Making your game general

ITT we discuss how to collaboratively design our games.

>>40

agreed, but who said that this is supposed to be an RPG or simulation? it's supposed to be a survival horror, which is generally a rather linear genre.

Too much linear gameplay will be boring, regardless of difficulty. Replay-ability and diversity of gameplay choices is more important: when a plot dictates something must happen it has to allow choices instead of forcing the player to be a pawn in a scenario.

but it did give us some interesting game series - things like Shenmue or Metal Gear Solid.

These are not realistic for an indie dev, both these games had a giant art budget.
Studios cranking out risky movie-like games are an anomaly, generally the more time is invested in linear elements(like cutscenes and one-way quests) the less there is gameplay content to replay.

there's place for games like that too

Yeah, and its called a 'Visual Novel'.

Metal Gear Solid reimagined as a visual novel with cute anime characters instead of gritty soldiers.

>>41

Too much linear gameplay will be boring, regardless of difficulty. Replay-ability and diversity of gameplay choices is more important: when a plot dictates something must happen it has to allow choices instead of forcing the player to be a pawn in a scenario.

your're are still thinking in framework of narrative-heavy games. pure skill games can be as linear as they want - nobody ever complained about DoDonPachi not having branching storyline.

These are not realistic for an indie dev, both these games had a giant art budget.

so? I'm not talking about 'realistic for indie dev', I'm giving counterpoints to your're are absolutes. don't move the goalposts

Studios cranking out risky movie-like games are an anomaly, generally the more time is invested in linear elements(like cutscenes and one-way quests) the less there is gameplay content to replay.

their're are not risky for the studios. in fact, their're are a safe choice

Yeah, and its called a 'Visual Novel'.

or 'interactive fiction'. or 'point and click adventure' your're are talking in absolute quantifiers without breadth and depth of knowledge required to make such statements

FREEZE THE DUBS IN MY ANUS

pure skill games can be as linear as they want - nobody ever complained about DoDonPachi not having branching storyline.

But the subject is RPG/Rpg-like games. Survival horror isn't a pure skill game either.Shmups are not pure skill either.
(Anything not turn-based is out, due hardware/network/input latency creating a random factor - thus not pure skill.)

so? I'm not talking about 'realistic for indie dev', I'm giving counterpoints to your're are absolutes. don't move the goalposts

Well, you're mentioning polished AAA games costing millions of dollars to make. Obviously they can make a shitty game(with shitty gameplay) look fabulous.

their're are not risky for the studios. in fact, their're are a safe choice

Its actually a bubble in the gaming industry. All the non-gamers playing these interactive movies will not support it long-term and these studios will get bankrupt or merged with some industry giant. The whole cutscene-centric gameplay will be ridiculed in the future as some braindead attempt to emulate the film industry by gaming studio executives.

or 'interactive fiction'. or 'point and click adventure' your're are talking in absolute quantifiers without breadth and depth of knowledge required to make such statements

The niche genre which supports the type of interactive movie-game is currently best represented by visual novels. Western "interactive fiction" is dead.

>>45

But the subject is RPG/Rpg-like games.

not it isn't

The whole cutscene-centric gameplay will be ridiculed in the future as some braindead attempt to emulate the film industry by gaming studio executives.

probably

Western "interactive fiction" is dead.

it isn't, it's just very niche. but it can do some really creative stuff with the pure text-based medium. even making systems/mechanics-heavy games. check out Counterfeit Monkey or Hadean Lands if you don't believe me

How does this sound? Can this scale at all?
Second Life gameplay but all currency is replaced by Cryptocurrency(mined in background by player) and uploaded assets are stored on the blockchain (cost proportional to size).
Land is created/modified by uploading a special data block that can reference earlier assets and defines territory size/coordinates:
empty land is cheap, adding new assets(content) is expensive, adding existing assets is somewhat cheap(reusing addresses of assets, instead of uploading new things).

>>47
Coordinates/Addresses are cryptographically protected so nothing can "overwrite"(by uploading data block with same address) earlier land address except his owner.

