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Plan for Jay Barnson
Plan for Jay Barnson
| Name: | Jay Barnson |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Aug 26, 2005 | |
| Rating: |  Not Rated | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Jay Barnson |
Blog post
Embracing the Kiss of Death
So I'm tackling the "mission impossible" of doing a single-player Roleplaying Game right now, which is a suicide mission by every rational piece of conventional wisdom. Kiss of Death. But I'm an idiot that way. The three things I figure I've got going for me are experience (to a point), a somewhat mature engine to work with (Torque), and it's NOT multiplayer. And though I'm highly committed to the project, I'm still willing to cut and run if it doesn't work out. So I've been very carefully working on "proof of concept" and core engine work to judge the feasibility of what is something that independent game developers Just Don't Do (until they actually DO).
I got to spend about eighteen months of "Blue Sky" design phase on this project, which was delightful. Much of it occurred while I was still finishing up Void War. I got to read a lot of fiction and nonfiction books on the subject matter, listen to a very different style of music, and even talk to a historian (a relative) on the subject. And consult with an editor from the D20 "table-top" RPG industry who has a knowledge of both RPGs and the genre (which has never been used in a computer game before so it's a plus for being different, but might also be yet another Kiss Of Death.)
Then comes the really hard, painful stage of scoping down all those really great ideas to something that's actually remotely achievable, imposing limits, and actual implementation translating the ideal game-in-your-head to its less-perfect version on the screen. That's occurred in the last four months, along with early implementation of the basic "engine" driving the game. I've posted a couple of blogs about my "proof of concept" stuff I've been doing for cutscenes, lighting, and figuring out stuff in Torque.
Lately I've been working on the user interface, the "skill" system, controls, and combat. None of this is anywhere resembling final yet I'm just working on back-end code and using stand-in art resources to prototype the proof-of-concept. So far, it's been coming along pretty well.
You can see a few tell-tale signs of the RTS Starter Pack I used to give me a leg-up. I'm actually not using very much of it at this point, but it pointed me in the right direction. I've had to create some custom UI elements to create animated buttons and images that slide around as actions take place. The character panels have a line of "action tiles" that behave a little bit like The Sims. The player can "queue up" commands to the characters, giving him some breathing room when controlling up to four characters at a time. Those actions can be aborted at any time by clicking on the action tile. Combat is handled in 'slow motion' turns to keep things controllable.
I'm also working on some really weird, funky systems to make non-combat activities more exciting. The setting is loosely based on the modern world, so going around hacking up the local citizenry (or even villains) would have pretty dire consequences. Now Joe Maruschak might call me out on letting story (and setting) get in the way of gameplay, but the flip side is that a those very limitations can propel you to come up with fun, unique gameplay that makes sense within a compelling metaphor. Well, assuming you are a talented and skilled game designer. I'm really not, so I'm just hoping I will get lucky.
The other challenge I'm facing is scoping the game. RPGs are typically exploratory in nature, and thus have GINORMOUS content requirements. I don't have the budget, time, and resources to create something with hundreds of unique locations and a cast of thousands. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve I'm trying to employ to resolve this problem, one of which is to borrow a bit from the adventure-game aesthetic, allowing the same locations to have multiple purposes at different points along the game.
We'll see how I do. It's been a couple of interesting and educational months getting this far, and after living and breathing this thing for months (at least in my so-called "spare" time), it's fun seeing it all take shape.
Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
http://www.rampantgames.com
I got to spend about eighteen months of "Blue Sky" design phase on this project, which was delightful. Much of it occurred while I was still finishing up Void War. I got to read a lot of fiction and nonfiction books on the subject matter, listen to a very different style of music, and even talk to a historian (a relative) on the subject. And consult with an editor from the D20 "table-top" RPG industry who has a knowledge of both RPGs and the genre (which has never been used in a computer game before so it's a plus for being different, but might also be yet another Kiss Of Death.)
Then comes the really hard, painful stage of scoping down all those really great ideas to something that's actually remotely achievable, imposing limits, and actual implementation translating the ideal game-in-your-head to its less-perfect version on the screen. That's occurred in the last four months, along with early implementation of the basic "engine" driving the game. I've posted a couple of blogs about my "proof of concept" stuff I've been doing for cutscenes, lighting, and figuring out stuff in Torque.
Lately I've been working on the user interface, the "skill" system, controls, and combat. None of this is anywhere resembling final yet I'm just working on back-end code and using stand-in art resources to prototype the proof-of-concept. So far, it's been coming along pretty well.
You can see a few tell-tale signs of the RTS Starter Pack I used to give me a leg-up. I'm actually not using very much of it at this point, but it pointed me in the right direction. I've had to create some custom UI elements to create animated buttons and images that slide around as actions take place. The character panels have a line of "action tiles" that behave a little bit like The Sims. The player can "queue up" commands to the characters, giving him some breathing room when controlling up to four characters at a time. Those actions can be aborted at any time by clicking on the action tile. Combat is handled in 'slow motion' turns to keep things controllable.
