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 might suggest, alternatively, is you get out of it what you put into it, with a multiplier provided by the game. A good game has a high multiplier value. A crappy game approaches zero.

I read Scott McCloud’s acclaimed book, Understanding Comics, a few years ago and it really opened my eyes to things. The most powerful concept I learned was how more abstract art can be more compelling, as it allows the reader / viewer to project themselves onto the page. A detailed, more realistic character comes with baggage. A more abstract, cartoony character is more of a blank slate, compelling the reader to fill in the details – usually on a subconscious level.

I think that applies equally to games. Thus the continued success of the “silent hero” archetype in RPGs.

And I think it was easier in some older games than in the newer ones. Especially now with near photo-realistic graphics where designers are so focused on making everything visual. In the old days, we could see plain ol’ tile graphics and imagine that we’re in the middle of a busy, bustling town, streets clogged with vendors and townspeople. We understood the graphics to be as much symbolic as literal. Now, however, we’re led to believe that if it’s not on the screen, it’s not in the scene. It’s a more passive way to play, and as cool as the graphics are today (we were, after all, waiting decades for them to get to this level), they can’t compare to a vivid imagination.

That’s what those fans of ASCII roguelikes keep trying to tell us, after all… 😉

And that’s not to say I’m willing to dump my video card anytime soon, either. Or that I’m going to start playing RPGs with quite the intensity of “creating my own narrative” as the CRPG Addict.

But I’m definitely keen on the core idea here: A good RPG should allow for this, and allow for “non-optimal” play. It should make you feel (relatively) safe to explore, that a single wrong thing said to an NPC won’t cripple their hope of completing the game successfully.  There should be room to “fill in the blanks” with your imagination. And in the rush to streamline the interface, don’t go quite so nuts with optimizing out so many of the player’s options.

As commenters  wanted to remind me on Monday, there’s more than one way to play a game.

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

2011 IGF Finalists

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 4, 2011

The 2011 Independent Game Festival finalists have been announced.

I gotta say, for once I’m pretty psyched about the finalists for the grand prize. I am not familiar with Nidhogg, but the rest of the ones on the list are pretty dang cool. Part of me says, “Duh, of course Minecraft will win,” but I’m really not sure. It’s up against some pretty tough competition. I loved Desktop Dungeons, but I’d also really be happy seeing Amnesia win. Maybe happiest of all, as I’d like to see those guys do well, and Minecraft has already won in the most important competition of all – the marketplace.  🙂  Spy Party sounds very cool, but it also sounds a little like a one-trick pony, so I have some reservations.

So, uh, why isn’t last year’s winner, Monaco, out already, huh? I wanna play, Andy!

Here’s the trailer for Amnesia. I think I saw it on sale over the holidays, but didn’t pick up the full version yet as I’m still playing through their Penumbra series (thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle for getting me sucked into the first one…)  And I’d already bought something like twenty games. But from what I’ve seen, and based on my experience with Penumbra, it looks way, way cool:

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: Comments are off for this article

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 right indies, as the push nowadays appears to be to turn the dial all the way over in the direction of gameplay, all but ignoring narrative, graphics, etc. Maybe I should hang out on the TIGSource forums more or something (heh, actually, I probably should…). My opinion still hasn’t changed much over the years. I still feel that interactivity runs counter to good (traditional) storytelling.

As something of a metaphor, consider a basketball game. A dramatic, exciting ball game is going to be a tight game, with frequent scores on both sides, with neither team ever achieving a wide lead. As a player, however, your goal is not to provide a dramatic game for the audience. Your goal is to defeat the opposing team. If you had your way, the game would be pretty dang boring.

Good storytelling is the same way. A good story has numerous twists and bends, with a flawed protagonist making mistakes, suffering setbacks, and taking a beating, right up until the climax where he pulls off a victory when all hope seems lost. Maybe not the kind of victory he was originally intending (in fact, in the best stories, usually not), maybe not even a victory he survives, but a victory nonetheless.

However, in a game, the player is motivated to min-max his or her way all the way to the end. Why accept a setback when you can just re-load?  The needs of playing-a-game will generally run contrary to the needs of telling-a-story.

There are three ways around this problem that I can think of. The first is by far the easiest, and the path most taken: Break the interactivity and force the story, through the use of cut-scenes or whatever else is required.

Another, far more rarely employed, is to have the mechanics serve the needs of a dramatic story. Going back to the basketball analogy: When I was very young and first learning the rules of basketball as a second-grader, I was never told about the three-point shot. That’s because – while it existed – it had not been adopted by the major leagues. That happened shortly thereafter, and there’s little doubt it has led to a more exciting, dramatic sport, as it encourages a greater amount of risk-taking for a greater potential reward.

This can be applied to narrative development, too. The rules can encourage a style of play that fits the general rules of dramatic storytelling. Maybe walking into an obvious ambush grants you a power-up that you can use later to defeat the boss. Allowing said boss to finish his monologue before you start attacking him is worth another. This is an area that really fascinates me.

A third approach is harder still, but it may be something along the lines of what many indie voices are advocating: have the game work with the player and his choices to create his own story. Computers are really bad being creative and intelligent and actually creating a compelling story around the players actions. But they can follow some interesting rules and patterns to help the player perceive story and drama. My canonical example is The Sims, which created very familiar situations with enough abstraction for the player to see narrative even where none existed. The Left 4 Dead series takes a completely different approach, using an AI manager to build the scenario in front of the players by its own algorithm to maintain an interesting pacing. An indie example I was recently introduced to is Blue Lacuna, perhaps the world’s largest and most advanced work of interactive fiction (aka “text adventure”). While it is filled with enormous textual detail, certain aspects of the game are left open-ended enough for you to project your own story into it.

But in spite of my reservations concerning the mixing of narrative and story, it’s still a worthy goal (if possibly never fully achievable). I believe chaining ourselves to the forms of traditional, linear, non-interactive storytelling is a doomed venture. And I think those who try to judge video game narrative by the yardstick of traditional storytelling media are going to be forever disappointed.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t liberally borrow from that familiar territory, and use some combination of the above three tricks to enrich our games.

