Room Escape Games and Micro-RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 10, 2010

Classic graphic adventure gaming has had a bit of a casual resurgence lately with the appearance of “Room Escape” games. If you haven’t played any yet (and I’ve only played a couple), they are basically tiny adventure games, usually written in Flash, that have gained quite a bit of popularity.

They take place in a single location – a room that you are somehow trapped inside – though the multiple views of the rooms could be argued as being separate locations. The stories are rarely any deeper than the stories of vintage early 80’s arcade games. But they have most of the trappings of a good ol’ fashioned graphic adventure game, including inventory.  At least in those I’ve tried.

So basically, they are “micro” graphic adventure games. I won’t complain. I like the idea of these kinds of games that don’t require a huge commitment.

This made me wonder if the same kind of idea could be applied to computer Role-Playing Games.

RPGs are traditionally pretty huge beasts. And kind of intimidating to new and veteran players, especially for grown-up gamers who probably can’t finish the tutorial of your average RPG in the time they have available for a game session.  So I’d not be so interested in it appealing to “casual” players so much allowing it to be played “casually.” Could a “micro-RPG” be possible …  sort of an analog to the room escape games for the RPG genre?

The trick, I guess, is that RPGs traditionally include so many different mechanics and moving parts above and beyond what you’d see in an adventure game. What can you cut out and have it still remain an RPG?  What would a “Micro-RPG” look like?

I think Desktop Dungeons is one approach that comes pretty close, but it’s more of a puzzle game than true RPG fare.  Sort of a love-child between Minesweeper and a graphical roguelike. Still, it’s one idea. Pawleyscape’s .NET-based Fastcrawl is another idea. It is less puzzle-based and more like a ‘real’ RPG, at least. But it’s still both more and less of what I’d look for in that kind of game.

I’d like to see games based on a pretty simple, straightforward game system that is easily understood (and imitated, but not necessarily identical). I’d say the ability to level up – and to make a choices on character progression (maybe a single attribute increase per level) – would be necessary. I’d like to see hand-crafted dungeons and challenges, not a randomized roguelike. Maybe something like my original plan for Hackenslash, sort of a streamlined and modernized Temple of Apshai inspired game, before I had to pare it down so far to fit my 40-hour development limit.

But what aspects of RPGs to keep, and which to toss?

If I were to tackle it, it might look like this: The inventory system could be restricted to just a few items of equipment (weapon, armor, and a ring?), and “quest items” which are more-or-less adventure game style items or reward items. I’d borrow my Hackenslash mechanic of converting any piece of equipment that you don’t immediately equip into its gold “trade-in value” (based on your character’s charisma?).  Some monsters might be willing to be bribed (a use for that gold) or even trade, rather than fight. A couple of adventure-game style puzzles. The game would end when you defeat the level boss, and you get a final score based on your total experience points, gold, and trade-in gold value of your equipment. That would give the game some replay value to try and improve your score through subsequent play-throughs using different strategies.

That would still be considerably more complex than a room escape game, though.  So I may be barking up the wrong tree and complicating things a lot more than I should. I know from hard experience that I tend to do that.

But I really do like the idea of “lite” RPGs, Micro-RPGs, that could be fully playable inside of twenty minutes, fun and accessible for new players, yet still amusing to veteran RPG fans. What would your vision of this kind of game be? What other games are already out there that might fill the bill?

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



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