I'm also working on some really weird, funky systems to make non-combat activities more exciting. The setting is loosely based on the modern world, so going around hacking up the local citizenry (or even villains) would have pretty dire consequences. Now Joe Maruschak might call me out on letting story (and setting) get in the way of gameplay, but the flip side is that a those very limitations can propel you to come up with fun, unique gameplay that makes sense within a compelling metaphor. Well, assuming you are a talented and skilled game designer. I'm really not, so I'm just hoping I will get lucky.
The other challenge I'm facing is scoping the game. RPGs are typically exploratory in nature, and thus have GINORMOUS content requirements. I don't have the budget, time, and resources to create something with hundreds of unique locations and a cast of thousands. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve I'm trying to employ to resolve this problem, one of which is to borrow a bit from the adventure-game aesthetic, allowing the same locations to have multiple purposes at different points along the game.
We'll see how I do. It's been a couple of interesting and educational months getting this far, and after living and breathing this thing for months (at least in my so-called "spare" time), it's fun seeing it all take shape.
Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
http://www.rampantgames.com
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Submit your own resources!| Rodney (OldRod) Burns (Aug 26, 2005 at 22:43 GMT) |
Looks like an interesting project!
| Jeremy Alessi (Aug 26, 2005 at 22:45 GMT) |
| Nauris Krauze (Aug 26, 2005 at 23:18 GMT) |
Seriously though, i think its all about the scale and level of detail youre willing to settle on. Creating next Morrowing with no resources is fool`s errand, of course, but you can make a damn good game without too much fine detail.
In that respect I really like where Mount&Blade is headed. Ye, its RPG, alright, ye, it seems to be very much freeform, yet, its not that they have exactly content galore going on. And if the basic gameplay works and tingles your spine, you might discover that you dont actually notice the lack of all them fine thingies present in AAA titles.
| Joshua Dallman (Aug 26, 2005 at 23:31 GMT) |
Well, at least you're doing one thing right! Good luck.
| Phil Carlisle (Aug 27, 2005 at 00:26 GMT) |
As it is, you are likely to find a fair amount of RPG style content out there in game dev land.. RPG's are as common as muck :)
I'd rather make a mechanic based game myself, but RPG's arent impossible, if you are wary of the size issues its a good start.
Its still a big hard task though Jay.
| Clint S. Brewer (Aug 27, 2005 at 01:52 GMT) |
| Vernon Finch (Aug 27, 2005 at 09:59 GMT) |
Me and my flatmate considered doing something with the angband code and Torque, but thought better of it (for now).
Ok, my rabid fanboy interjection is over now. Good luck with this Jay, it will be interesting to see you progress :)
| Jay Barnson (Aug 27, 2005 at 15:13 GMT) |
Well, eventually someone did, and it became Diablo. 'Nuff said.
Though I've played a little bit with Falcon's Eye and some other graphic clients for NetHack and others.
That's NOT the kind of game I'm making (though Hackenslash was a quick project moving kinda in that direction when my 40 hours expired). I'm borrowing a few ideas I picked up while doing Hackenslash, but this is more of a story-based game taking place in a fairly limited region. And set in the modern era. Kinda.
As far as MMORPGs are concerned - I am amazed by what Josh Ritter is coming up with. I think if he could bottle his dedication and energy and sell it, he'd be rich.
| Vernon Finch (Aug 28, 2005 at 01:52 GMT) |
Stories really do it for me these days (sorry Joe). I don't have the time to level up some character to level 50, I just want a nice interactive experience and I don't care about the levelling side too much, as long as I get new cool stuff along the way.
I imagine there are a lot of players around like me, so while the levelling system is addictive for a lot of players, a story based game is going to have a good niche audience.
Games I've enjoyed in the last few years have been Arcanum (such a cool world), KoToR, and Thief3. While these are big games, I've really felt involved in their worlds.
I just finished Half Life 2 yesterday, and while it was fun, I found a lot of the time I was thinking, when is this level of shooting stuff going to end, when am I going to meet up with player x, what is really going on? (the end may have been interesting, but it didn't exactly satisfy my interest in the world I'd just been in). It took me months and months to finish, just because I digested it in small hour by hour blocks, and often one chunk would just be me shooting stuff. My greatest thrill in finishing was that I could finally uninstall Steam.
So all in all I think a small story driven game has its place. Its going to take some skill to pull off, but you have the experience, so if anyone can I think you can.
| Jay Barnson (Aug 28, 2005 at 07:11 GMT) |
I think players may be somewhat forgiving of story when the game rocks. The key point of Joe's discussion (and my own view) is that it has to be a GAME first. Story is the spice and icing and the thing that keeps pushing you. But you have to have a fun game first.
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