To cliché or not to cliché

When creating an RPG game set in a classic swords-and-sorcery style of world, there’s a distinct problem that arises – that of originality.

On the one hand, I want to be as original as possible when it comes to creating characters, monsters, worlds, and adventures for the game.  I would love to just let my imagination go wild and create the weirdest stuff ever conceived without powerful hallucinogens.  The other side of the issue is one of familiarity; players need a certain amount of commonly known characters and themes to be able to quickly feel at home with the world.  If the world I create is too unusual, too bizarre, then players will take much longer to adapt to the settings and concepts of the world.  I would be risking alienating people who really just want to see a wizard throw a fireball at a goblin.  Unusual and unique is great from an artistic point of view, but at the same time I want players to feel like they know the world and how it works without a lot of unnecessary exposition and hand-holding.

Ultimately, I’ll be trying for a mixture of the two; a selection of the normal and the trans-mundane.  I have a strong desire to put unique and unusual characters into the game, and do not want to limit myself to just the normal fantasy tropes.  Yet I do understand that those tropes go a long way to making a swords-and-sorcery RPG popular and likeable.  Clichés are important.

To wait or not to wait

One major drawback to using a third party engine such as Unity3D is that the developers are always teasing you with the promise of future features and upgrades.

There you are, at the beginning of the long road to creating a game.  You plan out your game, start developing it, and then they drop a blog-shell – a blog post talking about all these shiny new features they are going to implement real soon... honest!  So you’re left asking yourself the question:  do you develop with what you have available now, or do you put parts of development onto the back burner in the hopes that the features will come along in a timely fashion?

Part of you really wants to wait for the new stuff – partly because it would make for a better player experience, but mostly because the promised features usually involve more efficient ways of working, which can save you heaps of time.

At first the answer seems like an obvious yes – wait for the new stuff and make a better game in less time.  The problem is the Unity engine is constantly evolving, and improving.  As soon as you get comfortable with one feature set, they promise more, shinier features in an upcoming release.  You end up stuck in a perpetual state of learning new features and systems, only to be trumped by the next promised bounty.

At some point you just have to say to hell with it, and start developing to a specific version of the Unity engine, and try your best not to read the Unity blog.

To toon or not to toon

A very early decision for the game was this:  Do I make it cartoon style silliness, in the vein of the Munchkin card game, or do I opt for a more traditional, semi-realistic fantasy setting?

I’m sure a lot of people would immediately answer that question with “cartoon silliness!”.  The obvious thought is that you can do anything in cartoons, plus it looks more interesting.  Originally, this was my thought too.  However, as I dwelled on the idea more, I started to realize that cartoon styling is actually quite limiting.  Realism won out because, bizarrely enough, it allowed me more freedom than a cartoon world.

Welcome

Welcome one and all to the new developer diary blog for the upcoming game 'The Last of the Warlock Kings'.

The game will be a deep, tactical, turn-based party combat game set in a dark fantasy world.  The player will control a band of mercenaries-slash-adventurers-slash-heroes, as they attempt to fill their boots with gold, and if they get to kill the evil tyrant warlock too, then that's a nice bonus.  The game's biggest features are:

• A procedurally generated world, vastly different every time you play through.
• Procedural loot, items, and enemies, meaning no two encounters will be the same.
• Large randomisation of player characters, equipment, encounters, quests, and more to keep every play through feeling fresh and challenging.
• an emphasis on player advancement, with a deep and very permeable skills tree, unique to each of the many playable characters.
• A unique triple-staged advancement system, allowing you to tailor your party to your needs.
• high levels of crafting; create everything from weapons and armor, to new potions, unique bombs, unusual traps, new spells, new enchantments, and more.