Embracing the Kiss of Death
So I’m tackling the “mission impossible” of doing a single-player Roleplaying Game right now, which is a suicide mission by every rational piece of conventional wisdom. Kiss of Death. But I’m an idiot that way. The three things I figure I’ve got going for me are experience (to a point), a somewhat mature engine to work with (Torque), and it’s NOT multiplayer. And though I'm highly committed to the project, I'm still willing to cut and run if it doesn't work out. So I've been very carefully working on "proof of concept" and core engine work to judge the feasibility of what is something that independent game developers Just Don't Do (until they actually DO).

I got to spend about eighteen months of “Blue Sky” design phase on this project, which was delightful. Much of it occurred while I was still finishing up Void War. I got to read a lot of fiction and nonfiction books on the subject matter, listen to a very different style of music, and even talk to a historian (a relative) on the subject. And consult with an editor from the D20 “table-top” RPG industry who has a knowledge of both RPGs and the genre (which has never been used in a computer game before – so it’s a plus for being different, but might also be yet another Kiss Of Death.)

Then comes the really hard, painful stage of scoping down all those really great ideas to something that’s actually remotely achievable, imposing limits, and actual implementation – translating the ideal game-in-your-head to its less-perfect version on the screen. That’s occurred in the last four months, along with early implementation of the basic “engine” driving the game. I’ve posted a couple of blogs about my “proof of concept” stuff I’ve been doing for cutscenes, lighting, and figuring out stuff in Torque.



Lately I’ve been working on the user interface, the “skill” system, controls, and combat. None of this is anywhere resembling final yet – I’m just working on back-end code and using stand-in art resources to prototype the proof-of-concept. So far, it’s been coming along pretty well.

You can see a few tell-tale signs of the RTS Starter Pack I used to give me a leg-up. I’m actually not using very much of it at this point, but it pointed me in the right direction. I’ve had to create some custom UI elements to create animated buttons and images that slide around as actions take place. The character panels have a line of “action tiles” that behave a little bit like The Sims. The player can “queue up” commands to the characters, giving him some breathing room when controlling up to four characters at a time. Those actions can be aborted at any time by clicking on the action tile. Combat is handled in ‘slow motion’ turns to keep things controllable.

I’m also working on some really weird, funky systems to make non-combat activities more exciting. The setting is loosely based on the modern world, so going around hacking up the local citizenry (or even villains) would have pretty dire consequences. Now Joe Maruschak might call me out on letting story (and setting) get in the way of gameplay, but the flip side is that a those very limitations can propel you to come up with fun, unique gameplay that makes sense within a compelling metaphor. Well, assuming you are a talented and skilled game designer. I’m really not, so I’m just hoping I will get lucky.

The other challenge I’m facing is scoping the game. RPGs are typically exploratory in nature, and thus have GINORMOUS content requirements. I don’t have the budget, time, and resources to create something with hundreds of unique locations and a cast of thousands. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve I’m trying to employ to resolve this problem, one of which is to borrow a bit from the adventure-game aesthetic, allowing the same locations to have multiple purposes at different points along the game.

We’ll see how I do. It’s been a couple of interesting and educational months getting this far, and after living and breathing this thing for months (at least in my so-called “spare” time), it’s fun seeing it all take shape.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:12 PM (Permalink)