I Rocked Out Too Hard...
And broke my Guitar Hero controller...

It is a day of much sadness. The wheel under the whammy bar made a snapping sound after I'd gone back to play some GH1 (Still haven't 4-starred Bark at the Moon on Hard yet) and then it stopped. Looks like I broke a spring inside of it - or the plastic that was attached to it.

I still have one controller (my oldest one) which functions, but Guitar Hero just ain't nearly as fun without two players. So a visit to the store today is probably in order.

I don't THINK I rock out as hard as some of these other players (I mean, I'm still playing on Hard, not Expert). Maybe playing the whammy down so close to its mount point overdoes it on the spring?

Labels: Guitar Hero

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:14 PM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
What Makes a Great RPG - The World
In my discussion on the "ideal" RPG yesterday, there's a reason I listed "A believable, compelling, and interactive world" first. Of all the factors that give me Ye Olde Thrill when playing an RPG, this is the area that excites me the most. Make me believe in the world a little bit, make me care for the setting and the imaginary people in it, and I'll forgive a multitude of sins in your game.

For the purpose of this article, "The World" means the physical environment of the game, all the characters inside it, and even the overall mood and "feel" of the game's setting.

So what makes it work? There are literally books devoted to establishing setting, mood, and character in fiction and film. Many of those techniques apply very well to the game world as well.

Besides traditional cinematic and literary approaches, there are probably an infinite number of possibilities for making a compelling game-world as well. One of the keys is interactivity, which I'll also bring up in an article on role-playing as a factor of great RPGs. There should not be large, empty areas with nothing to do - adventure and discovery should be lurking around every corner and in every other grid-square. The characters, monsters, traps, treasure, props, and locations should all feel like they belong.

However, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Many players find themselves frustrated and overwhelmed with too much detail and too much going on in the game.

Rather than detail all of the zillions of ways games do manage to make the game world come alive (and the ways in which they undermine the goal), I'll just cite some examples, and let other players speak their mind:

Examples
Origin kept trying to escape Britannia with the Ultima series, but the fans - as much as they wanted something different and new - really liked being able to go back to the familiar (but upgraded) stomping grounds that contained Lord British, Minic, Skara Brae, Trinsic, and the old named dungeons. The world had become alive to them, and had a history. Even if the city (and dungeon) layouts bore little in common with their older versions than the name.

Ultime VI and Ultima VII also offered an unprecedented - and largely unequaled, even today - level of interactivity with the world. These were the first games (to my knowledge) to offer crafting options to players. They also let you explore your homicidal tendencies to the fullest by offering a spell that would literally wipe out everyone on the planet in one fell stroke. This provided a depth of exploration that went beyond traversing geography. There was more to the world than what you could see as you were going from point A to point B.

Speaking of Skara Brae, the destroyed city with the ghostly inhabitants was one of the things that made Ultima VII my favorite RPG. The evening spent in Skara Brae was one of the best experiences I've had in the game. The plot and story behind it was a big part of it - a compelling world is inextricably linked to story and back-story - but the reason for town's destruction, the plight of the ghosts, and the mayor's sacrifice - all added together to make Skara Brae as close to a "real" place as I've enjoyed in a game.

Much more recently, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines had me hooked on the setting. The four cities (well, city blocks, almost) had the mood and feel down. Each setting had a distinctive rhythm and flavor, but they all felt like dark and seedy. The perfect urban jungles for modern-era predators to prowl - from the mundane psychos to the supernatural horrors. The characters, too, were distinctive and interesting. I found myself wondering during the opening sequence who all these characters were that appeared only briefly in the princes' court. They whispered to each other - they seemed to have agendas of their own. And they did. It worked.

And of course, there's Oblivion. The world itself - the physical geography - was absolutely amazing. Just setting off to explore the countryside frequently bore fruit - you couldn't go far before stumbling across some shrine or mysterious ruin. There were books, scrolls, passages, and conversations that hinted at some of these mysteries that helped build not only the believability of the world, but also built interest in its secrets. Unfortunately, where Oblivion - and all the Elder Scrolls games, I think - fell down is that all of this felt like ancient history. There was no feeling of things having happened days, weeks, months, or years before you arrived on the scene. Things are no longer in motion, except for a few connections via subquests. The non-player characters are likewise disassociated from each other except by deliberate plot threads. The random population of dungeons sure didn't help make them feel in any way integrated with the rest of the game-world, either.

Adamantyr in the forums pointed out another important feature: Exceptions to the rules and surprises. This is important in story and plot as well, but it is just as important in the characters and setting. Game worlds and mechanics are driven by fairly deterministic rules under the hood, which means everything tends to follow the same pattern. Having some great exceptions to the rules - weird things that don't follow the standard pattern - helps keep the player on his toes and thinking of the game world within its own context rather than as the underlying mechanics. Adamantyr explains that in Legends II for the TI-99, "When in a dungeon, you come across an imprisoned young woman who begs you to help her. If you do, you have her as a "quest item" until you leave the dungeon for the surface... At which point she backstabs your wizard instantly killing him, warns you to stay out of affairs that are not your concern, and disappears. Apparently she works for the bad guys, and they set up a little trap for you as a warning. " While perhaps cliche in pen-and-paper games, this isn't something often found in computer RPGs.

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption had its faults. But I, for one, fell in love with medieval Prague as presented by the game. The "thees" and "thous" sounded awkward, and the dialog reached ultraviolet heights, but the whole culture of the medieval European city, ever dominated by the Catholic Church, juxtaposed with the very extensively detailed vampiric culture and backstory, made it easy to suspend disbelief.

And you need only look up the fanfic for various Final Fantasy games to discover just how those characters - as simple and and archetypical and laden with often poorly-translated brief dialog as they were - found a home in players' imaginations. The actual locations in the worlds themselves were sometimes disposable, filled with meaningless characters that endlessly parroted the same two sentences of dialog. But the primary characters captured the imaginations, and made players care about them.

Advice From Players
"For me, a good RPG offers an immersive, sandbox gameworld. Story and character development are secondary." - Maija, at TwentySided.

"I think a great RPG is immersing. Whatever the other qualities, if I get sucked in and feel like I’m there, a part of that world, that is a great RPG, whether it be computer or table-top." - Derek, at Twenty-Sided.

"I would say that the most important for me is that the characters are believable and sympathetic (both good and evil ones). But then that would count for any game with a story.... One example would be the characters of Hired Guns (not an RPG but a game with some RPG elements on top). All the characters in this game are brilliantly set up. From the broody portraits to the back story. They are believable and from the first moment on where you meet them you want to be their friend. I can't say that about too many other RPGs." - Lizardman, on the Rampant Games Forums.