Or, as Craig states, “Rather than a puritanical insistence on using only one tool in the game designer’s toolbox, we get an intelligent application of each tool as it is needed in order to craft a compelling experience that successfully delivers a message about our lives and the world we live in.”

I do enjoy some fairly abstract, story-free or story-light games. I also enjoy retrogaming and indie games with far less than cutting-edge graphics, sound, and design. I put gameplay on a pedestal above other factors. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy those other factors.

In fact, especially when it comes to RPGs, it’s the context that really makes the difference to me.  It’s true – there are quite a few game franchises out there that are dependent upon context to cover for uninteresting gameplay, and in that respect, they are using these other factors as a crutch.  But if you were to take any of my favorite RPGs and remove all context, so that they are pure exercises of probability (as has kinda been done in Sophie Houlden’s Linear RPG, and in the Really Really Random RPG), the games will get old pretty quickly. The whole concept of exploration – something I love about RPGs – only holds meaning given a compelling context largely driven by *dum dum DUM!* narrative. I have to care about the world and the people.

I should note that Sophie’s RPG does have a silly little story to it, but the way it is presented deliberately divorces it from the gameplay.  Well, maybe I shouldn’t attribute deliberation to it, but it certainly deconstructs typical RPG design to illustrate how story often gets slapped on top of  gameplay (approach #1, above) rather than being integrated into it.

In the early days of cinema, movie makers assumed that since movies were similar to stage performance, and treated them as such – simple recordings of a stage play. It took a little while for film makers to figure out that the new medium required its own visual vocabulary, and brand new techniques.  It did have to re-invent itself to match the medium. But that didn’t mean that everything that had been learned in centuries of stage performances had to be thrown out. I think this parallels the art of video games quite well. So many publishers have tried so hard to ape Hollywood, which treats interactivity as a weakness rather than a strength (or, at best, a “supplement”).

I think Craig is correct, though I do feel that the indies who are eschewing narrative are perhaps helping to reverse a trend that has gone too far in one direction. But they aren’t just cheats or gimmicks or manipulations, even though we too often see them used as such that way. There’s a happy balance that can be achieved there even as we strike off in new directions to explore the potential of what games really can be.

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Rampant Games New Year’s Resolutions

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 31, 2010

‘Tis the season to make New Year’s Resolutions, goals you plan achieve in the coming 12 months, which you will probably keep at least until January 3rd or so.

Most of mine would probably bore you all – they go into the usual categories (Lose weight, educate myself, improve my health – though I have more specific goals in mind than that).

Most of my goals for Rampant Games would also probably bore you to tears (or maybe tip my hand too much, but I’m not doing anything that incredible…), but I thought I’d go ahead and go public on the biggest goal of them all:

#1: Release Frayed Knights in 2011!

Okay, that probably isn’t enough of a stretch, as at this point it is pretty likely already. To make it a little tougher, I’m really pushing to have it out in the first half of 2011. Ideally April, but that gives me a little bit of a buffer.

Some others on my list:

• Get Frayed Knights #2 to alpha by the end of 2011.  This is a very aggressive goal. Since the core codebase isnt’ going to be changing a ton between games, we’ll be able to concentrate more on content, so this is remotely feasible *if* I manage to get FK 1 out in the first half of the year.

• Fix my friggin’ website. There’s something that’s crapped up on Chrome, and I think Firefox on non-Windows machines (looks fine in Firefox for me, but I’m always running it under Windows). Can any of you web-gurus tell me exactly what I’m doing wrong? Lemme know, please, at jayb at this site.

• Reorganize my Role-Playing Game Section. It’s overflowing. The design and code I wrote to support adding new games was fine up until about 24 games or so. I’m at about double that, now.  The current design randomizes the order of the games every time you view the page, which is cool, but dumping dozens and dozens of games and artwork (no matter how small) on a single page is not great.

• Add affiliate products on a more regular basis. At least once a month. This one is tough, because when I’m in hardcore dev mode, I barely want to spare the cycles to blog, let alone play a new game and spend a couple hours setting it up and testing it. But it supports the indie community (especially RPG makers), and helps keep the lights on around here.

• Have an “indie RPG News Roundup” at least once a month. Again. If nothing else, it helps me stay informed (often by people telling me all the news I missed after I post one).

So there you go. There are a couple others, but they are either boring internal things or things I don’t want to tip my hand about quite yet (not that they are massive or world-changing or anything… but they are still under development and subject to change).

Got any suggestions? As the site’s really supposed to be about what you want – I just have to guess at it – what would you like to see? What would you like to see more of? Less of? New? Different?

Thanks!

And while I’m at it:

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Filed Under: Frayed Knights, Rampant Games - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Hegemony: Philip of Macedon on Sale via Steam

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 30, 2010

As a game developer, I have grave misgivings over the extreme-discount sales popularized by places like Steam that practically give away reasonably recent indie releases. But as a customer, I’ll take what I can get and get over my guilt later. Anyway, until about 11:00 AM my time (mountain), Hegemony: Philip of Macedon is on sale for a mere $3 via Steam. IMO, game is a bargain at full price, so I’d recommend snagging it in the next few hours if my write-up earlier this month struck your fancy at all.

Filed Under: Deals, Strategy Games - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights: Smelly Feats

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

I had an awesome plan:

As I have a day job that finances this indie thing, I thought I’d take some big vacation time around Christmas and New Year’s to really get some incredible work done on Frayed Knights. I was gonna be a full-time indie for a week and a half (minus holiday festivities). Then I got sick.

I keep telling myself that I can work just fine when I’m sick, but honestly, I really can’t. Still, while not operating at full capacity, I have still made some major progress towards tying up the loose ends. When you get to this stage of development, it’s amazing how many loose ends there really are. I’ve been fixing inventory issues that have existed since the pilot, and battling a bunch of code that I over-complicated in the beginning to give me some flexibility I never actually needed. Live and learn.

