How do you individualize your RPGs?

[aboutasoandthis]

I've never really seen a "Game Design" discussion thread on this site. Let's see what happens.

How do you usually design your RPGs? Do you focus more on Gameplay or Storyline? How do you design the Battle System and Battle Mechanics? How do you put difficulty and challenge into your game? When is a game difficult, and when is a game just plain unfair? What do you personally like to see in an RPG, especially in an RPG Maker game?

Before I say anything else, I wanna say that this is NOT a "story discussion thread." It's to focus on gameplay. You can talk about how you present your storyline, like how you design your cutscenes, cutscene length, show and tell, etc.

Personally I like my RPG Maker games "easy." I don't like dying excessively, leveling up, spamming the attack command, etc. I'm not really a hardcore RPG fan by this logic. However some of my favorite real RPGs and RM Games are considered "hard" by others. I like them because they focus more on Puzzle elements. I try to put this in my game. I give the player a lot of options in the game, and I have my enemies be as weird as possible. I reward my players for thinking up new ideas and solving puzzles instead of figuring out how to do the most damage as fast as possible.

As far as presenting my storyline, I like the "show, don't tell" method. I like to use as few words as possible, and try to tell the story with the gameplay and the graphics. I also like for my cutscenes to be very sparse and short. I like for the intro cutscene to be less than 4 minutes, and every other one less than 2.

How do you design your RPGs? What do you look for when you review them? I'd rather this be in All of All so more people could see it...

[Bluhman]

Well, basically, I write up the story, lore, and characters before I dive into the maker.

Then I just start. I lay out the basic requirements of the system, including a small assortment of items, the first characters' stats, needed enemies and monsters, and then I start putting events and maps into place.

As I go further and further, I add more and more onto the system, alternating between expanding the system, then going further into the story.

Another note is that I lay out 300 switches by default for me to work on. The first 100 being for story events, the next 100 for repeating switches that are used several times in a game, and the final 100 for chests.

[DragonBlaze]

Most of my game ideas never see a maker, or are never even considered to actually become games (maybe in the distant future when I finish the ones I want to make and have time for them).

I always start with planning the 'setting' first. To me, sometimes the setting of a game is more important than the story when first planning a game. And by setting, I mean characters and just the world with some background, but no real 'story events'. Usually, the gameplay will be derived from what setting the game has. For example, if I plan to make a futuristic game where the main character is a fighter pilot on a starship, it would only make sence to design the gameplay for flying a ship. More practically, if the setting involves multiple characters in a past setting, I'll probably go for an rpg style batter, but if I only have one charcter, I'll go for an action system and have more puzzles and stuff.

Once I have a base for what kind of game its going to be, my mind goes all over on differant areas such as story, more specific gameplay, more specific characters, specific places and graphics, etc.

For the story, I always start with a minor thing. For one of my games (planned), in the start of the story you're always being hunted, so you try to evade the enemy, find out why you're being hunted, and try to make your way to the capitol city where you'll be safe. This would be a minor story. I then try to pick it up a level and think of something bigger that can happen from that, like a bigger story, more epic, ect. I then modify the first part to fit with the second part (like adding hints to why you're being hunted. I then might take it a step further and add a third part to the story that is even more epic, star ocean till the end of time did something like this (through the third part had a gay twist). I continue to modify the parts to fit with the complete story, including the characters.

As for the gameplay. Although I'm a big fan of RPG games, I tend to like more interactive battles. Like not just select the attack button then select the enemy and thats it. Star Ocean till the end of time would be kind of an extreem example where it wasn't turn based at all and you controlled a character and moved around in real time. So I always try to make the battles as 'interactive' as possible. In the game I'm working on now, when you attack an enemy, you have timed attacks where you have to hit the spacebar as you're attacking, if you get it right on, you get a critical hit, if you're far off, you may miss.

Besides just being interactive, they actually have to require stratagy. I incorperate things such as combonation attacks, limit breaks, mid battle character switching, transforming, alling with certain enemies, basically anything to make it less like 'bashing the spacebar'. The more you can do in a battle, the more stratagies you can form.

For the stratagies, I try to make every boss special, maybe there are three parts to a boss, and you have to kill two of them before you are able to kill the third, but when the first two are dead, the third is able to use powerful attacks. Or maybe in order to attack a fire monster, one character has to use a water move on it first. Stuff like that so its unique and keeps you on your feet.