"Intuitiveness is key - both to enjoyment and to immersion... I find myself walking away from many potentially exciting stories because it’s too much of a bother to make those stories into actualities - I’d rather read them. Finally, I consider fine characters to be more important than fine story, especially if I must choose one or the other. A fine story might be something to remember, but good characters will take a player from moment to moment within the game." - Ben Finkel, at Twenty-Sided

"I’m starting to feel like dialogue in games eats immersion, because, barring hard AI, characters can’t act like people, and poor dialogue is worse than none. More NPC interaction, but with less dialogue, that would be sweet to see." - Matt, at Twenty-Sided

"Looking at which games I thought were great, and why. Might and Magic 1: Great because there was an entire world to explore, in (for the time) ridiculous detail." -- Jeff, at Twenty-Sided.

"There needs to be a moment that will make you just HAVE to tell someone about it. Preferably more then one, but you really need the 'I can't believe that just happened. That is so cool/disturbing/amazing/unbelievable/surprising/awful" - I don't think it matters what adjective it spawns, as long as the player remembers it and tells others about it, even if it screwed his character. (It can't screw the player - it can't put the player in a place that continuing on from isn't fun. The CHARACTER can be hosed, the PLAYER needs fun) " - RandomGamer at the Rampant Games Forums

"Randomization does nothing but detract from detail and realism, and hence leads to a less immersing game world. Look at Morrowind, Fallout or Baldur’s Gate. The worlds are static and all the better for it. Nothing looks out of place." - SumeSublime, at Twenty-Sided.

"One thing that always gets me is when you’re put into an environment where there’s too much to do. I want to be railroaded for the first hour or two. Then bring on the immersiveness. But I want my beginning to be simple, straightforward, with a minimum of lasting consequences." - JoL at Twenty-Sided.

"It is like music or art, it has to have a feel that truly draws a person into it... The music needs to fit, and make the player feel something relevent to the current game state... Exploration needs to be a part of it." - DrSlinky1500 at the Rampant Games forums

"Interesting characters. Villains with no agenda outside of being evil jerks are tiresome and banal. Good characters without some quirks or flaws are usually pretty flat... I like large freeform worlds. I dislike when the “being on rails” metaphor extends to movement within the game world. If I can only go forward or back, then I’m going to get bored. Quickly." - Shamus Young at Twenty-Sided.

"Character interaction. Choice. Atmosphere." - DevNull at Twenty-Sided.

Links:
* What Makes a Great RPG?
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Answer?
* What Makes a Great RPG - Playing a Role
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Story
* What Makes a Great RPG - Mechanics
* What Makes a Great RPG - Everything Else
* What Makes a Great RPG (Twenty-Sided)
* What Makes a Great RPG, Part II (Twenty-Sided)
* What Makes a Great RPG, Part III (Twenty-Sided)

Got More To Say On This? You Can Post Your View on the Forum!

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:00 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
What Makes A Great RPG - The Answer?
Two days ago I posted a question that I usually ask whenever I'm interviewing an RPG designer: "What Makes a Great RPG?" I've looked up answers by several veteran game designers on this subject over the course of the last couple of years. Shamus Young joined in on the quest for answers, bringing his scarily large number of readers to bear against the question. If only by sheer numbers, we overpowered the question and forced its surrender. He ended up beating me to the punch with not one, but two responses. The hysterical one and the legitimate one. Dang, the dude can write. And people wonder where I find the time.

The answers were staggering not only in their passion, but in their variety. Including some answers that appeared mutually exclusive. I think, in the end, the real answer, when you streamline and synthesize all this information, is trivially, head-smackingly simple. As in, "wait a minute, I knew this already."

But it's kind of like the secret of losing weight. The secret is, "Eat Less And Exercise More," in case you were really wondering. Sure, alternatives exist, like liposuction and getting a leg amputated, but that's really the conventional key. But it's easier said than done.

So this article just deals with the high-level view. How do you judge greatness? What are we striving for? The rest of the articles (at the bottom of this article) deal with specifics, much of it based on comments by readers here and at Twenty-Sided. Are we there yet? Well, let's find out...

The Ideal
The real question is "Why do we play RPGs?" Computer or otherwise. I guess the answers here vary as much as anywhere else, but I'd submit its about escapism. Escaping not only from the pressures and problems of the mundane world, but to escape our very selves - to become a fictional character in a world as compelling and exciting and visceral as is technologically possible. We want our every move to be woven into the grandest of stories. But we want to do it with the safety of being able to return to the "real world."

A Compelling, Believable, and Highly Interactive World
It's the compulsion to jump into the pages of the novel or into the screen of a movie and join in the action, taking it off the rails, becoming the new hero, and seeing and exploring what we want, going where we want, and doing what we want. We want a lucid-dream world full of magic, mystery, and drama. We want to have no boundaries to our exploration, and we want every nook and cranny stuffed with exciting things for us to discover.

And we want it to be populated by incredibly detailed, fascinating, and important characters who's lives eventually revolve around our actions, whether they know it or not. We'll still probably ignore them, but we want to believe that they would have had rich, fulfilling, fascinating lives before we showed up and ruined them.

Playing A Role... To The Fullest!
We want to explore not only a compelling, imaginary world, but we want to explore the possibilities of being someone else. Maybe someone very much like us, to see what we'd do in a similar situation.

But the real thrill - being a fictional character, even just a fictionalized version of ourselves - allows us to explore a range of possibilities our of our reach anywhere else. The fictional character is safe. We can explore the dark side without enduring the taint of sin on our real-world souls. We can endure impossible torments, both physical and technological, because we're voyaging outside of our own selves. We can switch between the character being "me" and the character being "someone else" at will. It's the ultimate freedom - freedom from consequences to ourselves for choices we make. Sure our character might suffer, but we won't.

Naturally, we want the fullest range of interactivity with the world, so that we can explore not only it, but our projected, fictionalized selves. We want to be able to do anything our twisted little minds can imagine, from the mundane to the fantastic to the downright shocking.

An Awesome Story of Me
We want story. Nobody wants to be bored in a fictional reality, either. We want context and meaning and goals and stuff. But we don't want to follow the story - we want the story to follow us! We want it to bend and reshape itself to our every action. Our every minor move should have the fullest attention of the gods - or the author - or the computer, whoever is running this show.

And the universe should respond as the ultimate improvisational performer. The world should literally - if unknowingly - revolve around us, and our every action should - after the big reveal, climax, and resolution - prove to have been critical and not just dramatically appropriate, but dramatically perfect. At the end of the game, we want to go back and see the whole thing laid out behind us like a masterwork of literature or cinema (or better), and realize that any different action we'd taken would have substantially altered the entire plot. But of course, we want the ending to be as satisfying as if it were the only one, and we'd magically beelined our way to the perfect conclusion.

It's doubtful a master fiction writer could retroactively chronicle our actions in such a way, but we want the computer or human game-master to do all this improvisationally... all on the fly.