Speaking of over-complicated, I am going to introduce you to the full list (well, full as of right now, all subject to change before release, but unlikely to change much) of feats available in Frayed Knights for the customization of your characters.  Every level, you get a character point you can spend on either increasing an attribute (Might, Brains, Reflexes, Charm, or Luck), or to add a feat. In retrospect, there are probably way too many feats for a game this size, though it’s intended to be a pretty complete list for the next two games as well (though I won’t rule out some tinkering or expansion of the list for the sequels).

Feats are broken up into two categories: Active and Passive. Passive feats are easy. You just take them, and they give you whatever bonuses or extra capabilities that come with them. Take the Sorcery feat, and you can cast low-level Sorcery spells. Take the Deft Fingers feat, and you automatically get a bonus on any attempt to pick a lock or disarm a trap. Some checks (like searching) are always made by the most skilled member of the party, so doubling up on feats that give bonuses in those situations might not be too useful unless your “best” character is incapacitated or debilitated somehow.

Active feats, on the other hand, are called up from the same menu as spells. (Hmm… by the looks of it, I need to change the heading on the menu when you are in active feat mode.) There aren’t many of them, but they are additional actions your character can take, particularly in combat. The endurance cost is on top of the cost of using the weapon, in the case of attacks. I can say already that I’m worried about the balance on a couple of them. Impale, in particular, is just frighteningly powerful right now, often acting as an insta-gib against weaker creatures.  It needs more testing against more challenging enemies.

Some feats have other feats as prerequisites. You have to take these in order. Also, some feats have a level restriction – I haven’t included that in the listing, as that’s very subject to play-balance testing. And it bears repeating that the numbers I’ve given here (where I’ve bothered giving them) are very subject to change based on playtesting.

Each class also has some inherent feats that come automatically with the class. For example, a warrior automatically has competence with all weapons, shields, and both armor feats. Sorcerers get the Sorcery feat for free, and Priests gets one of the three priestly magic feats. Sorcerers and Priests get Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, and Epic Spellcasting feats automatically. Also, classes receive some inherent bonuses with their respective classes that just cannot be duplicated. Rogues are just naturally better at lockpicking and harder to hit than everybody else (but their lower hit points mean they still fold pretty quickly when hits connect). Benjamin can actually keep up on the sorcery track with Chloe fairly well if you want, but he’ll never be able to make the sorcery spells “stick” as often as she can. And since the spells are governed by different attributes (Charm vs. Might), he’ll have to balance things out there, too.

Anyway, here’s the list:

—– Active Feats

Bind Wounds:
Combat and non-combat, endurance cost 6
Character can heal self by a small amount, even in mid-combat.

Rank-Smack:
Combat only, endurance cost 4
Prerequisite: Aggressive Attack.
Character can attack an entire rank at once with a bludgeon, blade, or axe.

Crippling Strike:
Combat only, endurance cost 7
Prerequisite: Slam.
A nasty attack that leaves the opponent briefly debilitated.

Counterspell:
Combat only, endurance cost 3
Character receives a high defensive bonus for inbound offensive spells.

Multi-Counterspell:
Combat only, endurance cost 7
Prerequisite: Counterspell.
Character’s counterspell ability affects the entire party.

Impale:
Combat only, endurance cost 2
Prerequisite: Lunge.
With a spear weapon, character can sacrifice likelihood to hit for significantly extra damage in an all-out thrust.

Slam:
Combat only, endurance cost 3
Character sacrifices significant damage on a melee attack in order to knock an opponent off-balance or even stun them.

Skewer:
Combat only, endurance cost 4
Prerequisite: Impale.
With a spear weapon, character can sacrifice hit likelihood for a chance to hit both the primary target and a random target one rank behind.

Battle Dressing:
Non-combat only, endurance cost 13
Prerequisite: Bind Wounds.
As Bind Wounds, but more effective and functions on the entire party. This is a non-combat action only, and takes 1 turn per party member.

Cautious Attack:
Combat only, endurance cost 1
Character can accept a lower chance of hitting in exchange for better defense. Not quite as good as defending, but close.

Aggressive Attack:
Combat only, endurance cost 1
Character can accept a reduced defensive value in exchange for a higher chance of hitting.

Fierce Attack:
Combat only, endurance cost 1
Character increases maximum potential damage in an attack, in exchanged for penalties to chance of hitting and defense.

—– Passive Feats

Linebacker:
A character with this feat offers some protection to those in the behind him or her. This protection goes up even more if the character is defending.

Lunge:
Character can make extended-reach attack with medium melee weapons without penalty.

Sorcery:
Character can cast Sorcerery spells.

Nature Magic:
Character can cast priestly magic of the Nature type.  Special: A character with Nature Magic can not have Divine Magic or Profane Magic feats.

Divine Magic:
Character can cast priestly magic of the Divine type. Special: A character with Divine Magic can not have Nature Magic or Profane Magic feats.

Profane Magic:
Character can cast priestly magic of the Profane type. Special: A character with Profane Magic can not have Nature Magic or Divine Magic feats.

Light Armor:
Character can wear light armor without penalty.

Heavy Armor:
Prerequisite: Light Armor.
Character can wear heavy armor without penalty.

Weapon Competence: Blades:
Character can wield blade weapons (swords, daggers, etc.).

Weapon Competence: Bows:
Character can wield bows and crossbows.

Weapon Competence: Spears:
Character can wield spears and pole arms.

Weapon Competence: Bludgeons:
Character can wield bludgeons (clubs, staffs, maces, etc).

Weapon Competence: Throwing:
Character can wield thrown weapons.

Weapon Competence: Axes:
Character can wield axes.

Shield Competence:
Character can use shields.

Weapon Expertise: Blades:
Prerequisite: Weapon Competence: Blades.
Character gains +2 to attacks with blade weapons.

