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Game designer hopeful. Have designed several tabletop RPGs, and have long wanted to start into the video game space.
My focus when designing is to create challenging experiences that force the player to make difficult choices, and change the paradigm when someone thinks of an RPG.
My focus when designing is to create challenging experiences that force the player to make difficult choices, and change the paradigm when someone thinks of an RPG.
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How do you tackle making a game with any engine?
I hit a midway mark in my planning. I got an idea stuck in my head, as I usually do, but instead of letting it flee this time, I held it down, choked it and tore...No wait.
Seriously, I mainly had a notebook I carried around with me at work. During downtime (we've had a lot with MERS lately), I would sit down and sketch out ideas, game flow, ideas for features and 'stretch' features (things that I would like to have, but are not core to the idea). Give it some time, go back over, nix certain ideas, simplify things down, figure out what is actually necessary, what my core idea should be, etc. Certainly not everything planned, but I had a list of features before I set down with RPGMaker and set about finding what was doable, doable with work, or too hard to bother with initially, then went back to revising.
Also, since this is my first project, I made sure to focus on a concept that would be easy to revise on the go, instead of having to dump it because of early mistakes (hence the Mission-style segments of my game, if an initial level is terribly designed, it can be entirely redone without touching the rest of the game). That's more planning for my own limitations and growth than the game though.
Seriously, I mainly had a notebook I carried around with me at work. During downtime (we've had a lot with MERS lately), I would sit down and sketch out ideas, game flow, ideas for features and 'stretch' features (things that I would like to have, but are not core to the idea). Give it some time, go back over, nix certain ideas, simplify things down, figure out what is actually necessary, what my core idea should be, etc. Certainly not everything planned, but I had a list of features before I set down with RPGMaker and set about finding what was doable, doable with work, or too hard to bother with initially, then went back to revising.
Also, since this is my first project, I made sure to focus on a concept that would be easy to revise on the go, instead of having to dump it because of early mistakes (hence the Mission-style segments of my game, if an initial level is terribly designed, it can be entirely redone without touching the rest of the game). That's more planning for my own limitations and growth than the game though.
Game length and maintaining player interest
Well, the features most of us associate with RPGs, great stories, character building, getting stronger and stronger to defeat a great foe, etc, tend to not be short game sort of things. Especially the format of the typical RPG, western or eastern, tends to be about slowly getting stronger, not the action game style of sharp bursts of power.
Game length and maintaining player interest
@LockeZ I would disagree about traveling through a mountain being filler, but then again it may be only pedantic. In my mind, filler is something that advances nothing in the story, you are left in the same place you were beforehand. No character development, plot moving, or points are resolved. The ideal filler dungeon for me is where your party goes in to retrieve a Macguffin, and the villain comes in and destroys it at the end. If he steals it, and it becomes a plot point that he has it, its not filler. A through-dungeon does advance the plot, if only geographically.
/pedantic stuff, don't mind me.
/pedantic stuff, don't mind me.
Games you hate or dislike?
The artist is apparently a famous manwha in Korea, at least from what I recall, and it was a big deal at the time about Koreans getting into the eastern RPG set. I can generally get past wonky art, in that I love Dragon's Crown despite the awkward proportions of some of the ladies, but Magna Carta was terribly thought out art + bad game play.
Game length and maintaining player interest
Well, if a dungeon feels like filler, you're probably doing the valleys wrong. Dungeons should never feel like you're wasting time, but maybe its a bit less important, like a dungeon to get through a mountain range. If every single dungeon is fighting to save the world versus the end boss, you may be relying too much on peaks.
The side quest point is definitely on the nose though, often after major events, you'll notice side quests open up in games. As a note though, the same interest/cool off curve should also apply to side quests and the like. Hell, should apply to every aspect of a game.
The side quest point is definitely on the nose though, often after major events, you'll notice side quests open up in games. As a note though, the same interest/cool off curve should also apply to side quests and the like. Hell, should apply to every aspect of a game.
Games you hate or dislike?
I will bash on a game likely almost no one remembers: Magna Carta. The art is beyond absurd, especially the female designs (back problems, ho!), even in the context of anime-esque art. Nothing about their designs has any basis in reality other than someone's fever dreams of what the human body is supposed to look like.
The battle system is the worst offender though. Each battlefield starts with a certain amount of each element in it, and when that element is gone, there's no way to recover it except to use opposite elements enough. The problem is, the ratio isn't 1:1, hell it isn't even 2:1. If you have a fire character, and a water character, both casting equally, soon everyone is out of spells/skills. What makes that worse is that your team is constantly changed, and never really in your control...and a few hours in, you're tossed with a group that is three water users. Two of them being healers, so entirely pointless, and means you run out of any usable spells very quickly.
The worst offense of the battle system is it is an action RPG design, with a 3 person party...like Secret of Mana or similar. Unlike Secret of Mana, which came out two full generations before this game, this game decided that the best way to do a 3 person party in an action game is to have no AI for the characters you are not controlling. So in essence, you control one character at a time, and the other two stand in place, getting wailed on by enemies. The best I could do is hide my good character behind two immobile idiot-walls.