Fun, Progress, and Challenge
And finally, we want to be entertained every step of the way. We want to see progress in a way that no "real" character would see it. And we want to overcome challenges. Notice it's about overcoming those challenges - the challenges should never permanently defeat us. Failure is always for the other guy. Our escapes should always be narrow, or defeats temporary and dramatic, our victories legendary. Those who doubted us will humble themselves, and those who opposed us - should they survive - will acknowledge our superiority in the end.

Exit The Matrix
Without the technology from The Matrix, and a team of extremely talented human game-masters and performers, we're just not gonna get the ideal. Even in the "Dream Park" series, the illusion was flawed for the participants.

And even if by some miraculous breakthrough of science and liberal arts we could achieve this, we'd have to re-adjust our scale because people would find more things to complain about. That's just human nature. But this is sufficiently far enough out to work for these purposes.

So if we just assume that perfection - the ideal - will never be achieved, we can look at the quality of RPG experiences as a spectrum. The ideal is at one end, and at the other end we have... uh... the Dead Alewives' Dungeons & Dragons, maybe. Then we can define the greatness of an RPG by how far it pushes us along towards that ideal.

Naturally, this is a subjective measure. The factors that make me geek out on an RPG aren't going to be exactly the same as anyone else. Apparently fancy graphics and real-time combat are enough for a couple of million players, but they don't turn my crank as much as deep combat systems and high interactivity with the world and non-player characters. And in our imperfect state, some of these factors do come into conflict. The AI system of Oblivion was rumored to be very sophisticated and complex, but was effectively neutered in order to prevent them from ruining the game and killing each other with garden hoes. Sad, but understandable.

Breaking It Down... And Down... And Down...
Unfortunately, its unlikely to be a case of finding one or two gimmicks and making them make the whole game work. It's more of a multiplicative relationship between all the parts. One near-zero value in the list of features will ruin everything else.

This article has already gone on too long, and I haven't even begun to touch on the feedback and suggestions people have made far in the forum and in reply to Shamus's posts. So this will have to be a multi-part article series. I mentioned above four of what I consider key (but broad) aspects of the "ideal" RPG, and I think I'm going to deal with each of these aspects in individual articles:

* A Compelling, Believable, and Highly Interactive World
* Playing a Role To The Fullest
* An Awesome Story of Me
* Fun, Progress, and Challenge
* And some odds and ends that might not make a great experience, but could break one.

Interestingly enough, three of these map to three of the "Bartle Four" in multiplayer RPGs... the game world for explorers, the challenge and progress for the achievers, and the role-playing for the socializers (even if they aren't socializing with "real people.") The guys left out are the "griefers," but they aren't having fun unless they are making real people unhappy, so single-player RPGs probably aren't their thing anyway. Unless they just like going through and decapitating every imaginary living thing in site, which falls under the interactive world and role-playing categories, but then they'll probably complain that it broke the story. You just can't win.

But What Do You Think?
The later articles will draw heavily from the comments here and at Shamus's site, so I hope you guys don't mind me quoting you. I didn't want to leave this one without some quotes, however, so I'm going to pull out some thoughts by folks interviewed by me here on this site that I ambushed with this very question. Here's what they had to say.

Scorpia (RPG / Adventure Columnist for Computer Gaming World for many years): A good story. Preferably one that does not involve "killing off Ancient Evil Foozle to save the world"... NPCs that have some realism to them. In particular, aspects that make you care about at least some of them (not necessarily in a romantic way). Decent dialog that doesn't look or sound like it was written by a 14-year-old with an attitude. Balanced combat (this is much better now than it used to be in the old games). A good mix of combat and non-combat situations. Multiple ways to resolve some of the quests. Different endings for good and evil, if the game allows evil PCs. Opportunities for true role-playing, outside the straight-jacket of D&D alignment... A rewarding ending that provides a sense of accomplishment. (Interview with Scorpia)

Amanda Fitch (Aveyond, Ahriman's Prophecy): For me, a good story, lots of quests, lots of villages, and loot! (Amanda Fitch Interview)

Jason Compton (The Broken Hourglass): The quality is the immersiveness of it. Not necessarily that I believe I’m in that world, but I really believe that I’m controlling that world, and interacting with it. And I don’t want to leave it alone, because only I can save it, or only I can manipulate it in the way it needs to be manipulated, or whatever... There’s the sense of putting you in a situation where you matter in some way. Different games do it in different ways, but yeah, you have to make the player feel like they matter in the world. (Jason Compton Interview)

Links:
* What Makes a Great RPG?
* What Makes a Great RPG - The World
* What Makes a Great RPG - Playing a Role
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Story
* What Makes a Great RPG - Mechanics
* What Makes a Great RPG - Everything Else
* What Makes a Great RPG (Twenty-Sided)
* What Makes a Great RPG, Part II (Twenty-Sided)
* What Makes a Great RPG, Part III (Twenty-Sided)

(Vaguely) related useless speculation:
* When Does A Game Cease Being Great?
* The 16 Essential RPGs
* What Makes a Game Great?
* Lessons Learned Playing Computer RPGs
* What Makes a Good Casual RPG?

The Forum Post full of very sage advice!

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:00 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Does Textfyre Have a Chance of Reviving the Commercial Text Adventure?
In case you missed the several announcements, the ghost of Infocom has once again come a-haunting. Textfyre is a soon-to-be-launched text-adventure company that is attempting to bring back the commercial text adventure. They aren't the first ones to do this - the niche has remained active with free and commercial titles for many years now. But do they have a chance of breaking back out of the niche?

Doing a good job of it can be every bit as challenging as creating a good game of any kind. While the abstraction of text makes interactions far easier to simulate than that of an equivalent 3D video game, that can also raises the bar on what should be possible within the text adventure. The subtleties and massive scope of interactions possible by a single-author text adventure (dubbed "Interactive Fiction" or "IF" by modern fans) would boggle the mind of an XBox 360 game producer.

And the quality of the writing of the top FREE IF games would blow away that of any AAA game out there... though it is also written for a different audience. I doubt the short-attention-span console gamer would stand for the prose of the old Infocom or modern IF games. Just as movies must usually abbreviate and simplify the dialog and characters of the books they are based on.

David Cornelson's strategy is to avoid putting them in head-to-head competition with video games. That didn't go so well for Infocom back in the day, nor would it today. His strategy is based more on putting it on the shelves of bookstores - getting it in front of readers, particular young adult readers.

I think that's a critical approach. And maybe a good reason for calling the genre "Interactive Fiction" rather than "Adventure Games." I always thought the IF moniker was a bit pretentious, myself, but under these circumstances it makes perfect sense.

But there's a wealth of free IF out there today. So the flip side is that Textfyre's titles will have to compete with not only every other form of interactive and non-interactive media out there, but also with all the free IF out there.