Weapon Expertise: Bows:
Prerequisite: Weapon Competence: Bows.
Character gains +2 to attacks with bows.

Weapon Expertise: Spears:
Prerequisite: Weapon Competence: Spears.
Character gains +2 to attacks with spears and pole arms.

Weapon Expertise: Bludgeons:
Prerequisite: Weapon Competence: Bludgeons.
Character gains +2 to attacks with bludgeoning weapons.

Weapon Expertise: Thrown:
Prerequisite: Weapon Competence: Throwing.
Character gains +2 to attacks with thrown weapons.

Weapon Expertise: Bludgeons:
Prerequisite: Weapon Competence: Axes.
Character gains +2 to attacks with axes.

Shield Expertise:
Prerequisite: Shield Competence.
Character gains +2 defensive bonus when using a shield  (on top of the shield’s own defensive bonus).

Weapon Mastery: Blades:
Prerequisite: Weapon Expertise: Blades.
Character gains +2 to attacks with blade weapons (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Weapon Mastery: Bows:
Prerequisite: Weapon Expertise: Bows.
Character gains +2 to attacks with bows and crossbows (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Weapon Mastery: Spears:
Prerequisite: Weapon Expertise: Spears.
Character gains +2 to attacks with spears and pole arms (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Weapon Mastery: Bludgeons:
Prerequisite: Weapon Expertise: Bludgeons.
Character gains +2 to attacks with bludgeoning weapons (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Weapon Mastery: Thrown:
Prerequisite: Weapon Expertise: Thrown.
Character gains +2 to attacks with thrown weapons (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Weapon Mastery: Bludgeons:
Prerequisite: Weapon Expertise: Bludgeons.
Character gains +2 to attacks with axes (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Shield Mastery:
Prerequisite: Shield Expertise.
Character gains +2 defensive bonus when using a shield (in addition to the Expertise bonus, for a +4 total bonus).

Ready For Action:
Character receives a high initiative bonus on the first round of combat.

Spell-Slinging Stamina:
Character loses less stamina from spellcasting.

Arcane Runes:
Character can cast familiar spells from scrolls.

Wand Usage:
Prerequisite: Sorcery.
Character can cast familiar spells from wands.

Deft Fingers:
Character is skilled at picking locks and disarming traps.

Guard:
Increases defense bonus when defending.

Point Blank Shot:
Character can use a ranged weapon to attack targets at point-blank with no penalty.

Hangfire Reaction:
Character takes reduced effect from traps.

Dual Wield:
Character can fight with an offensive weapon in each hand – but at a penalty

Improved Dual Wield:
Prerequisite: Dual Wield.
Character can fight with two offensive weapons with minimal penalties.

Effortless Casting:
Prerequisite: Spell-Slinging Stamina.
Spells require even less endurance to cast than with Spellslinging Stamina.

Spell Homing:
Single-target spells more likely to hit.

Quick Healer:
Healing spells and potions are slightly more effective on this character than normal.

Fast Feet:
This feat increases the chance of escape when fleeing combat.

Improved Counterspell:
Prerequisite: Counterspell.
Character is very impressive with countering enemy spells.

Spell Spread:
Prerequisite: Spell Homing.
Area-effect offsensive spells are more likely to hit their targets as the spell spreads more evenly, filling in nooks and crannies.

Intermediate Spellcasting:
Character can cast spells of 5th – 8th level.

Advanced Spellcasting:
Prerequisite: Intermediate Spellcasting.
Character can cast spells of 9th – 12th level.

Expert Spellcasting:
Prerequisite: Advanced Spellcasting.
Character can cast spells of 13th – 16th level.

Master Spellcasting:
Prerequisite: Expert Spellcasting.
Character can cast spells of 17th – 20th level.

Epic Spellcasting:
Prerequisite: Master Spellcasting.
Character can cast spells of higher than 20th level.

Augment Spells:
Allows Level 1 Spell Upgrades (Beefy and Extended Spells).

Enhance Spells:
Prerequisite: Augment Spells.
Allows Level 2 Spell Upgrades (Massive and Durable Spells).

Escalate Spells:
Prerequisite: Enhance Spells.
Allows Level 3 Spell Upgrades (Awesome and Prolonged Spells).

Maximize Spells:
Prerequisite: Escalate Spells.
Allows Level 4 Spell Upgrades (Hellacious and Protracted Spells).

Overcharge Spells:
Prerequisite: Maximize Spells.
Allows Level 5 Spell Upgrades (Uber Spells).

Alert:
Character recovers full faculties quickly. Stun and Sleep durations are reduced.

Quick Draw:
Character enjoys a speed bonus when wielding thrown weapons.

Turtler:
Prerequisite: Guard.
Character is so well protected when defending that they can even blunt some of the damage they take if they are hit.

Spell-Dodger:
Prerequisite: Magic Guard.
Character is more adept than usual at avoiding magical effects.

Awareness:
Character is adept at searching for hidden objects and ambushes.

Rapid Recovery:
Character recovers more quickly from fatigue from resting, and receives long-term exhaustion more slowly.

Magic Guard:
When character defends, he or she (or it) gains a defensive bonus against magical attacks as well.

Energy Conservation:
Character uses less endurance when performing active feats.

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Adventure Puzzles in the Age of Internet Walkthroughs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 29, 2010

Telltale Games is turning into a “big indie,” and I do not begrudge them their success. I’m really pleased with these guys for doing their part to keep the graphic adventure game genre alive, and doing a great job with their licenses. If you haven’t played any of their games yet, go try out a free demo or two. I highly recommend their Tales of Monkey Island series. It’s 100% authentic Monkey Island. The episodes don’t take very long to play – you can play one to completion in a single evening.

Last week I played through the first episode of Telltale Games’ new Back to the Future series. I encountered a couple of small issues, and thought the explanation for the return of the DeLorean was cheesy (but hey, how else would they bring it back?), but otherwise it seems like it’s shaping up to be another excellent series.

