Fangorodrim: Lessons Learned
by Kevin James · 07/21/2010 (6:38 pm) · 3 comments
Fangorodrim.zip v1.66 11 megs
Here are the lessons I learned in the making of Fangorodrim:
1. Mixing genres is difficult to pull of correctly because I'm bound to fail most player's expectations. The RTS fans want more depth in research/development and the Shooter fans want a nimble shooter game that does not require much thought.
2. Flashy artwork is critical. Players need a professional presentation to feel like the game is worth their time. In the early versions of Fangorodrim, the artwork and fonts where stock TGB and most players could not get over that. I found a good artist and he helped make the artwork one of the highlights of the game so players were motivated to play it through.
3. I can't make everyone happy. I need a concept that is strong enough to stay within scope and not get sidetracked by every beta tester's wish list.
4. Good feedback is critical. Interpreting that feedback is just as critical. If 100 people give me feedback I need to know how to boil that down to the essentials. If only 1 player out of a hundred complained about some non-bug annoyance, it would not get the same attention as if 20 people clamored for the same thing. An example of a change that occurred in Fangorodrim due to popular demand was increasing sector size. That sounds easy to implement: Make the sectors bigger, right? I put that off for as long as I could but every time I posted my game on a new board that was the number 1 complaint. It only took me about 20 hours of coding to change that...
Anyway, I'm taking these lessons into the next project and here's what I'm thinking of:
-Top-down space RPG. This applies lesson #2. I need to use my current artwork (which is nice and flashy) until my current artist or someone else gets motivated to help me out. If the gameplay is good enough I think this will get worked out.
-I envision the player's ship flying through randomized space stations or within huge asteroids or various planet surfaces.
-Class creation based on 5 basic ship types. TGB makes it easy to attach gear to the ship so it will get customized as the game progresses.
-Focus on skill trees. What kind of skill branches will be fun for this type of game? I'm still working on that.
Here are the lessons I learned in the making of Fangorodrim:
1. Mixing genres is difficult to pull of correctly because I'm bound to fail most player's expectations. The RTS fans want more depth in research/development and the Shooter fans want a nimble shooter game that does not require much thought.
2. Flashy artwork is critical. Players need a professional presentation to feel like the game is worth their time. In the early versions of Fangorodrim, the artwork and fonts where stock TGB and most players could not get over that. I found a good artist and he helped make the artwork one of the highlights of the game so players were motivated to play it through.
3. I can't make everyone happy. I need a concept that is strong enough to stay within scope and not get sidetracked by every beta tester's wish list.
4. Good feedback is critical. Interpreting that feedback is just as critical. If 100 people give me feedback I need to know how to boil that down to the essentials. If only 1 player out of a hundred complained about some non-bug annoyance, it would not get the same attention as if 20 people clamored for the same thing. An example of a change that occurred in Fangorodrim due to popular demand was increasing sector size. That sounds easy to implement: Make the sectors bigger, right? I put that off for as long as I could but every time I posted my game on a new board that was the number 1 complaint. It only took me about 20 hours of coding to change that...
Anyway, I'm taking these lessons into the next project and here's what I'm thinking of:
-Top-down space RPG. This applies lesson #2. I need to use my current artwork (which is nice and flashy) until my current artist or someone else gets motivated to help me out. If the gameplay is good enough I think this will get worked out.
-I envision the player's ship flying through randomized space stations or within huge asteroids or various planet surfaces.
-Class creation based on 5 basic ship types. TGB makes it easy to attach gear to the ship so it will get customized as the game progresses.
-Focus on skill trees. What kind of skill branches will be fun for this type of game? I'm still working on that.
About the author
Hobbyist game developer -- free and open source games FTW.
Torque 3D Owner Bryan Sawler
muteki corporation
You need to make the game you're trying to make, and not what everyone wants it to be.
That ISN'T to say you should make a game no one wants to play, and then be shocked when no one plays it, but nobody knows the game you're trying to make better than you, so don't let them cause you to compromise your vision. When you do, what happens almost always is your game gets this muddled feeling, and it's apparent to everyone who ends up playing it.