While I personally consider it a long shot, I also admit the idea of a really well-written, official, highly-interactive Harry Potter "book" that lets me run hog-wild at Hogwarts is geeks me out to an embarrassing degree.

Can they make it work? Has that ship sailed, or is the time ripe for a resurgence? What do you think?


(Vaguely) related text references
* A Twisty Little Maze of Passages, All Different
* Adventure Gaming Alive and Well?
* How Do I Get Past The Harpies?
* Galatea
* Losing Your Limits Without Losing Your Mind
.

Labels: Adventure Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:43 PM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights: Odds and Ends
More tales of developing Frayed Knights, a humorous indie Computer RPG!

It's all about the details. This is true in making computer games, as well as most things in life. You can usually do the rough stuff pretty quickly, but if you aren't careful you can get buried in details.

Take traps, for instance. I talked last week about how I got the trap-disarming interface "done." Part of me convinced myself that traps were "done-done." Or very close to it. Not hardly. All I really had was a hard-coded mini-game that popped up when I hit the "T" key. The "little" odds and ends to truly integrate it into the game were as time consuming (if not more so) than this aspect.

Some Of The Odds And Ends
* I had to actually set up the traps in the world to go off on the player when he walks into them (a trigger volume) or when he manipulates a trapped object (like a door or treasure chest).

* I had to set up ways in which the player can find the trap. I wanted the player to be able to manually search for a trap, but also have a smaller chance of detecting it BEFORE detonating it if he just walks into it.

* I had to set up persistent data for all traps, so that traps that were already set off didn't get set off every time the player passes by.

* I had to know who to have the trap go off against. If it didn't go off in a failed deactivation, I had to pick a character at random if the trap payloads only affected a single character.

* I had to make sure the UI updated to reflect the damage states of the characters after a trap went off.

* I had to put up message screens to let the player know what was going on.

* Oh, and I wanted a treasure chest to test traps on. Lacking a stock treasure chest, I had to make my own.

And Then There Were Bugs
* First of all, I mapped the "S" key to search, but unfortunately it's also mapped to the alternate WASD controls for walking around the dungeon. So I had to change it to "X" for "eXamine" as an alternate keyboard command. A very small deal, but annoying (and I have to create a new stand-in button before October 30).

* Traps weren't firing when you entered their trigger zone for some reason. That turned out to be a simple fix... the code was looking at the datablock's data rather than the instances data (you Torque coders will know what I'm talking about. Everyone else is probably nodding their heads and backing away SLOWLY).

* One issue I'm still fighting with is how I've only got one trap at a time loaded into memory, but there's the potential for the player discovering multiple traps within an area. I think I'm going to opt for the easy way out on this one, and just make sure the trap density is kept fairly low.

* For a while, the traps keep targeting poor Dirk, even if he never touched the trap. That was because the shared code kept "choosing" him to be the default person to disarm the trap. But when no disarming took place, he was still the turkey.

* Then the chest wasn't appearing in the game. But that was easy to find after a couple of iterations.

More Rumblings
Incidentally, I'm contributing this chest to the Low Poly Coop, so other indies can use the same chest. And maybe if they improve it before Frayed Knights releases, I'll be able to use the improvements! The texturing on it was slapped together in a hurry (and, aside from the lack of detail on the metal bands and the difference in sizes of the boards on the lid versus the sides, ended up looking halfway decent). And I don't have any levels-of-detail on it yet, which I need to do. But just what you see here, with the animated lid, represented around three hours of effort.

But you know what's REALLY cool? Walking through the dungeon, checking for traps, disarming or setting them off the way they'll actually work in the real game (albeit sans cool visuals and sound right now), clicking on chests and doors to open and close them, encountering monsters... it's all in there and working!!!! It's a fabulous feeling. As early-stage as it all is, as prototyped as it all is, I can see the vision of the complete game appearing in all its rough-edged glory now. Even though I've had the "first five minutes" demo working for a month now, I'm finally beginning to see the world come together - at least in an abstract, prototypical way.

And that is an incredibly motivating thing.

So What's Next?
My schedule is to have all principle systems done by the end of October. November is my "glue" month, where I finish yet more "odds and ends" and integration. It's also where I begin working on content. My big milestone coming up in a little over 30 days is the Utah Indie Game Developer's meeting, where I'll be showing off what I've got. It's still going to be very content-light, so only the other programmers may be at all interested in what I've got. I may violate my internal milestones a little to try and work on some content prematurely so I have a little more to show.

This week's goals: Making locks & traps work properly on doors and chests (they are there but not functional right now). Back to conversations. And putting inventory in the treasure chests that you can pick up. Drama star effects. And cheat codes (to facilitate testing of drama star effects, mainly).

THAT should keep me busy!


(Vaguely) related lame excuses:
* The First "Playable" Level
* The Black Triangle
* Frayed Knights: Trap Disarmed!
* Frayed Knights: Disarmament Treatise
* Frayed Knights: The Door Is Ajar

Discuss Here, Or On The Forum. Or Not! See If I Care! (*Sniff*)
.

Labels: Frayed Knights, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Indie RPG News, September 26th
It's been a little quiet on the indie RPG news front the last few days. But we've got some nice updates for the very-sweet Depths of Peril and a pair of articles about the upcoming game The Broken Hourglass.


Depths of Peril
The Depths of Peril has a pair of updates now available. The first "official" patch is 1.001, and there is a "beta" 1.002 patch also available. These are only for the full versions of the game, not the demo. To check them out, visit the patch page:

Depths of Peril Patch Page


The Broken Hourglass
The first of the two articles is inspired by Robert Jordan, and discusses the idea of the player's perspective shifting from character to character within an RPG. This isn't unheard of, but it is a lot more popular in jRPGs than western RPGs. The author questions why more RPGs haven't adopted this fantasy novel convention (though it drew some criticism against Jordan's later books in the Wheel of Time series).

Character Point-Of-View and CRPGs


The second is another of the "under the hood" articles about the game engine and its uses (and, specifically, potential abuses) by modders. In particular, the game engine developer, Westley Weimer, surprised the entire team with a match-three game using the engine's scripting abilities. The author (I suspect Jason Compton) mentions, "When we first started taking press inquiries about The Broken Hourglass, we were surprised at the amount of interest in the presence and prevalence of minigames-although in retrospect, we should not have been. Mixing up playstyles has been a staple of gaming for decades, whether as a stand-alone game concept (Lazy Jones, Wario Wares) or a break in the action in a bigger, focused game (the slot machine or lock-picking game in the RPG of your choice), and it shows no sign of fading."

Inside the Engine: Abuses

Labels: indie, Indie RPG News, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:49 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
It's All Fun And Games Until The NINJAS Attack
You know, if you are going to knock over a convenience store, I can't think of a better way to do it than to dress and arm yourself as a ninja.