I completely regret purchasing this game, but at least I got to trade it for a full season of Ranma 1/2.
The battle system is the worst offender though. Each battlefield starts with a certain amount of each element in it, and when that element is gone, there's no way to recover it except to use opposite elements enough. The problem is, the ratio isn't 1:1, hell it isn't even 2:1. If you have a fire character, and a water character, both casting equally, soon everyone is out of spells/skills. What makes that worse is that your team is constantly changed, and never really in your control...and a few hours in, you're tossed with a group that is three water users. Two of them being healers, so entirely pointless, and means you run out of any usable spells very quickly.
The worst offense of the battle system is it is an action RPG design, with a 3 person party...like Secret of Mana or similar. Unlike Secret of Mana, which came out two full generations before this game, this game decided that the best way to do a 3 person party in an action game is to have no AI for the characters you are not controlling. So in essence, you control one character at a time, and the other two stand in place, getting wailed on by enemies. The best I could do is hide my good character behind two immobile idiot-walls.
I completely regret purchasing this game, but at least I got to trade it for a full season of Ranma 1/2.
Game length and maintaining player interest
How long/short a game tends to be depends on the rise/fall of interest in it. There's actually a lot of studies into how to keep someone interested in a game, and finishing it at a satisfying point. It is not always that a game is too short because they want to play more...but because you ended it when the player's interest was still peaking, and without a satisfying cool off. Usually for games, the final boss fight is the final 'peak' of action, and the cool off is the ending sequence (Final Fantasy 6 for example, killing off Kefka's final form is the peak, and the escape from the tower is the declining action portion).
In the same vein, if there's not enough peaks between start and finish, the game feels overly long and dull. Whether it be story moments, interesting boss fights, or the like, you have to keep the player interested. At the same time, you have to give them cool-off periods, calm times, less strenuous encounters, character building, etc. If you have too many peaks, and are just constantly ramping it up, the player gets overly stressed...and thinks the game is going on too long.
Here's an interesting graphic showing it for Wind Waker, to give you guys an idea:
In the same vein, if there's not enough peaks between start and finish, the game feels overly long and dull. Whether it be story moments, interesting boss fights, or the like, you have to keep the player interested. At the same time, you have to give them cool-off periods, calm times, less strenuous encounters, character building, etc. If you have too many peaks, and are just constantly ramping it up, the player gets overly stressed...and thinks the game is going on too long.
Here's an interesting graphic showing it for Wind Waker, to give you guys an idea:
Screenshot Survival 20XX
@ExtremeDevelopment have no idea what shift mapping is, so...
It seems everyone's suggesting I make the maps much smaller, but given (for example) for the second map, that is the -entire- map, I feel like everything would be way too cramped. If I make the alley smaller, everything will be one square wide. Do you guys have any examples of similar maps in the size range you're talking about?
It seems everyone's suggesting I make the maps much smaller, but given (for example) for the second map, that is the -entire- map, I feel like everything would be way too cramped. If I make the alley smaller, everything will be one square wide. Do you guys have any examples of similar maps in the size range you're talking about?
Screenshot Survival 20XX
@Dookie looks much better dude, doesn't clash at all with the palette now.
So, got past the 'making missions quickly so people can test' and onto the 'make them look nice so I can easily remap when I get a proper tileset'
So, here's my first mission, supposed to be a back alley.
Edited to add another:
Desert encampment (too much on screen with the brush?)
Edit2: Two more, posted this one before, made some changes to make it look better I hope. Still supposed to be a hijacked airplane. Included before and after monsters rip out part of the fuselage.
And a short mission on top of a train.
Any advice you guys can give would be appreciated!
So, got past the 'making missions quickly so people can test' and onto the 'make them look nice so I can easily remap when I get a proper tileset'
So, here's my first mission, supposed to be a back alley.
Edited to add another:
Desert encampment (too much on screen with the brush?)
Edit2: Two more, posted this one before, made some changes to make it look better I hope. Still supposed to be a hijacked airplane. Included before and after monsters rip out part of the fuselage.
And a short mission on top of a train.
Any advice you guys can give would be appreciated!
[GM] Respawn enemies? Or savor a clean field?
Yeah, the problem with older FE games was that if you leveled up the -wrong- characters, you were kinda screwed. And besides spoiling it, it tended to be trial and error who was worth leveling up.
If you're worried about balance if you let them farm enemies, have level ups plateau, as in eventually they just give you small numerical advantages, and the major power ups be story based. That still lets you allow players to get past a blockage if they can't quite get the strategy perfect, but prevent just grinding to oblivion.
If you're worried about balance if you let them farm enemies, have level ups plateau, as in eventually they just give you small numerical advantages, and the major power ups be story based. That still lets you allow players to get past a blockage if they can't quite get the strategy perfect, but prevent just grinding to oblivion.
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