How to Start an Adventure

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 19, 2011

Back in the heyday of dice-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons, it became somewhat cliché for adventuring parties to begin their big adventure together in a tavern.  It was easy for the Dungeon Master to set up – some bold adventuresome sorts are lifting a pint and being more sociable with strangers than one would expect in […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 25 Comments to Read

Press the X Button to Watch the Game?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 18, 2011

I got a chuckle from a tweet by Brenda Brathwaite complaining about an RPG her kid was playing: An Old-School RPG Designer Grouses. Somewhere down the line, game designers discovered that “immersive” no longer had anything to do with “interactive.” It instead meant “cinematic” plus “press a button to see something awesome happen.” Okay, no, […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Game Design: Small Choices

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 14, 2011

As a gamer, we want deeply meaningful decisions that can change the whole course of the story, a la the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. We want big, dramatic decisions with big, dramatic consequences. Unfortunately, reality dictates that we must usually settle for something less. Too often it’s a lot less, and we get […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

Are Games Becoming More Passive?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 6, 2011

I guess the picture of old-school level design verses modern level design that came out a few months ago has really caught on. I noticed John Romero and Tom Hall even used it in their post-mortem of Doom at the Game Developer’s Conference earlier this year. (And might I add… what a cool idea, to […]

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Why Our RPGs Still Need Numbers

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 24, 2011

Luke Plunkett at Kotaku asks the question: “Why Do Our Role-Playing Games Still Need Numbers Everywhere?”  Though it’s not so much of a question as a call to get rid of such archaic relics of the past. The Snark So first off, I’ll offer the defensive, snarky response that you are waiting for: “We’re already […]

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RPG Design: Returning to Base

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 18, 2011

Many computer role-playing games (CRPGs) have a concept of a “home base” for the player – a safe location to return to in order to rest, heal, trade, advance, acquire and complete quests, and so forth. The actual location may change as the game advances, but these safe spots (which may literally be “save spots” […]

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Over-Streamlining the CRPG?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 15, 2011

I was nodding along in general agreement (or maybe it was just sympathy) with indie game developer Lars Doucet up until the point where he tried to call a tower defense game an RPG. But I have to admit, in spite of my immediate “WTF?” reaction, the game does sound really fun. We’ll have to […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 16 Comments to Read

Puzzles and RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 11, 2011

It felt somewhat serendipitous that I found this excellent interview with Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games – maker of commercial indie graphic adventure games – while I was in the middle of adding some more adventure-game-esque puzzles to Frayed Knights.  It provided extra fodder for thought on things I’ve been a-pondering lately, including puzzles […]

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Design - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

How Much of a CRPG Should Be “Optional?”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 1, 2011

I asked this on Twitter yesterday, with a couple of responses, but I thought I’d post this on the ol’ blog as well, as I’ve noted that the masochistic folks who hang around here tend to be pretty educated on the subject of RPG design. So today, I wanted to talk about optional content. Generally […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 16 Comments to Read

Hanako Understands the Problem with Dragon Age. Bioware Doesn’t.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 24, 2011

I got riled up about this article.  I was planning a big retort, though I still feel kinda bad commenting on a game I feel I’ve barely played.  But that was kind of the point. I was one of those people who quit only a few hours in. And my reasons were almost the exact […]

Filed Under: Design, Mainstream Games - Comments: 23 Comments to Read

Why Orcs?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 17, 2011

Stories rooted in the modern world or familiar historical periods are (relatively) easy to explain to audiences. You can slap a year and location on the screen, and you are done. “Hong Kong, 1928.” Boom. Not many people playing a game were ever in Hong Kong in 1928, but most of us are familiar enough […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 15 Comments to Read

What Minecraft Did Wrong But Didn’t Matter. And What It Did Right That Did Matter

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 26, 2011

So at this point, Minecraft is a phenomenon that is like Doom or Bejeweled for the new decade.  It’s captured the mainstream game industry’s attention, and of course every indie in the world is thinking, “Wow, could I be the next Minecraft?”  At least for those who aren’t wondering if they could be the next […]

Filed Under: Biz, Design - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Defending the Lack of Class…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 21, 2011

Brian “Psychochild” Green has a post today defending skill-based RPG systems versus class-based ones. Stay Classy at Psychochild’s Blog He’s responding to a post at Elder Game: Classes vs. Open Skill Systems This is an old argument that has been going around since at least the early 1980s.  And both authors here outline issues with […]

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RPG Design – More on Simplifying

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 14, 2011

I played through the first couple of levels of the first Eye of the Beholder game the other day (“research”).  I’d only really played the second game in the series to completion, so it was fun to revisit the original (well, original AD&D-branded imitation of Dungeon Master, at least).  Going through a couple of levels, […]

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How Do You Roleplay in a CRPG?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 5, 2011

According to the CRPG Addict, … it works something like this. If I were to boil it all down, it would come down to this: You use your imagination, and invest yourself into the game. Although as he suggests, a lot of that depends upon how well the game allows you to do that. I […]

Filed Under: Design, General - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Story Isn’t Cheating

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 3, 2011

Hey, it’s been a whole four weeks since the last argument about narrative vs. gameplay, so it’s time for another brawl! Craig Stern of Sinister Design weighs in with this article on the inclusion of narrative (and attractive graphics, sound, etc) in games: Against Narrow Game Design Apparently I’ve not been paying attention to the […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 11 Comments to Read



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