Apparently, neither could these ladies...

I love the police chief's quote: "Swords, daggers could be used to seriously harm victims, so this is a very serious crime." I can just imagine this poor guy has been dealing with police officers and reporters all day who are falling out of their chairs laughing to PLEASE take this thing seriously. Of course, he then undermines his own point by stating that lethal weapons used for centuries for killing might only "seriously harm" victims. So I guess even he is having trouble keeping a straight face over this whole deal.

Dang. As if things weren't bad enough, we now have ninjas prowling the streets at night. What's this country coming to?
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:45 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
What Makes a Great RPG?
Or, phrased differently, what makes an RPG great?

I've asked this question of most of the people I've interviewed on this site, and since we've got the community and forums here where people can argue this back and forth a bit, I thought I'd ask everyone on the forums:

What's the secret ingredient(s) of a "great" computer RPG?

What do the memorable, wonderful ones possess that the forgettable or frustrating ones lack?

If you can't think of anything general, was there anything in a particular RPG that just gave you the "moment" when the game just went from good to awesome?

Sound off on the forum! I am very curious as to what people will say.

UPDATE: Articles based on this post:
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Answer?
* What Makes a Great RPG - The World
* What Makes a Great RPG - Playing a Role
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Story
* What Makes a Great RPG - Mechanics
* What Makes a Great RPG - Everything Else
* What Makes a Great RPG (Twenty-Sided)
* What Makes a Great RPG, Part II (Twenty-Sided)
* What Makes a Great RPG, Part III (Twenty-Sided)

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:39 PM (Permalink) links to this post

 
Galatea

"Illusions?"

"Perhaps illusion is not quite the right word. Many of his tricks involve a shift in perception: what you see is a spiritual truth to which the overly literal are blind. But there's considerable danger involved. If you don't treat the vision with respect, the result is not understanding, but insanity."
--- Galatea

In researching conversation systems in games, I stumbled across Galatea, the interactive fiction by Emily Short. It's several years old, but fascinating. The entire game takes place in a single room. You are a famous art critic who engages in dialog with a work of art - a statue from ancient Greece named Galatea.

The conversation is keyword-based, but not exclusively so. Galatea's emotional state (it looks like three dimensions) are tracked, and she may take the initiative with the conversation if you let her in some cases. She'll respond to questions or comments differently at different times and moods.

I haven't played it enough to compare it to, say, Façade. But getting all metaphysical with a statue is all kinds of weird and groovy that I get into, so I think I enjoy this game a little bit more. A single game takes only a few minutes, but it's highly replayable.

Hint: If you are really at a loss, you can use the command "topiclist" to get a list of potential topics and their associated verbs. But this is spoiler territory. It's more enjoyable just to go organically and ... well, often just follow along.

An online version of Galatea can be found here:

Galatea


(Vaguely) related text with vague meaning:
* Adventure Gaming Alive and Well?
* How to Turn Façade Into An RPG

Labels: Adventure Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:30 AM (Permalink) 8 comments links to this post

 
Skill-Based or Class-Based?
In role-playing games (computer and pen-and-paper), there are two prevailing types of rule systems used to simulate actions within the game: Skill-Based systems, and class-based systems.

Class-Based RPG Systems
In class-based systems, your character's main abilities are governed by the character's membership within a category or group. Progression is often defined in terms of levels. Dungeons and Dragons, the original RPG, used this kind of system. Each stage of progression grants a number of improvements

The advantage of this kind of system is its simplicity. Again, hearkening back to very-old-school Dungeons & Dragons, the game was based on wargames. Individual units were too hard to track, and the mortality rate was high. Your character wasn't much more than six characteristics (rolled with 3d6), a class, a level, a name, and a hit-point total. The simplicity of the system makes it easier for newcomers to enjoy.

Besides its simplicity in playing, class-based systems are easier to balance for designers. They are especially useful for multi-player (or multi-character) games, as each class can be specialized for dealing with different aspects of the game. A common combat-based example is the tank / ranged / support combination. A "tank" class is designed to take the incoming fire and engage the enemy in close-quarters combat. The ranged classes function as "artillery," doing devastating damage at range, but are very weak and vulnerable in close combat. The support (or "healer") classes enhance the other two by somehow improving their performance and keeping them alive.

Of course, different roles can be added, and many games feature "hybrid" classes that may combine two or more roles in one class (though not as effectively as a specialist).

Class-based systems usually offer a increase in multiple abilities per step of progression. For example, gaining a level might grant you more hit points, a better chance to hit, better defense against attacks (or spells), and increased spellcasting ability or some new special ability all at the same time. This sudden jump in character capability can be a great psychological reward for players.

Examples of Class-Based Games
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st and 2nd editions), EverQuest, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Wizardry 7, Aveyond, Final Fantasy VII.

Playing Class-Based RPGs
If you are playing a class-based RPG, your decision of what class to play will be based upon your personal preference, and the needs of the group. Most class-based RPGs do give you some options for your character beyond class (if only in the selection of equipment), so make sure you understand the strengths and weaknesses of the class when making those decisions.

For example, in older editions of D&D, intelligence isn't a very useful attribute for fighters, but strength is. Making intelligence your fighter's best stat isn't a great idea unless you really want to role-play a "smart fighter" - the rule system won't reward you much for doing that.

In a well-designed game, you usually won't have to worry too much about which class is "better" than any other (though message-board complainers will often protest otherwise in Massively-Multiplayer RPGs). Just pick the most appropriate class and run with it.

Skill-Based RPG Systems
Skill-based systems, on the other hand, give the player much more fine control over their character's progression. Many different aspects of the character may be improved independently of each other.

Based on forum polls, most experienced players prefer skill-based systems because of the flexability in creating and maintaining characters. Players tend to identify with their characters much more than was probably expected in the early days of role-playing games.

Skill-based systems are better for solo or small-group play, as the charactes can become generalists and not suffer from the lack of someone in a specialist role. Skill-based systems are also very good for regular playing groups that have a small amount of churn or variation in participants from session to session (which describes nearly every pen-and-paper group I've ever played with). Players can build in their own redundancies into their characters - so if Bob the Cleric can't show on a Friday night, another player may be able to substitute.

The biggest problems of skill-based systems are the flip-side of the advantages of class-based systems. They are hard to balance. It is often possible for a skilled player to exploit the rules system to come up with certain combinations of skills that, used together, are far more effective than any others (which soon means that EVERYBODY feels compelled to use that same combination, turning the game into the equivalent of a class-based game with only one class). Also, inexperienced players may find themselves creating a far-less "optimum" character build, which can become frustrating. The slow, more granular progression makes progress less visible to players.

Skill-based systems are also very frustrating in pick-up games, as it can be much harder to find a role or "niche" for your character. It's much easier to say (or understand), "I'm a 20th level tank" than, "I have high skills in martial arts, specializing in the katana, stealth, fluent in a dozen languages, and I'm a master in floral arrangement, plus I've got at least a 20 in defensive spellcasting, driving, and aircraft mechanics."