The game does have a lot more “newbie-friendly” additions. It spells out new objectives as they develop at the top-left of the screen, with an icon you can click on if you forget what you were trying to do last. And it includes a built-in hint system. Sometimes this includes progressive levels of clues – you can start with a small hint, and then opt for a bigger one. And fortunately, much of this is configurable, so that veteran players don’t have to be hit over the head with reminders.

The hint system reminded me a little bit of a staple of the glory days of Infocom, their cluebooks that used invisible ink that people could highlight and view as needed, often with progressive hints. Not that I ever had or used one at the time – I mainly heard about them and have seen the modern web-based equivalents. I think someone showed me a real one once, but that was a long time ago. Back when I was playing the Infocom games, I generally had to figure them out the hard way, or rely on help from friends or clues published in books or magazines.

Back in the day when the Internet was more about FTP, Telnet, and usenet, and generally restricted to college students, adventure games thrived. They were all about solving puzzles. Unfortunately, they also too often tested our patience as well. Or our ability to hunt pixels on a screen or guess what word or warped possibilities the designer (or “Implementer’ in the case of Infocom text adventures) had in mind when creating it. Back then, there was little free, instant access to solutions like there is today (unless you had a friend who’d beaten the game). More than half the time I spent in adventure games was simply exploring possible solutions or clues to get out of whatever had me stumped.

(I should note that co-designer Tim Schafer finally admitted on Twitter, on a replay of the special addition, that the monkey-wrench puzzle in Monkey Island 2 was totally unfair. I’ve been saying that for years, after that brought the game to a screeching halt for me for months! But I digress…)

But if you have tempting, immediate solutions to all puzzles handy – as we all have one Google search away – would that spoil the experience? Shrink these epic games down to a three-hour jaunt? Part of me theorized that it would – and has.  Was easy access to help and Internet walkthroughs a factor that helped bring the adventure game genre to it’s current niche status? Maybe, but the more I play modern indie adventure games (and RPGs), the less I’m inclined to believe that.

I mean, yeah — having some random, third-party walkthrough handy is a potentially nasty, spoiler-ific way to go through a game.  Been there, done that, accidentally stumbled onto some things I would rather have discovered for myself.  But a structured hint system built into the game, or well-indexed walkthrough or hint guide (by the game creator or third party, doesn’t matter)? I can’t answer for everybody, but I can answer a few questions for myself:

#1 – How many times have I quit playing an adventure game (or RPG) because I was stumped about what to do next for longer than I had the patience for? Answer: Lots.

#2 – How often have I ended up playing through an entire game mainly by stepping through the walkthrough? Answer: Never, in spite of referencing them for a number of games.

#3 – Is a game less fun if it lasts only half as long for me because I was able to get help on the parts that frustrated me? Answer: No, quite the opposite. But I always have more fun solving the problems by myself without help.

#4 – Have I ever felt like a game was “ruined” for me because I accessed a walkthrough or had to hunt down a hint or solution on a forum somewhere?  Answer: Nope. There have been places where I kicked myself for not noticing something important and had to have it spelled out to me in the walkthrough, or felt that a particular part of the game was too easy to get lost in or just unfair, but I never felt that peeking at the answers ruined a game for me.

#5 – Once I’ve located a walkthrough, how often do I find myself referencing it instead of solving problems for myself? Answer: Not very, though I admit that once I’ve found one, the temptation rises to access it more frequently than I would if I had to hunt down individual answers. It’s always hardest (and most pride-damaging) the first time….

#6 – Am I more likely to buy a new game from a developer who’s previous game I actually FINISHED or never finished? Answer: Duh.

So in the grand scheme of things, I think there’s evidence in my own behavior (if I’m anything close to the “target audience” for these games) that easy access to solutions isn’t really a threat to this style of gameplay.  One might even argue that the downfall of the adventure game might have been partly because they tended to go too hardcore for players, making it a frustrating experience for newer players.

Another thing this might suggest is that developers of adventure games and RPGs with a dependency on some adventure-style puzzles (as most SHOULD be, IMO… but that’s me) should embrace the concept and provide first-party support. Some indie RPG developers are doing that, offering their own hint e-books separately, or even bundled with the game.  They should be less stingy about in-game clues, too. That way, hints and solutions can be offered in a more structured way, so that players are less likely to stumble across unwanted help by accident.

But things can be taken too far — and have. That “unwanted help” thing…

The principle fun-factor of adventure games has always been figuring out the solutions to devious puzzles yourself. Games should never rob players of that opportunity. Step-by-step instructions and pathways marked on the map and on the main screen may be very helpful to a player that is hopelessly lost or confused or just somehow never realized that dark smudge on the map was supposed to represent a cave. There’s a reason I don’t just step through a walkthrough to play a game, and that is because it’s far more fun if I don’t have somebody holding my hand the whole way.

Filed Under: Adventure Games - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

The Problem with Getting Too Many Games In One Month…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 28, 2010

What? I thought I was playing AaaAaaAaaaaAAAAaaA! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity!

Oops.

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

How to Revive a Legacy RPG. Or Not.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 27, 2010

The newest game in the Wizardry series is apparently entitled Wizardry: Town of the Imprisoned Spirits or something like that. According to what I could glean, it is something of an upgrade / sequel over a previous release subtitled Dungeon of the Imprisoned Souls. It’s a budget, downloadable release in Japan that has a chance of actually making it to U.S. shores. Alas, it’s currently planned as a PS3 exclusive, so I won’t be playing it any time soon. (I never did pick up Forsaken Land for my PS2, so I guess I really don’t have room to complain).

The screenshot could actually be from the previous game – I’m not sure, lacking the ability to read the Japanese website.

*Sigh*. It does look like it might be fun. But it saddens me a little that a series that was once a signature example of the “western RPG” is literally a jRPG now. Particularly since Wizardry 8 proved to be such an awesome swan song for the North American series. But Acquire owns the license and IP rights now, and so it’s now their legacy to continue, exploit, or destroy.