For difficulty, I just want it to be easy at the beginning of the game. At the beginning of a game, you have a very limited amount of moves, little money to buy equipment, one or two characters, theres not much you can do to beat harder enemies. You can level up, but if the beginning enemies are killing you a lot, what are you going to level up with? So I think that the first 20% of the game should be pretty easy (besides the bosses), so that you can begin to develope your characters the way you want without the constant threat of dieing all the time. One top of that, people will get more hooked into the game if they can actually play the game. Most of the time people get hooked through a story (especially in rpg maker games were nearly all the systems are the same and the graphics are  very simular). No one's ever going to get hooked on a story if they keep getting killed by slimes in the beginning forest. But by the end of the game, I think the game should be hard, like in order to move on, you have to have good equipment, level your characters, and probably do side quests to get good stuff.

Puzzles are good, but I don't like a lot of them. Its fun to figure them out, but i hate spenind 20 minutes working on a puzzle just to play another 5 minutes before getting stumped again on another. Puzzles make you think, and thats great, but most of the time I would rather just progress with the game than stop to think about some puzzle that has nothing to do with the over all game. So what I do is I tend to prefer making minigames. They're a lot like puzzles in that they add more to the gameplay; however, they require you to actually 'play a game' and still then, instead of just looking around and thinking.

My gameplay thus consists of interactive battle systems with a variaty of differant styles. Minigames. And a few puzzles. I tend not to design any systems outside of the battle system and minigames and menus. For example, I don't like adding day/night systems, bank systems, and stuff like that. Yeah, maybe they can be cool. You could walk around and it would turn into night, and yeah, you have to wait until day to buy stuff... Or maybe you have an eating system where you have to eat stuff, and if you don't, you're character looses life... Or maybe the bank system can store your money instead of just keeping it in your inventory, and then when you die, you lose the money not in the bank. I tend to find most of these systems more destructive than fun.

When i design cutscenes and other 'playing' aspecs of a game, I try not to make them too long unless they're cool. Like if you have a 20 minute intro in a game where you can't play for a long time, its just stupid (especially if you die without saving). A game is meant for playing, not watching. Cutscenes are important when adding content to the story, but should be well mixed with the gameplay. The exception I have for cutscenes is if the cutscene is cool. Like if you have a cutscene midway through the game that ties the whole story together, and its long, great. If you have a cutscene with some (well done) war and fighting and it takes a while to play it out, then maybe sweet, but then again, if you have a way, you should invole your character a lot. So cutscenes are great, and needed, but shouldn't be over used to the point where your watching your game more than playing it.

The graphics and music arent things I think about much when planning a game..

Well it wasn't really a desing process, but its how I think I should make my games.

[Yhtomitsu]

I also like my rpgs easy, I like to focus more on storyline than anything, When I first set out to make a Game I generally think about a story one thats not to Cliche which is kinda hard in some cases then I work on the Database, Making the First few main characters and there stats. I make weapons for them, Then I generally work on the skills they will need and items they will use. After all thats done I make the world map and make each town and go from there. But most of my time making a game generally goes on to working on the storyline.

[aboutasoandthis]

I think Bluhman and Yhtomitsu missed some of the point. The topic is about personal style. I mean...doesn't everybody write the story first, then make the database, etc?

To help this out, Bluhman I noticed that you have this odd focused humor in your RPGs. It give the game its personal style, making it different from say Linkforce's game or something.

Let's say you're reviewing another persons game. What features make the game appeal to you, and what problems piss you off?

-That bit about a non-cliche storyline and how you focus on avoiding all cliches was good Yhtomitsu. I don't necessarily agree with you, but it's your personal style.

[Yeaster]

My computer knowledge is horribly limited, so I focus more on storyline and characters, being that I like to write as it is.

[Osmose]

Of the few attempts I did, I created a rough outline of the story and went immediately into the more tedious tasks such as mapmaking or NPC dialogue and such. My reasoning is that:

1. If you can make it through the initial mapmaking (Most likely driven by wanting to give your story life) than you are able to make it through the entire game.

2. These first towns and dungeons will really help give a frame for you to fit your story in - one of the biggest problems with games is that you have to realize that it is simply a series of nodes in a map - some nodes are towns, castles, "safe areas". Other nodes are dungeons, caves, "dangerous areas". Some nodes are larger than others, as they are more important to the story. Some nodes branch off and become sidequests. And even within the nodes there is a network of events that can be similarly modeled to nodes.

That's the basic underlying structure of a traditional RPG.  You can either accept that your game will conform to this and try to utilize the model to your advantage, or you can attempt to break the formula. Which brings me to another point: Innovation doesn't require the abandonement of what has been done before, what is cliche.

This is a little off track here but I don't feel like it needs another topic. This past Friday I went on a trip with the ACM chapter at Florida Tech to visit two places. First, we went to FIEA, a Master's Program designed to focus on videogame development. We also went to the EA Tiburon studio, but that's a little less relevant. During our visit to FIEA, we attended a talk by Michael Kelbaugh, a producer for Retro Studios and the Executive Producer of Metroid Prime 3. He gave a post-mortem talk about the development of Prime 3 and what Retro learned during it.

