08-07-2009, 05:32 PM
Welcome to the first (of many) RPG Design Threads for the Let's Make a RPG project!
To explain how this works in short, here we'll discuss an aspect of RPG game design (which will change every thread) as both a device to make game design easier for all participants, and encorage input from those not directly participating.
As most who are familiar with the genre probably know, Role Playing Games were originally based on pen-and-pencil role playing games; where the game story was made up on the fly by a storyteller/dungeon master/game master; and a bunch of players created and acted through characters who adventured through this spun world.
Of course that means that successful RPGs depend on good storytelling, in both how the fantasy world of the game is represented, and how well the game master gave feedback to the player's actions. That's relatively straightforward to do in real life, as we humans are completely adaptable and have imagination (yes, even your lazy sibling who watches TV all day).
In a digital medium, things become a little more difficult. Computers can only do what you program them to do, so making things up on the fly isn't possible. With that kind of player interraction and immersion not available, RPG videogames have to think up other ways of being immersive and entertaining in their story.
The earliest games had limited memory and processing power, so all the 'flavour' of the game world was shown in text, as are the player interactions. These days we have the wonderful inclusion of graphics, sound, and cutscenes (!), so representing your game world is as easy as ever.
And if that's the case, you've got to make good use of it! It's why many RPGs these days try to wow us with flashy and dynamic renderings of the fantasy world everything takes place in. But by that same vein, the old text-only games got something right too; they had to really put an effort into describing the game world in order to be immersive.
So as RPG designers in the making, before we get into making characters, doing number-crunching, or deciding how much gold Owlbears should drop; we need:
- To visualise what out game world looks like
- Be able to write about our game world and make it sound interesting!
To help get us started, I've got a .rar full of settings art, and a few abstract items. See if any of it matches the ideas you've got floating around.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C0D475PU
Or if you're *really* stuck on a setting, why not have a play with a Random Generator? Seventh Sanctum is an awesome website, and they have generators for a lot of different things.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-sett.php
As for an example, here's my Setting idea.
Your game setting needn't be so... wordy, though. :V
So, what do you think of my idea? Are the resources I've posted useful to you? What cool RPG worlds have you thought of?
To explain how this works in short, here we'll discuss an aspect of RPG game design (which will change every thread) as both a device to make game design easier for all participants, and encorage input from those not directly participating.
As most who are familiar with the genre probably know, Role Playing Games were originally based on pen-and-pencil role playing games; where the game story was made up on the fly by a storyteller/dungeon master/game master; and a bunch of players created and acted through characters who adventured through this spun world.
Of course that means that successful RPGs depend on good storytelling, in both how the fantasy world of the game is represented, and how well the game master gave feedback to the player's actions. That's relatively straightforward to do in real life, as we humans are completely adaptable and have imagination (yes, even your lazy sibling who watches TV all day).
In a digital medium, things become a little more difficult. Computers can only do what you program them to do, so making things up on the fly isn't possible. With that kind of player interraction and immersion not available, RPG videogames have to think up other ways of being immersive and entertaining in their story.
The earliest games had limited memory and processing power, so all the 'flavour' of the game world was shown in text, as are the player interactions. These days we have the wonderful inclusion of graphics, sound, and cutscenes (!), so representing your game world is as easy as ever.
And if that's the case, you've got to make good use of it! It's why many RPGs these days try to wow us with flashy and dynamic renderings of the fantasy world everything takes place in. But by that same vein, the old text-only games got something right too; they had to really put an effort into describing the game world in order to be immersive.
So as RPG designers in the making, before we get into making characters, doing number-crunching, or deciding how much gold Owlbears should drop; we need:
- To visualise what out game world looks like
- Be able to write about our game world and make it sound interesting!
To help get us started, I've got a .rar full of settings art, and a few abstract items. See if any of it matches the ideas you've got floating around.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C0D475PU
Or if you're *really* stuck on a setting, why not have a play with a Random Generator? Seventh Sanctum is an awesome website, and they have generators for a lot of different things.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-sett.php
As for an example, here's my Setting idea.
Your game setting needn't be so... wordy, though. :V
![[+]](images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Warning, Long Description AheadSo, what do you think of my idea? Are the resources I've posted useful to you? What cool RPG worlds have you thought of?
The human-robot relationship is actually an important part of the plot and I wouldn't want to ruin anything.