Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Why Making RPGs is Hard...
The Amazing Spectacular World of Banov has an outstanding article up about the difficulties of making RPGs:
The Problem(s) With RPGs
As Banov states, "Basically what I'm getting at here is that making an RPG is hard and not to be attempted by the inexperienced. I'm not saying it's impossible, but in terms of game making RPGs pose way more obstacles than any other genre of video game I can think of."
I love that he notes that the problem is much more than the technical challenge of making an RPG - the first issue most people think of when discussing the challenges involved - but also very challenging artistically. If I can paraphrase his explanation - people expect to consume a LOT of unique content in an RPG. A lot more than they'd expect to consume in any other genres. And trying to keep it fresh and interesting the whole way through is not easy.
Which is why, in spite of the game engine doing so much of the technical work for them, RPG Maker users aren't quite flooding the world with commercial-quality content. It's still a ton of work to develop a fun, original, non-derivative creation regardless of genre. But for some of the reasons Banov suggests, RPGs tend to be among the most difficult.
Labels: game development, Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:33 AM (Permalink)
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I think Banov exaggerated the negative response on IndieGames for effect. "People had posted pretty slanderous comments--"just another RPG"--without even having played the game."
One guy posted such a comment, then others jumped down his throat, calling the game "charming and innovative" and said it looks better each time they play it. When their attacks at the hater turned personal, a mod stepped in, and they actually talked him into joining their side!
Other than the single anonymous hater, Craig Stern said he played it for twenty minutes before deciding it was a "a very run-of-the-mill JRPG." Which I'd hardly classify as a comment which ranks him among the "minority group of haters" Banov complains about.
Long story short? "One guy left an unfairly negative comment about my game--let's write an article about it!"
One guy posted such a comment, then others jumped down his throat, calling the game "charming and innovative" and said it looks better each time they play it. When their attacks at the hater turned personal, a mod stepped in, and they actually talked him into joining their side!
Other than the single anonymous hater, Craig Stern said he played it for twenty minutes before deciding it was a "a very run-of-the-mill JRPG." Which I'd hardly classify as a comment which ranks him among the "minority group of haters" Banov complains about.
Long story short? "One guy left an unfairly negative comment about my game--let's write an article about it!"
The screenshots of his game were terrible. I dont know if he was 10 when he made them but they look like they were done by a 10 year old in MS Paint.
RPGMaker was designed to make run of the mill JRPG's. His games didn't exactly break the mold. People expect more than the run of the mill SNES JRPG now and he didn't deliver that.
RPGMaker was designed to make run of the mill JRPG's. His games didn't exactly break the mold. People expect more than the run of the mill SNES JRPG now and he didn't deliver that.
I agree with Stu - not only because I don't like artsy-fartsy pseudo-minimalism but because it comes across as utterly arrogant.
Several "indie" games look like stuff made in the bedrooms of twelve-year old in the eighties on those old Ataris, C64s and Spectrum and whatever was available.
The difference: They couldn't do much better graphics because it was incredibly hard to do so - today those "professionals" tell you that they intentionally make the graphics unimportant (read as: unimpressive) to not distract from the gameplay mechanisms.
Now that's a concept: Why not lose color, too? Saves the designer another bunch of design decisions...
Truth is, some of these allegedly advanced gameplay mechanisms are still simple collect or kill principles.
Though I think that Banov hits the nail on the head with some of his statements he doesn't seem to be able to do better. Perhaps he overestimates his capabilities as a game designer & programmer?
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Several "indie" games look like stuff made in the bedrooms of twelve-year old in the eighties on those old Ataris, C64s and Spectrum and whatever was available.
The difference: They couldn't do much better graphics because it was incredibly hard to do so - today those "professionals" tell you that they intentionally make the graphics unimportant (read as: unimpressive) to not distract from the gameplay mechanisms.
Now that's a concept: Why not lose color, too? Saves the designer another bunch of design decisions...
Truth is, some of these allegedly advanced gameplay mechanisms are still simple collect or kill principles.
Though I think that Banov hits the nail on the head with some of his statements he doesn't seem to be able to do better. Perhaps he overestimates his capabilities as a game designer & programmer?
# posted by 
: February 11, 2010 9:27 PM
: February 11, 2010 9:27 PMLinks to this post:
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