>>12
jesus christ frozenanus

Games that aren't about skill or Touhou characters should simply not exist.

>>50
good post

Putting too much emphasis on items and loot creates opportunity for chinese gold farmers/item farmers to ruin your game by selling resources and items very cheaply. As any real economy, there is a demand for better items and resources - player online have a surplus of items they don't want and lack of items they need.
Some ideas to discourage item farming:
1.Preventing the creating of uber-items: simply resist the temptation to add incredibly powerful items and item attributes.
Instead gradual "upgrade/crafting" of mundane items to boost their powers to predictable, but not overpowered state.
It doesn't fix much, since gradations of power still exists within the item hierarchy, making top items valuable.
2.Binding anything remotely powerful to the finder account, so selling the item is impossible.(This is NOT bind-on-equip, its bind-to-account inventory, allowing you to move it to another character you own, but once you find it you can't sell it).
3.Making all uber-items ridiculously easy to obtain thus ruining the item farming profits. This just shifts attention to rarer and more hard to get items/resources: unless everything is easy to get, there will exist a market for shortcuts.
4.Removing currency(like Path of Exile) and forcing barter trading: This eliminates gold farming, but doesn't alter the fundamental problem - it just transforms prices into commodity "pseudo-currencies"(like SoJs in Diablo2).
5.Bind-on-equip: basically if you use it once, can't sell it. Doesn't fix anything, item farmers will not be bothered(since they don't equip it).
6.Removing unique items: making top items have random attributes eliminates stable commodity of item supply, forcing the farmers to be more inventive. Ultimately, they adapt to selling attributes of items.
7.Providing cash shop vendors to buy the items: Blatant Pay2win solution that makes item farmers compete with the company.
8.Not having rare items at all: all items are mundane and sold by vendors. This actually works to some degree, but upgraded/crafted items will be sold instead of found items.
9.Not having items/resources/crafting/upgrades:
The ultimate solution, though not as popular as anything else. This requires re-balancing the system towards skill-only progression, where experience (see #7 >>12) is gained to upgrade stats and skill components.
RPGs in principle don't require equipment(class-fixed weapons/armor also reduce art assets),loot or item-based economy:
It just appears for e.g. archer has bow and arrows, but they don't have to tradeable or touchable by player at all.
In fact RPGs can exist without "Experience" at all: the method by which skill/stat points points are gained could be tied to furthest location of hero(i.e. if you reach Map #4, you gain X points to upgrade your skills/stats like #7 in >>12).
Alternatively, a pure-skill RPG can abandon the concept of player progression and distribute skill/stat points to allocate at the beginning: it meshes well with level-less class-less systems without equip/items, but it doesn't resemble a RPG anymore.

First-Person Shooter with RPG elements.

>>52
Most item attributes can be put behind passive skills. In fact having to allocate skill(or skill component) points at the beginning will create more build diversity than any item-based system(since effectively all item properties are recreated(in a balanced way due limited skill points) without having to find specific items), so it will not be a Magical FPS - it creates variety of builds comparable to RPG without item/currency/trade mechanics.

The less numbers and formulas player has to memorize/view/digest the more immersion game provides. Modern RPG expirience is too number heavy and lacks immersive coherence: having to memorize crafting recipes/chance/damages/resistances etc is more like magical accounting and business managements(auctions/trade/virtual economy).
RPGs need some adventure spirit. Modern games in general adopted RPG elements that have deceptively un-RPG nature of adding too much math and formulas into the game.

>>52
10. Stop making games with bullshit DnD mechanics where you roll a die, play an animation and bump up a number for the satisfaction of autistic impulses. Take your katana-wielding fedora-clad magical orcdragon wizard to your nearest rectum and shove it up there.

>>56
Actually i'm in favor of removing all non-deterministic factors from RPGs such as random damage, chance to do X, replacing them with percentage(+N%) /step modifiers(each X times)

>>56
Modern RPGs/MMOs are not related at all to tabletop gaming(even if publisher claims they're inspired by them). Real-time RPG combat and economy are far more complex than a couple of tabletop manuals.
The true successor of DnD in digital age are turn-based tactical RPGs.

