RPG Design: Capturing More of the Tabletop Experience

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 18, 2012

Computer RPGs began, in part, as a way for D&D players to enjoy a taste of their game without the difficulty of getting a bunch of people together at the same place and time to game. Been there, done that. If it weren’t for our regular Saturday-night games, It’d be only the occasional Thanksgiving or […]

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Older RPGs: Not That Hard To Play After All?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 24, 2012

Hat tip to GameBanshee for linking this article from Joystiq: “The Surprising Accessibility of Older RPGs” The author (Rowan Kaiser) isn’t really giving a pass for all older RPGs. Specifically, he’s referring to Might & Magic III: Isles of Terra. This was actually my (brief) introduction to the Might & Magic series, many years ago. […]

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Using Genetic Algorithms In Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 18, 2012

Because my upcoming post on my experiences developing Jet Moto is getting kinda long, I thought I’d break out this story for your entertainment. Programmers will especially get a kick out of it. An interesting aspect of the development of Jet Moto was that we did not do anything like the traditional racing game approach. […]

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Bugging Out

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 11, 2012

I have a book that was (or still is) used as a textbook for air-to-air combat for fighter pilots. Parts of the book talk about how to exit combat. It’s not an easy thing, actually. In general, if you wait until you really need to escape, it’s too late. I’ve also been reading about the […]

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Complexity Trade-Offs and RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 2, 2012

I was showing a friend the GOG.COM trailer for Legend of Grimrock over the weekend, and I found myself trying to explain the appeal of the title in a world full of games like Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, the recent Fallout games, etc.  Since he isn’t much of a gamer, appealing to the nostalgia factor […]

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What Endings Would YOU Change?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 23, 2012

Okay. So Bioware will be changing Mass Effect 3‘s endings (probably) by popular demand. I jokingly added a new ending to Frayed Knights in response (though I like the new ending better). Apparently some more indies are jumping in and doing the same, now. It’s a silly stunt, but it’s fun, and hey… isn’t that […]

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Hanako Games on Endings…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 21, 2012

My post yesterday was more about the relationship between game designers and the players over the unsatisfying stories (or story endings) in games. Georgina Bensley (Hanako Games) more specifically talks about story endings… of books, film, TV shows, and of course games. Why they sometimes End Badly. It’s an enjoyable essay: I Whine About Games: […]

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How To Ruin the First Fifteen Minutes of Your Game…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 19, 2012

I’m not going to name names, but there’s a particular indie game I picked up last week that I was pretty excited about. It was a huge game, so I ended up having to download it overnight. But it looked cool and sounded fun. I was excited to try it out. Unfortunately, the day I […]

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RPG Design: Seven Ways to Fix Boring Quests

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 7, 2012

So while much of what I’d like to talk about today applies to any kind of  simple “quest” in a computer role-playing game, I’d like to direct your attention to the overused “Fedex,” “fetch,”  or “courier” quest type.  If you haven’t heard them referred to by those names, you’ve probably still played them. At their […]

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Another Take (of Three) on JRPGs vs. WRPGs…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 29, 2012

Courtesy of Extra Credits – now hosted over at Penny Arcade: Western & Japanese RPGs (Part 1) I’m interested in hearing what else they have to say, but I’m not sure I’m going to be on board with their conclusion that WRPGs and JRPGs are two distinct genres.  Especially as I made a big case […]

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Technical Dungeons

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 28, 2012

I’ve got a new term which I’ve been using all week to describe a feature of a particular flavor of dungeon-crawler RPGs: “Technical Dungeons.” I don’t know how to define it yet. You get it in many roguelikes and old-school western RPGs. You don’t get it in most JRPGs or modern non-indie RPGs. Darklight Dungeon […]

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RPG Design: Variable Encounter Difficulty

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 23, 2012

A friend asked the other night about combat encounter difficulty in RPGs – is it better to have the challenge be consistent, or variable? I answered pretty firmly in favor of the latter. I think most people who suffered through the automatic level-scaling in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would probably agree. But here’s why. […]

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WRPGs vs. JRPGs – Not as Different as You Might Think?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 21, 2012

For a while, I was tempted to split up the RPGs on RampantGames.com into “Western-Style” (WRPG) and “Japanese-Style” (JRPG) role-playing games. I’ve not done that for a number of reasons, the main one being that it is too difficult to draw the line on indie games. A game written with RPGMaker will automatically inherit the […]

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Mining Super Metroid for Design Lessons

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 19, 2012

I never really played much Super Metroid. I didn’t own the correct hardware.  While at the time – before I got a job making games for consoles – I disdained consoles for PC games, but mainly I think it was because I didn’t have the money. But Hugo Bille writes a fascinating article entitled, The Invisible […]

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Lousy Choices and Linear Dungeons

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 17, 2012

A year or so ago this illustration of FPS level design “evolution” over the last twenty years made the rounds, and struck a little bit of a nerve.  Yes, many folks agreed – particularly the old-school gamers who remember gaming from the last century – it’s gotten awfully simplistic. But the maps don’t tell the […]

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RPG Design: Skill-Based Systems

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 2, 2012

Okay, I figured I’d chat a bit about the features of skill-based RPG systems – good, bad, and neutral. This is a continuation of my previous articles about the skill-based vs. class-based systems, and the features of class-based systems. When I first started playing skill-based systems, I thought I’d never want to go back to […]

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