers as of late, so I'll state my overall todo list after I start (have a basic enough idea of gameplay and story to actually start making something).

-Make a beginning tileset and the main character's spriteset
-Add in obstructions, basic jumping, moving, hud graphics, etc.
-Add in an enemy's spriteset, add in attacking, add in gore system.
-Add in ai for enemy
-Start working on the first level/and or tutorial.
-Add in intro and menu.
-Work on other levels, adding in more systems if needed.

It's not an RPG, but it's still the same in general. While I may have a good idea of what generally happens at the beginning, the end, and some middle parts, the story for me is rarely laid out in great detail until the game has been finished up to that point. I find that leaving this flexibility in the design gives me more motivation while I'm making it, since otherwise it would just be a brain-dead procedure to get it done.


In terms of design, I do spend a lot of time thinking and working on the basic mechanics first. I try to add in some "wow" stuff that people wouldn't expect to happen in a game like it.

author=Reijin link=topic=8.msg447#msg447 date=1181674213
Wow, I can't believe how low some of you guys rank story in relation to an RPG.

If I wanted to make a story I'd write a novel. If I wanted to read a story, I'd read a book. I like to play games.

The story part of the game is just ONE of the many facets that you can use to intice your player to play longer.

Personally when I play RPGS my priority is gameplay. I have played through many games with terrible storylines, characters, and plot coherency (Chrono Cross) just because I found the game fun. Let's get real. I like RPGS because I actually enjoy the battles. Though that's not to say a good story won't help. What makes Final Fantasy VII a great memory for me was its great story and characters. But it was also fun and I enjoyed that aspect of it as well.

Some games have both fun gameplay and great story. Some just are fun and still are worth playing. I guess what I'm saying is my priority is on the game because you know it IS a videogame. But if it doesn't have that grand/memorable story/atmosphere (extra something) then it might not be remembered by me for too long.

When I make games. I try to focus on these aspects in this order.

-Fun Factor/Gameplay
Always my goal. At the end of the day people want a fun game rather than an artistic adventure.

-Atmosphere/Mood/Music
I think this is what makes any game stand out. A distinct theme/feel. That's why Earthbound is one of my favorite RPGS as well. The atmosphere MADE that game.

-Story
Important but not the main aspect IMO.

-Other Things/Bells and Whistles
This comes last. I add what I feel may enhance the project as a whole. I don't have the whole game focused on this though.

author=Tri-tail link=topic=8.msg459#msg459 date=1181681781
The problem with rating story "high" on the list of priorities is that most people in the amateur game making community very glaringly suck at storytelling--so no matter how much thought they do end up putting into it, it turns out how it's going to turn out. People generally perform their best for the story aspect no matter what sort of RPG project--there's no need to even put it in the list. It's an X factor.

The stories of most pro RPGs suck too. There are way more good RPGs with gameplay>story than story>gameplay.