MMOs and commercial online games will not stop using items as its
the only way to reliably milk players with microtransactions.
DLC is far harder to develop, Expansion require major invenstment, micro-transactions with account bound perks are very limited.

ProgressQuest has been ported to javascript. http://www.progressquest.com

>>60
clicker/idle games are like the more modern version of progressquest

>>61
ProgressQuest is non-interactive simulation(you only select the starting condition), idle games allow selecting options/buying different thing - for example if you don't have enough food in Kittens at wintertime all kittens die and its game over.

>>62

cookie clicker is almost non-interactive, but not zero-interaction

still, the main idea is that the game plays itself, for the most part Edited on 09/08/2018 22:41.

>>62

cooke clicker is almost non-interactive, but not zero-interaction
cookie clicker is almost non-interactive, but not zero-interaction

still, the main idea is that the game plays itself, for the most part

>>63
Actually Cookie Clicker has gameplay strategies beyond "game plays itself"
http://cookieclicker.wikia.com/wiki/Grandmapocalypse

Btw Tabletop gaming is represented directly with Tabletop Simulator on steam. No need to find obscure rpgs.

design my dubs

>>14
Ironically i'm using a similar concept, where skills&item attributes rise with use(skill use increase attributes slowly, item attributes rise with use of the item as equipment/weapon) and decay with neglect.
Basically if you do nothing and idle in my (unfinished concept)game, your skill/item attributes regress to minimal values after a day, without special enchantment scrolls of course(currently only Scroll of Preservation) that slow down the decay - all items are indestructible and provide infinite stacks of ammo, but attributes are subject to decay from the point of finding/buying the item.

>>67
..also i found out item-based builds vs skill-only build issue is philosophically irrelevant if all items are made free or at minimal cost.
Basically turning item farming into "click to buy", like gambling in Diablo2 but with all items pre-identified and extremely cheap. So killing monsters/looting chests/crafting shit is meaningless, as you can just roll top-level random items and buy them all for starting gold(only randomly generated equipment items currently exist in the game with random N attributes).

Neat idea for very fast monster "AI" that scales.
1.Wait until Character is in Range X, attack/pursue character.
2.If HP below 1/2 retreat away from char and set nearest N monsters to target character.
3.After health regenerates to 3/4 goto state 1.
Its pretty primitive, but works like a charm: its neither too hard, but neither too easy(N can be adjusted downward).

The main problem with NPC/monster AI is pathing over terrain with obstacles. How i solved this?
So i invented a magical excuse that monsters can shift through walls/objects since they're part non-physical.
It makes pathing much simpler and linear.

>>70
markov chains

>>71
Path finding with markov chains? How do you deal with loops when the chain ends with start location?

>>71
Tbh i never seen pathfinding with markov chains, i assume its too CPU heavy vs classic pathfinding. What kind of markov chains?

>>73
discrete time kind

>>74
While i was searching markov chain pathfinding i found something even better, its called Polyanya algorithm
http://www.ijcai.org/proceedings/2017/0070.pdf

https://bitbucket.org/mlcui1/polyanya
Found the source code

Music in videogames is overrated. Videogames should only have sound effects and let the player run his own music through other programs. Its way more realistic to have only environment/effect sounds.

How do these look:
1.Scroll of Random Attribute Upgrade: upgrades random attribute of item its used on.
2.Scroll of Random Attribute Replacement: Replaces one attribute with another randomly selected.
Basically a very simple and powerful crafting system thats not overpowered, due scrolls having Nth levels(Scroll level1 gives less upgrades and random replacements gives the new random attribute less statsa).

>>78
Randomness is a shitty characteristic in games.

>>79
That limits the power of crafting, if it was .Scroll of Attribute Upgrade, click to upgrade attribute X and Scroll of Replace Attribute Y, players would quickly stacks dozens of scrolls creating uber-items and the game would be very easy.