Examples of Skill-Based Systems:
Call of Cthulhu, Final Fantasy XII, Champions, Fallout, Cute Knight.

Playing Skill-Based RPGs
The challenge of playing a skill-based game is understanding all of the options available to you and how they interact with each other. This can be particularly challenging the first time you play, and have to commit to choices during character creation. It might not hurt to do your homework first, and ask other players for suggestions (live or on forums).

If you are playing in a group, avoid the temptation to make your character a "jack of all trades." You will be far happier if you specialize in one or two areas. This will give you an area in which to shine. On the other hand, if you are playing a solo computer game, you will probably want to generalize a bit more and make sure you have all the key bases covered. Your character will need to be self-sufficient... or pick up hirelings who can fill in for your character's weaknesses.

The flexibility (and granularity) of skill-based character progression system usually means that if you find yourself with a "weak build" character, you can easily recover from it in the process of normal play and some well-placed improvements to your character.

Hybrid RPG Systems
Hybrid systems have been around for a while, which try to capture the best of both worlds. The most famous is the third-edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, which keeps the original class system but also adds a heavy layer of skill-based options that the player can take with every level, in the form of feats, skills, and certain class options. The downside of this is added complexity, and a little bit of the weaknesses of both philosophies.

Playing Hybrid RPGs
The advice of both class-based and skill-based RPGs still applies. However, the hybridization throws some assumptions out on their ears.

For example, in 3.5 edition Dungeons and Dragons, there are several useful feats and skills for fighters that are dependent upon intelligence. Suddenly, the option to create a "smart fighter" is far more mechanically interesting in addition to being a fun role to play.

One thing to watch out for with hybrid systems is that there is a greater danger of getting stuck with a "weak-build" character. Hybrid systems grant only some of the flexibility of skill-based systems, which means it could be harder to recover from a poor combination of class and skill choices. In a pen-and-paper RPG, this can simply mean some exciting role-playing opportunities, but in a computer game it could mean a much harder game.

Examples of Hybrid RPG Systems
Vampire: The Masquerade (it adopts the granular improvement of most skill-based systems, but the vampire's clan is a powerful influence over the character's progression and behavior), Dungeons & Dragons edition 3.0 and 3.5, D20 Modern, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Avernum 4.


(Vaguely) related links of doom:
* Original Dungeons & Dragons Trivia
* The Evolution of Computer RPGs
* Why Do RPGs Suck Now?
.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink) 9 comments links to this post

 
A Pair of Spiderweb RPG Reviews
Spiderweb Software is one of the oldest and most prolific indie RPG developers out there, and there are a pair of reviews out there for two of their more recent releases, "Nethergate: Resurrection" and "Geneforge 4"

Nethergate: Resurrection is an update / remake of their 1990's indie RPG, Nethergate. It's claim to fame is a more historically-based setting (something that was probably a turn-off for some RPG fans, who probably equate history with very boring high school classes), and the fact that it was two games in one - you could re-play the game on the opposite side of the conflict between the Celts and the Romans. RPGWatch has the review:

Nethergate Resurrection Review

Not to be outdone, the incomparable Scorpia has a review of Spiderweb's science-fantasy thriller, Geneforge 4.

Scorpia's Geneforge 4 Review

One thing that makes both of these reviews unique (in my mind): They both heap praise on the turn-based combat of these games. RPGWatch lists the turn-based combat in the "Pro" column about the game, with no explanation or assumption that such a designation might even be controversial. Scorpia states, "Happy to relate, combat is turn-based, something not seen much these days."

Maybe it's just that both reviewers are old-schoolers like me. But I do get tired of RPG reviewers praising arcade-action mechanics in RPGs as the "new, superior" thing while turn-based is somehow hopelessly old-fashioned. News flash: We've been mixing RPGs and action / arcade games for about a quarter-century now, and the creaky "antique" turn-based RPGs appeared on mainframes only about eight years earlier. Sheesh, folks. That would have been only a vaguely interesting distinction in 1986.

I'm just glad to see there's some love left for both styles. And I really enjoyed reading these reviews.

(Vaguely) related tales of ... stuff
* Jeff Vogel Gives Innovation Another Chance, Plans Nethergate Remake
* Interview With Scorpia
* Where Is Indie Innovation?
* Geneforge 4 Interview
.

Labels: Indie Evangelism, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:48 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
How It Was:The Map of Zork I
A friend just sent this to me:

Detailed Map of Zork I, as Drawn By a Player

Okay, drawing the maps out by hand, I confess, wasn't my favorite activity back in the day. And I'm apparently not alone in this. But seeing a game so lovingly mapped out by a player like this - it brings a tear to my eye. It looks a lot better than my own Zork maps, which resembled a abstract Tinkertoy statue after getting attacked by an angry moose.

Go through walkthrough pages or fan art and see what kind of amazing things players will do for games they love. But this isn't a new phenomenon. Folks have been doing stuff like that since long before they had the Internet to share it with others.

Labels: Adventure Games, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:30 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Good Marketing Means Speaking Up
I went for lunch today at the nearby mall food court, but I hadn't quite made up my mind. There was a chinese food place (a Panda Express wannabe) to my right, and I guess the girl minding the counter noted my indecisive glance over the contents, but she immediately spoke up, holding up a free sample.

While I tasted the sample, she was already asking what she could get for me. But her attitude wasn't pushy. It was like she was trying to be helpful. After all, I was hungry. She was providing me with food. For cheap. I accepted, thanked her, and congratulated her on doing such a good job roping me in. Now, I can't say the food was all that great. But I got a cheap lunch, and she got a sale, and so I can't say it was a bad thing.

I guess over the years I've gotten to the point where I think that "marketing" is a four-letter word. We're bombarded with advertising. On the web, on TV, on the radio, on T-shirts, on signs... it's very difficult to escape. And yes, I've grown disgusted by much of it.

But done right, it's a service. My wife and I love seeing movie previews when we go to see a movie - so long as they don't go too long. We get annoyed by Coke commercials in the movie theater, but we like seeing the movie previews. I've always enjoyed looking at the ads in gaming magazines so I can see what's coming. And hey, all else being equal - when I'm hungry but don't know what I want for lunch, a taste of free food and an offer in broken English wins out over vendors just standing there with vacant expressions on their faces.

When we talked about whether or not there is hope for indie RPGs, one of the key things that seems missing for indie games in general is marketing. Indies maybe learn the wrong lesson with their disgust over the tasteless, ruthless, tactless, truthless multimillion-dollar marketing screamfest that serves as mainstream marketing efforts for AAA games. I know I've actually been turned off to products based upon bad or annoying marketing (but I'm probably one of the exceptions). But it's not marketing itself that's a bad thing.