One of the things he talked about really interested me, although it wasn't a topic he introduced. Rather, several times during the talk he'd mention a storyline element (Dark Samus, Phazon Corruption, etc) and then say, sarcastically, "Again, these are things that no one has ever done before." At one point he even mentioned, "Space Pirates, one of the most original names ever."

And yet Prime 3 is praised for it's amazing gameplay AND for the great story. Too many times I see people avoiding convention simply because they think different is better; being unique is definately a way to set your game apart, but don't ever let that guide your creative process fully. In order for something to become cliche, it has to be good enough to be reused.

[Ganocide_of_a_Kingdom]

Well, I never could release a full game yet due to the fact that my computer erased my games four times, and I didn't know how to fix the tree data corruption back then.

But what I always did was just advance as I go. I never plan everything down on paper before my game starts, cos I find it tedious to fix everything that I planned just cos I keep getting new ideas. So with this method I can add things to the game without much problem.

Personally, I like my games from intermediate to hard. By hard I don't only mean battle wise, but I also mean everything else, from NPC's that you need to find to puzzle solving. I don't really set a given time to the cutscenes, they last as long as the story deems it necessary. I also like to balance the equipment factor. I don't really like to just choose yer best equipment cos they increase yer stats further, I also add things to the equipment which makes you think about what equipment you prefer, making a lot of the equipment balanced with one another.
Basically, I like people to think, if you are looking for a game where you only fight blindly and level up, and learn new skills etc. as you go up in level and once you reach level 99 you are basically in God Mode, I would recommend not to play games made by me. I can tell you that even if you are at level 99, you are still not strong enough to get through the whole game, or at least that's how it is in my current project.

On a side note, I never consider RPG's to be hard.  a more fitting word would be complicated. If you have patience to learn the mechanics, buff up yer dudes, develop good exploring skills and of course you need a fair amount of wits. All that contributes to the ability of being able to get through the hardships of
role-playing.games.

[Grandy]

Me? I design my game by having tons of great ideas for characters, locations, itens and magic, and then never putting them in any game.

[Jaarroho]

Well...I start my RPGs from Finish, to start. What that basically means is that I...Erm...Make the bosses and final boss first, THEN make the database,THEN I make the story. After I create the story, I start making the Game. I usually make the games focus on puzzles a little, game play the next to most, and The Battle's First. I like to make my battles were you actually have to *Gasp* use your brain to battle! For example, I have a game where all the enemies from the beginning, stronger and power fuller then you. I also made it so you don't lv up. you stay at what you are in the beginning for ever. However, I scatter some scrolls that teach you skills and Items that give you (permanently more) hp. (No, this is not THCoP) Also, in battles, You just can't button mash, for you'll die almost instantly. Instead you have to figure there weakness (Sometimes, weak points) and damage the that way or there.

Also, When I make my RPGs, The story is the thing that I like to focus on once everthing is done. Mapping, Meh. Who cares? If it has great game play, good story, and awesome game play, Why care about mapping? One of the greatest RPG maker 2003 games every had mediocre mapping, for a matter of fact. (Phantasia3)
I also like art styles that match and stay the same. For example, I wouldn't like a big, default RPG maker sprite mixed with a Sprite-sized battler. That would be dumb and ugly.

That is the way I make my RPGs. Kinda strange, huh?

[WarxePB]

My very first project, called "The Final Battle", was made up as I went along - I had a rough idea of the "plot", but it was basically about getting something released. Of course, it was a steaming pile of crap, but I still believe that it's the best way to make a game - start off with an initial idea, make that in RM, expand on the idea, make that in RM, and so on. Then, once the basics are done, go back and expand on everything.
Right now, I have frameworks for about ten different projects, with the plot-important events but not the in-between stuff. If I ever get around to making any of them, you can bet that the in-between events will be made up as I go along.

[Dragoon de Sol]

This is a system I've found works for getting my berrings:

1. Start with a premise. Keep saying it in your head different ways until it sounds good.

2. Create a past for how the premise came to be, and the present day in which the small premise takes place.

3. From the small premise, create the main characters. Give them personalities, ages, quirks, likes and dislikes, a past, and ambitions/desires that makes them do what they do.

4. Ask yourself the six jounalism questions: Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Who is/are the hero(es) and villain(s)? What are they trying to accomplish? When is this taking place? Where will it all take place? Why are they doing what they're doing? How're they doing it/plan on doing it?