The parody reboot of The Bard’s Tale a few years ago… well, it’s in the eye of the beholder whether that was better or worse. I played the demo and thought it amusing, but felt it had nothing to do with original series. The Ultima name has been slapped on a web-based strategy game that bears no real gameplay resemblance to its namesake. The 2001 attempt at reviving the old Gold Box series with Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was almost universally considered a bug-plagued dismal failure, particularly with the amusing uninstall bug that could wipe out the system files on your hard drive. It doesn’t get much better than that, kids!

So here’s a little thought exercise. Let’s say, by some great happenstance, you happen to find yourself in a possession of a classic game license.  Preferably RPG or Adventure genre, but I won’t hold you to that. While you picked it up for a song – probably because, let’s be serious, there just aren’t that many old-school gamers left who would form a pre-built audience to satisfy modern industry requirements – and you don’t have to worry about marketing budgets, you still don’t have a lot of money to produce the series revival. Better than your average indie budget, but still not up there with a mainstream title. You will not be able to compete against Dragon Age 2 or Elder Scrolls V– you’ll need to pick your focus carefully. You can’t be everything to everyone.

So here are my questions:

1. What license would you choose? Why?

2. How would your new game be re-envisioned? As a web-playable game? Console release? XBLA? iPhone?

3. What would you focus on to provide an experience that is both true to the original game and palatable for modern audiences? I don’t mean mass-market audiences, just busy people who’ve grown accustomed to modern conveniences like in-game help and being able to save somewhere besides the inn at the beginning of the game.

I’m kinda curious as to just who’ll be gutsy enough to try and answer this one… 🙂

Filed Under: Biz, Design - Comments: 18 Comments to Read

Merry Christmas!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 25, 2010

Have a great one, ya’ll!

And if you don’t observe the holiday – well, have a great day anyway. It’s like the only time I ever end up using the word “merry,” so … I hope it’s a merry day for you anyway.

May it be full of joy, hope, peace, and general awesomeness.

Filed Under: General - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Twelve Games of Christmas #12 – The Fae’s Wyrd

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 24, 2010

It is hard for me not to wear my developer hat prominently on this blog. I get fascinated by developer stories, and seeing the process by which games get created by different teams. That part – the story behind the game – is often more interesting to me than the game itself. I’m not sure if it’s just the fact that I am a developer, or if I’ve always been this way. I always wanted to learn more about an album or song I like, and I am one of those weirdos who likes listening to the director commentary on DVDs. It may not be an area most people want to hear about, but I do.

Sometimes I work to temper that here, for the sake of those who don’t like peeking inside the sausage factory. I try to ignore the business side and the production side of things for a while just share thoughts, raves, and rants about the joy and shared experience of playing solid, polished games – indie or mainstream.

This isn’t one of those times.

The final game of Christmas is one that’s still in development – the RPG Fae’s Wyrd, by Psychoavatar Games. It’s a very experimental project, originally intended to be a commercial-game-in-a-month for October. Obviously, they missed the deadline, but the game is now playable, and donors have received early access.

Psychoavatar developers include MMO veterans  Brian “Psychochild” Green and Dave Toulouse. So they’ve got cred. The “donation-ware” current status of Fae’s Wyrd is yet one more way of indies might attempt to actually finance their expensive game-development habit. As one commenter posted on the donation page, “Wow. Gaming is mad money. It has taken the four of you a month to get the kind of cash I make in 15 hours of less appealing programming.” The hope, of course, is that they get a sponsorship as a web-game and can actually generate real revenue in the future. In the meantime, this game serves as a test-bed for their evolving process and technologies as a new studio.

It’s a humble start, but not a bad one.

I realize I’m wearing my developer-centric hat again. You would rather hear about the game, right?

The Fae’s Wyrd is something of a graphical roguelike done in Flash. I realize Flash-based roguelikes aren’t exactly unheard of, but it does have some very interesting details that show promise. First of all, it is a party-based game with abstracted tactical turn-based combat. Positioning is handled formation-to-formation, with the player being able to modify the formation only (as far as I can tell) at the beginning of the fight. Tactics should be pretty familiar for any RPG veteran, though there are a few twists – such an individual’s chances of landing a critical hit or “slicing” through both enemies in a single rank, or doling out a continuous-damage effect – which keeps things from being trivially optimized. Items found throughout the game also have a variety of bonuses which keep the upgrade path from becoming too simple.

The leveling system is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game. Rather than simply progressing along class-based or even a linear progression based on experience points, you are periodically rewarded with elemental shards which you can apply to one or more of your characters to upgrade their abilities. There are four elemental shards, which can be slotted into one of four different primary statistics – offense, defense, light magic, or dark magic, granting a different advancement for each position. You can grow your characters by slotting the shards in different mixes across these four abilities.

The items found in the game also have levels associated with them which require at least that many shards to be slotted in an appropriate statistic. For example, a level two weapon (of which there are many varieties) would require you to have at least two shards of any types in the offense stat. A third-level trinket would require your highest stat to have at least three shards — so it may pay to not be too well-balanced in your character upgrades.

So while it’s not an inordinately deep or complex system, there’s some real sophistication in the simplicity of the design. The interesting decisions come from the interaction between these small systems.

But it’s not the kind of game that’s going to bowl anybody over from its technology or the shattering of boundaries of what an RPG can be. It’s not intended to be anything different. But it’s fun and amusing to play so far, even in its unfinished state.

If you’d like to know more, or donate to an indie cause, or get in on early play while they try and rustle up a sponsor, you can head over to the donation page for more info here:

Support The Fae’s Wyrd

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Twelve Games of Christmas #11 – Puzzle Bots

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 23, 2010

I talk here about old-school style cRPGs a lot. I do miss the heady days of massive mainstream releases that were so huge I couldn’t keep up, with titles like Ultima VII and Darklands and Wizardry 7 and Eye of the Beholder getting announced on a quarterly basis. Those days, it felt like it just wouldn’t end, and there’d always be another RPG of that scope and style around the corner.