Indie game developers really need to figure out how to do it right. Done right, it serves both parties. And sometimes it can be as simple as knowing how, when, and where to speak up... and doing so.


(Vaguely) Related droning:
* Utah Indie Developer Night, Summer 2007
* Indie RPGs: Just Not Worth It?
* Is There Hope For Indie Computer RPGs?
* How to Avoid Making Money Making Indie Games
* How To Make $8000 / Month Making a Free Flash Game
.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:30 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights: The Dungeon Takes Form
Wow.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine, Kevin, offered - due to a lapse in sanity as much as a feeling of pity for me, I'm sure - to build interior levels for Frayed Knights. I sent him a copy of the design document (See! They do come in handy!), and then promised to send him a 2D map for him to convert into the Temple of Pokmor-Xang.

I hadn't actually sketched out the complete map yet. I'd written up descriptions and notes on all major locations in the temple, and had something of a mental image of how the layout should work. But every time I'd tried to sketch the thing out, I'd get stymied. It didn't feel right or good enough. Having someone waiting for me pushed me to plow forward. I think my underlying problem was that I was just suffering a mental block due to lack of self-confidence or something. As it is where you start the game, I purposefully kept it on the simpler side, with a more linear path through the dungeon (plus plenty of optional rooms to visit).

But once the the pressure was on, I got it done. I can't say it was a masterpiece - my little graph-paper map looked a lot like the Dungeons & Dragons adventure maps I used to draw up in the seventh grade. I'm not sure my skills have changed at all since then. The rooms were even numbered to correspond with the location descriptions in the design document. High cheese factor. But it followed my mental image well enough, and I gave instructions to Kevin to feel free to embellish as he saw fit.

We ended up getting into some discussion as to who the cultists are that are currently residing in this temple. I explained that very few were human, and they were pretty much "redneck cultists." Poor personal hygene (they worship the god of boils, blisters, and pimples, after all). Beds propped up on cinder blocks and whatnot. Primer-colored paint on the walls or something. They'd keep the main thoroughfare clean and tidy out of respect for and fear of Pokmor-Xang. But the temple itself predated any of the current cultists - it was made back when Pokmor-Xang was... if not popular, at least a little more accepted in society. So at one point it might have been a little more evil and costly-looking.

Kevin took the crappy map and lame descriptions and added a healthy dose of awesome, with some great creative embellishments. He sent me the first draft of the dungeon, which I tried last night. Can I tell you how cool it is to (virtually) walk through something that was only a graph-paper sketch and some text descriptions the day before? I stood in the meditation chamber (sans toilet-looking fountain, currently) and looked around and maid a Neo-esque "Woah!" noise.

Now it's still early (too early for me to post screenshots, sorry) - this was just to test the layout, and there's not even a roof over much of the place (though he's done some great work with pillars and archways). The hardest part will be settling on the textures. I'm really trying to back off of the photorealistic effect and err on the side of cartoony. I'm spending some time trying to dig up reference images, but it's hard to zero in on the right "look."

Other Developments
I also spent some time revising the ol' design document and resubmitting it for the Dream Game contest. I'd like to stay in the running on that one.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I got the trap system working, and I think it's actually going to play out okay. I'm now focusing on making it all data-driven and stuff. My approach to doing this is to create a file first, and then write the function to read and parse the file, and use it to construct the object. It's all working now, except I discovered that I'd neglected to include linkage between components in the file format. Woops! That's an easy fix.

Besides that, there's trap discovery and more feedback to the player on what's going on. Simply having the trap screen disappear and one or more characters take damage isn't quite enough, for some reason. Go figger.

My goal is to have all the principle systems in place by November 1. November is going to be spent integrating them all together and making the game resemble a game. And fixing bugs. And trying to do all the little odds-and-ends stuff that I neglected up until that point.


(Vaguely) related babblings:
* RPG Design: Big World, Small Dungeon - Does Size Matter In RPGs?
* Frayed Knights: Disarmament Treatise
* Frayed Knights: First Five Minutes Walkthrough
* Frayed Knights: Orange
* RPG Design: Quest Abuse
* Frayed Knights: Trap Disarmed!
Read or Post Comments on the Forum! If You DARE!

Labels: Frayed Knights

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:36 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Non-Combat RPG Help Needed
Hajo's posted a question on the forums that I just thought I'd publicize a little bit. He's working on a non-violent RPG, and is looking for suggestions on peaceful activities, and how to provide limits on the player activity (after all, if he can run amok with nobody to stop him with violence...)

Anyway, if you have any suggestions or are interested in discussing the topic, I wanted to point it out. I'm pretty interested in seeing a broader range of activities and challenges than combat in RPGs myself.

Rampant Games Forum: Letting the Player Alter But Not Ruin The Game World

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:36 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
What If Ultima IV Were Written Today?
Just for kicks tonight, I played a little bit of Ultima IV. I don't think that there's a CRPG that is more legendary or revered than this one. It received rave reviews when it was released in 1985, and pretty much defies criticism today. It is a milestone for the genre and for gaming in general. And for many people, it represents a glimpse into what might have been - a step along an evolutionary branch of roleplaying games that was never fully explored.

Seeking a peek back into this crown jewel of computer role-playing games, I sunk some precious time into this game to remember what the fuss was all about. And as I played, I began to wonder what Ultima IV would have been like if it had been developed over twenty years later. We can look at the later sequels for some answers, but remember that they were predicated on the success of their prequel.

So let's play a what-if and pretend that Ultima IV was a brand new game in a new genre. What would a newly-release Ultima IV be like today?

Combat - Then
After wandering around Yew for a bit (which promptly disappeared after I left - actually a pretty cool Brigadoon-esque element), I found myself chased by monsters that were making beelines across the world to attack me. After engaging in a few rounds of fighting, they'd promptly flee, leaving me with no experience points to show for my troubles (but sometimes leaving a chest of gold).

At one point, frantically chasing a fleeing orc who couldn't decide which edge of the screen to run to, I apparently threw my only weapon - a dagger - at my foe. Well, actually, one square next to my foe, because I could only attack along one of the four cardinal directions. Thus unarmed, future fights would result in me chasing a fleeing monster hopelessly. At least they'd leave a chest behind - sometimes trapped - so at I could soon afford to upgrade equipment to ranged weapons that actually had a chance of dropping an opponent before it fled.

Combat - Now
The creatures don't beeline to you until you get close enough to them or attack them. And then they come at you en masse. Then you just mash a button until they die. You'll automatically chase them when they flee. Oh, and instead of leaving trapped chests behind, they leave bodies with gore. Digging through the gore for coins ought to be worse than acid sprays, but you get used to it.