5. Take notes about your own characters. Their spells/skills, weapons, armor, helms, etc.

6. Think very hard about the main character(s) appearance(s), as well as the villain(s) appearance(s). What do they look like, how does their hair grow? Do they have scars? Draw them out.(If you cannot sprite, skip step 7)

7. Start spriting your characters. Choose a good style, such as chibi, tall, gothic, etc, and begin spriting away.

8. If step 7 is a failure, or you can't sprite, look online for ripped sprites and edit them so they look as close as you can get them.

9. Write out how battles and menus will look, as well as what kind of features will be in the game.

10. Fill in the character (and maybe class) portion of the database. If you're making a CBS and CMS, fill in all of the weapon, spell, and items either in the database or in a text document and work to complete the CBS and CMS with these included.

11. Fill in the rest of the database with animations and whatnot.

12. Begin to map your game out. What areas will characters explore? Who will they meet? What will NPCs talk about, or even do?

13. Begin to map out the areas. First only a couple maps a day, then at least five, so you're productive.

14. Properly apply everything above to the maps above, and link them carefully so that the RPG Maker is bent to your storytelling whim.

15. Gloat at your finished game.

[zuhane1]

Well I have to be inspired, go nuts and spend a whole night working on some kind of feature that I like. I wait a week or two until I'm next inspired then add a whole lot more. I make the battles and game as fun as possible. Once I'm happy with all the experimenting, I add storyline to the beginning and start adding more features and building up. I keep doing it until it works perfectly. Once a game gets going, I play it over and over and see which parts are too hard or too easy and just keep adding. I get friends and family to play to tell me what they think of it. I believe that battles in RPGs shouldn't just be tapping spacebar over and over.

[Prpl_Mage]

Well I pretty much always have my story laid up before me, not from point A to Z but I got everything I want in it.
Then i do the same witrh my characters, I tie them to a 'villian' or a part of the story and then plan events that will strenghten their personality.

Then we move ahead to a rough notebook, simply writing down a couple of trademark skills of my characters and bosses and then the ones that will require special coding like 'steal' or 'trigger happy'. Then I at least try to decide where some weapons should appear and their special effects.

Then I begin to make some scetches on the landscape and nature of the game, and then I begin to sprite. Monsters, charsets, battlecharsets. I've even began to make the animations, chipsets and backgrounds myself. Everything it takes to look like I want it to: But my skills have limitations I'm afraid.

And with 'all' the sprites done I import them into the game. Mostly takes a lot of time to finish those chipsets and I'm never satisfied with them either.

And then I try everything out, the chipsets that is. Makes sure that they and the charsets match and that the monsters, battlechars and background match as well.

And then, comes the part were I fail out of boredom... The coding of everything that will make my game special, the repeative coding really and trying to figure out how to make those things that will make my game so special.  And of course the ordinary everyday coding with NPCs puzzles and events.
Kinda sucks the energy out of me, life drain...

And in between I hit the database and add items that are required, try to make somewhat balanced weapons and armour as well as the hero's skills...
But I don't start with the boss skills and battles untill I come to that point of the coding/game. There is really no point.
I try to make them different from each other, adds some of those that does "defence down" ever third turn and some "stun fitht trun and life drain 6th" as well. Just to keep the player entertained and not just pressing the A button over and over.

And then, when at least 25% of the game is done I begin to code some of the harder stuff (I try at least) and then add balanced battles, money and experiance so that you can't really get overleveled easilly.

Yeah, got quite long but I believe that you get the idea.

[RPG LORD]

Originally posted by Jaarroho
Well...I start my RPGs from Finish, to start. What that basically means is that I...Erm...Make the bosses and final boss first, THEN make the database,THEN I make the story. After I create the story, I start making the Game. I usually make the games focus on puzzles a little, game play the next to most, and The Battle's First. I like to make my battles were you actually have to *Gasp* use your brain to battle! For example, I have a game where all the enemies from the beginning, stronger and power fuller then you. I also made it so you don't lv up. you stay at what you are in the beginning for ever. However, I scatter some scrolls that teach you skills and Items that give you (permanently more) hp. (No, this is not THCoP) Also, in battles, You just can't button mash, for you'll die almost instantly. Instead you have to figure there weakness (Sometimes, weak points) and damage the that way or there.

Also, When I make my RPGs, The story is the thing that I like to focus on once everthing is done. Mapping, Meh. Who cares? If it has great game play, good story, and awesome game play, Why care about mapping? One of the greatest RPG maker 2003 games every had mediocre mapping, for a matter of fact. (Phantasia3)
I also like art styles that match and stay the same. For example, I wouldn't like a big, default RPG maker sprite mixed with a Sprite-sized battler. That would be dumb and ugly.

That is the way I make my RPGs. Kinda strange, huh?

More or less the same with me. Only I'm not really busy on anything right now.