Another genre was champion during this same time period, and that was the graphic adventure. Sierra and LucasArts really kinda kicked butt around this era – the late 80’s to mid 90s – and boy was it an incredible time. The weird quirky stuff we now attribute to indies? The mainstream studios were doing it, especially with adventure games. This was the era of unusual (but excellent) titles like Loom, The Adventures of Willy Beamish, The Day of the Tentacle, not to mention the titans of the era like King’s Quest, Space Quest, Monkey Island, and Leisure Suit Larry.

While these kinds of games are all but certified dead by the mainstream games business, they have been enjoying a not-insignificant resurgence among the indies. Studios like Telltale Games have been revisiting the old genre with some new ideas. And Wadjet Eye Games have been proving – repeatedly – that great story, puzzle design, and art can still combined to yield a wonderful graphic adventures that can thrill and challenge modern audiences just as much today as they did then.

Wadjet Eye’s latest, Puzzle Bots, is a bit of a departure from their traditional fare (specifically the Blackwell series), no doubt largely due to it being  helmed by Erin “Lively Ivy” Robinson. The cartoony graphics and the game style are pushing a few boundaries and exploring new territory for the studio. You play five different robots, each with their own personalities and abilities. You have to guide them into working as a team through the secrets of a strange robot factory, influencing the lives of their human inventors as they go.

Here’s a trailer video:

You can download the free  demo and give it a try here:

Try out Puzzle Bots.

UPDATE: Made sure to give Erin Robinson appropriate credit.

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Game Announcements - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

A Very Zombie Holiday

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 22, 2010

An instructional video for enjoying the holiday festivities during a zombie apocalypse…

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Twelve Games of Christmas #10 – Dawn’s Light Christmas Tales

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

It seems only appropriate that among the “Games of Christmas” I wanted to point out this month that I include some actual Christmas-themed games. Today I’m going to sneak a pair of games in as a single entry.

What’s better is that they are RPGs.

What’s even better is that they are free.

Last year, I totally missed the release of John Wizard Games’  Dawn’s Light: A Christmas Tale, based (very loosely) on their humorous and very fun flagship RPG, Dawn’s Light.

Stolen description from the website: “Can John Wizard save Christmas before it’s too late? He’ll need help from his friends from Dawn’s Light! Dawn’s Light: A Christmas Tale is a new mini adventure starring your favourite characters from Dawn’s Light. Catching squirrels, matching couples, dealing with oversensitive horses. It’s all in a days work for John Wizard.”

This year, they’ve got a sequel – Dawn’s Light: Another Christmas Tale. “A year has passed since John Wizard’s previous Christmas Tale, and John Naught is up to his old tricks again. When John Naught steals John Wizard’s hard drive, his livelihood is threatened. But this time he will be unable to enlist the help of Harvey, so the responsibility will fall on the shoulders of two unlikely heroes … Virgil and Swordhand.”

Enjoy!

Dawn’s Light: A Christmas Tale

Dawn’s Light: Another Christmas Tale

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Twelve Games of Christmas #9 – The Witch and the Warrior

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 21, 2010

I guess it’s okay to call indie RPG developer Eridani Games a “Scottish Developer.” Founder Jill Shiels is from Scotland, and according to her forum signature is still there. However, with many indie studios,  a game company may technically be a one-man or one-woman operation, but the games are made by the labor of many friends, contractors, and content providers. A quick look at the credits for this game suggests Eridani is no exception. The use of the Internet is not only how indies achieve the distribution of their games, but it is an critical development and communications tool. Development “teams” may span the globe, covering many nationalities and walks of life. Many times, co-developers may never have met face-to-face. Trying to pin a development team down to a single nationality or characterization is tricky.

Once upon a time, this kind of mix might have been unlikely, and the probability of success laughable. But in modern indie game development, it’s becoming commonplace.

I wonder how much of this real-world mixture of talents and experience  provided inspiration (if only subconsciously) for Eridani’s newest game, The Witch and the Warrior. The game is about an unlikely pairing of people from different islands, and traditionally feuding cultures.  The world has endured decades of warfare between the folk who possess the powers of magic, and those who do not. The latest queen, Queen Clarise, has put an official end to the strife, but in spite of years of peace there remains a tension between the two classes of people.

Nowhere is it as bad as it is on the island of Vester, where the game begins. You play a young female witch, and find yourself the subject of prejudice, anger, and fear tempered only by royal decree. Not that you have any significant magical powers – being of a witch’s family is bad enough even if you personally pose no threat. The townspeople appear quick enough to buy potions from your family, but otherwise tolerance is limited.

It’s an interesting situation. The background of prejudice and persecution is not overwhelming, and doesn’t seem to be making any sort of real-world statement. The game steers well clear of the darker potential of the theme, but it was still interesting to play through the first part of the game as a persecuted “poor little witch girl.” Naturally, as the title suggests, you team up later on with another teenage girl, who would be an enemy by tradition. And – so far as I’ve played – things kick off fairly conventionally from there for this style of game. It’s a very approachable jRPG-style with an obvious eye towards being girl-friendly. There are three difficulty levels to choose from at the beginning of the game, and it promises some very interesting choices that may be good or evil, selfish or selfless, with multiple endings.

It’s a cute, interesting little game, and like Eridani’s first game, Ella’s Hope, could make a very good introductory RPG for players who might get intimidated by other RPGs.

You can try The Witch and the Warrior here.

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: Comments are off for this article

DarkLight Dungeon Interview

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 20, 2010

Last week, Jesse Zoeller of ZoellerSoft took some time to answer some questions for me about his new game, DarkLight Dungeon. DarkLight Dungeon is an old-school style single-player dungeon crawler. The full version releases TODAY, so coolness should ensue for fans of this style of RPG.

So here’s what he had to say about becoming an indie, and the making of this classical-style RPG.