Oh, and to prevent you from throwing away your dagger, your dagger can't be thrown. But you can get throwing daggers designed to be thrown away... you can buy 100 of them (enough to kill about eight monsters) for the price of a complete suit of plate mail and two swords. It's supposed to be for class balance or something like that.

Dialog - Then
Conversations with NPCs (non-player characters) consist of "guess the keyword." Many keywords that you'd think would work actually wouldn't. After all, with only 64k of RAM to work with, ya gotta cut some corners. A half-dozen keywords makes for a very talkative character. Take this one, for example:

You meet a charming jester. She says: I am Gweno.
Your Interest: Job
I dance and sing for the children.
Your Interest: sing
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: dance
Dance is good for the soul. Do you give to the needy?
You say: Yes
Beggars are thankful for small donations
Your Interest: children
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: beggars
To give to a beggar shows compassion.
Your Interest: compassion
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: give
She says: I do not need thy gold. Keep it!
Your Interest: gold
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: quest
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: avatar
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: join
She says: I cannot join thee.
Your Interest: goodbye
That I cannot help thee with.
Your Interest: bye
Bye.

A fairly frustrating conversation, not to mention one that ends with a preposition far too frequently.

Dialog - Now
In a modern game, Gwenno's conversation tree would probably look like this:

Gweno: Hello. I am Gwenno. I sing and dance for children, because I'm a compassionate kind of person. I'll bet you'd like to know all about compassion. I could tell you how to be more compassionate.
1. Please, tell me how to be more compassionate.
2. Get away from me, you crazy wench!
3. Bye

See, isn't that better than keywords? Those are CHOICES. A player might agonize for microseconds before choosing option #1. At which point Gwenno says:

Gwenno: Go bring me the tails of ten rats, and I will tell you this secret, total stranger. You can find an infinite supply of rats down in the cellar.
1. Bye.

We sure have come a long way, haven't we?

Quests - Then
There is one quest in the game - though there are about a dozen sub-quests you must take in order to accomplish the primary task. Since the game has no quest system, they had to do it this way... all the steps act as "keys" to get you to the final quest. Oh, and you better have some pretty decent weapons, armor, and other magical items to have a prayer of surviving the whole thing.

For some reason, nearly everybody in the world knows that you are on the Quest of the Avatar. They all know more about it than you do, and give you advice in cryptic riddles and suggestions to visit people they know halfway around the world. And you have to manually compile all these notes until they begin to make sense. Which you'd better do quickly, because even after reading the manuals you still begin the game with really no clue what it is you are supposed to do. Unless you are already a dice-and-paper D&D player, and then you know... explore and kill things until the plot hooks begin to appear!

Quests - Now
Today, players would be explicitly told where to go and what to do. The starting quest would be Lord British himself telling you to use the look command on your own navel. When you do that, you get a bunch of experience points. Then he tells you to gather some belly-button lint from your navel. Once you do that, you are again congratulated and given experience points. This is how epic adventures must start.

Eventually, you'll go out into the world, and have about four quests to do, all of which involve inane tasks for people who haven't even explored their own back yards, let alone know people in the next town. But they will dole out less-cryptic quests that involve acting as their butt-monkey to deliver goods or recover their stolen sombrero from the goblins living twenty yards away until eventually you've paid your dues enough to be told how to get to the Shrine of Compassion.

Graphics - Then

Graphics - Now


Okay --- I got nothin'.

Resurrection - Then
When you die, you automatically resurrect in Lord British's throne room with some minor words of caution and a short delay. This is WAY cheaper than getting healed, so it's better just to let yourself die if poisoned or whatever.

Resurrection - Now
Lord British's chamber is too far away. You resurrect in the closest city or checkpoint with even more minor words of caution and less delay. And it's still cheaper than the extortion the healers demand.

Virtues - Then
There are eight virtues you must max out through actions in the game in order to become worthy of undertaking the final quest - which is to recover the Codex of Wisdom from the Abyss. In retrospect, that was all a pretty bad idea on Lord British's part, because it caused a genocidal war, created the evil mirror-universe anti-avatar split-personality whatever-the-freak-it-was called The Guardian, and pretty much screwed everything up for several sequels and spinoffs. But I digress.

Anyway, the virtues were Compassion, Sacrifice, Justice, Humility, Honesty, Justice, Spirituality, and Valor. You'd increase these by various actions throughout the game. Even dying gave you a point.

Virtues - Now
All those virtues are too complicated. The new designers decided to keep it simple by simply requiring you to be "good." But because of the need to have multiple endings, the new version includes an "evil" path. You get "good" points for being nice in conversations and not taking the "burn down the orphanage" quest. Being snarky in conversations and engaging in evil laughter - and burning down said orphanage (but without actually burning any orphans... we have to worry about ESRB ratings, mind you) gains you evil points.

Note that randomly walking into people's houses and taking anything not nailed down doesn't constitute an evil act... we need to encourage players to explore an interact with the world, you know!

The World - Then
Ultima IV features a big, expansive world. The game drops you near one of eight different towns anywhere in the world depending upon your starting class, and you have to figure out how to get to Lord British's castle to talk with him and find out what you are supposed to be doing in the first place. Or you just get killed on the way and get resurrected, which is kind of a shortcut.

Regardless, you are going to get lost. Early and often. Until you know the entire world like the back of your hand.

The World - Now
The world is still big and expansive. But forget about dropping you anywhere - that would totally screw up the tutorial and the bunny-slope quests! Nope, you start at Lord British's feet, and you have to earn the right to go out into the courtyard, then the sewer, then the town, and only then the larger world.

Then the game lets you get lost.

The User Interface - Then
Every single letter of the alphabet on the keyboard is mapped to a different command. See, there's "K" to "Klimb" a ladder up. Climbing down is a totally different command... "D" for down. The numbers choose a party member. And "J" for jimmying a lock. "I" to ignite a torch. And so forth. The cursor control keys indicate direction of travel, attack, or other actions.

The RPG player's fingers fly across the keyboard with this game. We could almost make an "Ultima Teaches Typing" spin-off product for this series!

The User Interface - Now
Keyboard? What is that? Get with the now... the newly released Ultima IV is a console game! It will be released for all major consoles immediately, and maybe a PS3 version is under consideration. The PC port will be in stores a week or two after the XBox 360, Wii, and DS release. Oh, and it'll be buggy and require a blood sample every time you play for copy protection.

What Did I Miss?
So there you have it. What I imagine Ultima IV would look like if it were released today. I'm sure I missed some important differences. Care to share your own snark thoughts?


(Vaguely) related snarkage with optional Ztats and Klimbing:
* The 16 Essential RPGs
* Scorpia's New Tale - An Interview With One of Gaming's Most Popular Columnists
* The Most Important CRPGs of All Time
* Innovation in RPGs?
* The Evolution of Computer RPGs
.

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 PM (Permalink) 10 comments links to this post