Rampant Coyote: So who are you? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jesse Zoeller: My day job is a full time software engineer developing speech recognition software for hospitals. I got started with programming at the age of 12 when I got my first computer, a 286. This is also the same time I got into computer role playing games with the TSR/SSI Gold Box series.

Rampant Coyote: What inspired you to take the indie route and make your own RPG? Is this your first indie game project?

Jesse Zoeller: I love programming, I love computer role playing games and I love the dungeon-exploring type the best. In America there has been a very large lack of these types of games in recent years. Several have appeared for the Nintendo DS, but as far as the PC, this niche seems dead. I have played around with maybe ten different game projects over the years, but DarkLight Dungeon is the first one I decided to complete and publish to the public, mainly for my love of the genre and the lack of this type of game.

RC: How long have you been working on DD?

JZ: About two years ago I came across the TruVision 3D Engine, basically a wrapper for DirectX, and not a game engine. I played around with it for about a month, made a couple dungeon rooms and set it to the side. I picked it back up in April of 2010. What I had at that time was just a few hard coded rooms, some lights and a working camera. I set out full force in April working on the design, editor and game engine. About four solid months of part time programming, 30,000 lines of code for the engine and 8,000 lines of code for the editor and I had the majority finished from the programming standpoint. The design of the levels, monsters, items, quest, story and play testing took about the same amount of time. So a total of about 8 months of part time work.

RC: Do you have any plans to make the game available for non-Windows platforms?

JZ: Currently not at this time. I have received very little interest in this from the community, also the statistics I have right now put my audience in the 95% for windows users.

RC: You mentioned on your blog being inspired by games like Wizardry and the online RPG Shadow of Yserbius, as well as by modern games. What influences did these games have on Darklight Dungeon? Were you trying to recapture anything specific from these and other games?

JZ: The feeling of what’s in the dungeon, what’s next. Wizardry and Shadow of Yserbius were not just hack n slash dungeon exploring, there were puzzles, keys, and mystery that gave you a reason to keep pushing deeper into the dungeon.

RC: The game starts pretty cryptically. You don’t know why you are there or how you got there. Can you tell us anything more about the story without giving away spoilers?

JZ: It’s hard to say any more then the initial story without giving away the cliffhanger. Basically, you find yourself in this dungeon, with others who appeared in the same manner. You are trying to help them and yourself find the answer as to why you are there, along with a way out of the dungeon.

RC: How big is the dungeon?

JZ: Each floor is based on a 32×32 grid. There are 17 floors in the dungeon spanning 22 unique areas. Some areas are multiple levels deep and some areas intersect other areas. I tried to make each area of the dungeon as unique as possible, different background music, different monsters, and a different theme. The demo allows you to only go as deep as level 4.

RC: You mention a number of languages that your character can learn. How did you make languages in the dungeon useful? How much time will you spend talking or reading versus fighting?

JZ: There are messages scattered around the dungeon, some warnings of very powerful monsters ahead, some descriptions of where a teleportal may take you, some hints to the main puzzle of the game. Also they play a large part in solving the contest puzzle in the game.

RC: You mention that only a fraction of the spells can be bought – most must be found. Is it the same case for items? To what uses can you put all your ill-gotten gold  in the game?

JZ: There are over 200 items in the dungeon, only a small handful are offered in the store at the beginning of the game. Early on in the game you will be spending gold on some of the initial store items, potions, the seer and the initial spells taught in the village. Later on in the game you will continue to invest money into health and mana potions, but permanent stat potions become available, and they are not cheap.

RC: Aging: This is a feature I was never too fond of in older games, I’ll confess. It seems that it’s either a major pain, or it’s so easy to bypass at higher levels that it’s really not an impediment. What role does aging play in Darklight Dungeon? Now, let’s say I’m almost at the end of the game, but then I suddenly hit an age threshold where I’m no longer capable of winning the game (becoming too weak or dying of old age). Am I screwed at this point? Do I have no choice but to start over again from scratch?

JZ: The main reason aging was implemented into DarkLight Dungeon was to give the players another thing to be cautious about in the dungeon. If you brute force your way through the dungeon you are going to die a lot and that is going to age you. Also there are monsters in the dungeon that can age your player, giving the player a reason to want to kill off that monster in the group before another, some traps on treasure chest may also age the player. Now I did make sure there is a balance to this. First there are potions that can be found in the dungeon that remove one year of age and another that removes five years of age. Secondly, it would be pretty difficult to die of old age in DarkLight Dungeon and if you do, you will lose your current experience and 10 years of age will be removed from your character.

RC: What do you mean by losing current experience?

JZ: You lose your current experience but no levels. So if you level 10 with one hundred experience and you die of old age then you will remain at level 10 but lose the hundred experience.

RC: Okay, I think you finally have me convinced that the age thing isn’t so bad. 🙂 You briefly mentioned something on the blog about sashes – trophies for accomplishing certain tasks. They sound a little like “achievements” that have become popular on the XBox and Steam, but with actual gameplay benefits. Can you describe a couple of samples trophies and how they’d work in the game?

JZ: This idea was something that actually came from Sierra’s game The Realm Online. I liked the idea of having a player gain something special for their work. There are trophies for many things in the game, killing many monsters, gaining levels, opening chests, saving gold in the bank, even dying to many times. When you earn a trophy you are given a sash (and the store will stock 99 of them at that time). The sash, when equipped not only gives your character increases to certain stats, but also a title to your character.

RC: So if you were to emphasize only one or two features of DD that makes it stand out and be cool, what would it / they be?

JZ: One would be the story, there is some mystery as to why you are even in this dungeon and a bit of a twist towards the end. Second would be that DarkLight Dungeon is an Indie attempt to fill a niche genre and with the support of the community, will continue to grow down the road in future developments.

RC: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

JZ: I would just like to thank everyone who supports DarkLight Dungeon.

You can check out DarkLight Dungeon at the official website.

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Interviews - Comments: Read the First Comment



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