Plan for Gareth Fouche

Urm, I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I'd post an update of what I'm up to now.


Well, its been a few months. Unfortunately, not very productive months. Various RL factors have combined to make my Torque progress rather slow in the last month or two, but things have settled now.

So on to what I'm working on right now. Drumroll please...dum Dum dum... a single player RPG!!!

I hear some groans from my audience.

Ok, hear me out, I'm going to talk a little bit about why I chose to do this (besides the fact that I love RPGs), what needs to be done, market competitiveness.

Firstly, I want to talk about the market opportunities, competitiveness etc.

I am certainly not making a MMORPG. I know it can (potentially) be done (See MoM), but I have never played one, and actually think the growing MMORPG market is working to my advantage here. Alot of the focus is shifting to that type of RPG, whereas the number of single player RPGs that come out (PC) is relatively small. I play RPGs solo, and I know plenty of people who do so as well. I think the mainstream is leaving a void that can be filled. There are long dry spells in between new RPGs, especially as the mainstream pushes the tech envelope. It takes longer and longer to make the suckers. That kind of gap = opportunity.


Not only that, single player RPGs (I'll refer to them as RPGs from now on ;)) are by their nature episodic. Like a book, you finish them. Now I know that applies to all games, but think about the multiplayer field. People play Warcraft long after they've completed the single player campaign, for the competitive aspect. Likewise, people stay in MMORPGS for the social aspect. Lets not even talk about CS or battlefield.

Not so much with RPGs. People play for the storylines, the characters, the character development, just like a book. Just like someone who enjoys murder mystery books, when they finish one, they want to read another, etc. It isn't so much a case of them not reading other novels because there is one that is best. Hopefully that analogy isn't too obtuse :). My point is, just because a good proffesional RPG is coming out, doesn't mean it will dominate the market for years, like a FPS will (see battlefield). And there aren't that many PC RPGs coming out in the near future. Certainly no where near the number of FPS or RTS games for example.


That brings me to the main advantage I think there is for Indies in the RPG field. As I said, the main draw for RPGs is the storylines, the characters, the character development. Now, these things are one of the few places indies can compete effectively against the mainstream, IMHO. It doesn't take multi-million dollar budgets to do these things, like graphics do. Remember, there have been RPGs for a long time, since the beginning of gaming. It requires skill as a designer (what game doesn't?), but I still think it is attainable for an indie. Give people an intruiging story, interesting characters, allies they can connect with and villains they can hate, and pace it so it has that "just want to find out what happens next" feel, and I think you've got a game that will get people buying.



Alright, next point: I know RPGs are a lot of work. Thats why I am choosing to limit my scope.

I think a big problem is aiming too high. I cannot compete with Oblivion, NWN2, Fable, etc. I know this. I will not have 200 types of monsters, facial animation, 100s of quests or super detailed models. I know. I cannot compete with the major players on that front. I am NOT trying to make the last RPG I played, but 'better', with 'more', more features, more everything!

Rather, I am going to concentrate on polishing the hell out of the storyline, trying to get that addictive 'can't put it down' feeling. Anyone remember Baldurs Gate? Icewind Dale? They were great RPGs, but even then the Infinity engine was aging. The thing that made those games great was those story factors and great polished gameplay. Those things make us look past the engine. Take a look at www.spidweb.com. Jeff Vogel makes old school RPGs for a living, with graphics that T2D could easily surpass. RPGs have often lagged behind graphics standards, but fans have been willing to overlook that for the experience underneath.

Also, there are alot of useful resources right here on GG which provide an incredible headstart. Inventories, spells, AI, compass, maps, dialogue systems, content packs. There is a basic RPG system right there. Practically an RPG starter kit by itself. All that is really lacking is a character development system and a quest/journal system.

Ah, but art content, I hear you saying! So much art content!

Yes. I agree. That is why as much as possible I will work to reuse art content. There is a resource on mesh hiding and texture swapping. Utilising this allows for much variation in humanoid characters. Similarly with monsters. I believe instead of 100 monsters, 15-20 monsters with variations, presented well, utilising scripting etc, could make quite an immersive experience. Combined with humanoid enemies, I think it is sufficient.

Similarly for the buildings. I will try to make "lego" like pieces that work together to make many variations. Look at Tim Astes Content packs. You can mix up the objects to create different types of towns, alter textures and "decoration objects" to create different feels, etc. Plus, I don't want to make a vast sprawling world, spanning many different cities, continents, dungeons etc. Rather, a tighter focused experience. Milk each setting for what its worth. Rather than having the player slogging across the continent, put alot of quests and storyline development in the city, add depth rather than breadth. Again, think BG, a significant portion of the game happened in the city. Which means you get maximum value for money from your modelling efforts. I don't want to concentrate on churning out a million models, but creating as immersive an experience as possible with what I have got.

I think this is in reach of indies.

Ok, so where am I currently?

I have a spell system, as I have mentioned, and an inventory system. Last night I put in the incredibly cool RPGdialogue system. I have mission portals (to link levels together). I have yet to put in enemy AI, but the resources are on my hard drive.

Things I want to add to get to a prototype phase :

- A stats system, levels, skills etc. I don't think it will be hard getting something simple in there.

- A Quest/Journal system. I envision quests as objects (in the code), instances of a quest Datablock (I like datablocks). They have an internal 'state', journal entries (text strings) for each state, and an onStateChanged method. You determine the number of states, and write the actions in script for each one. Then there is a Quest Manager, which is responsible for managing the quests, adding the journal entries to the players log book etc. It can be queried for the state of a quest in script, allowing you to set up triggers and encounters etc. Events can be sent to it, altering the state of a quest. So for instance when you kill the Orc king, in its death script it sets the appropriate quests state to complete.

- Monsters having an attached inventory/give exp.


I believe with these in place I can make a VERY rough prototype. Later can come melee combat, shopkeepers, conditionals in the dialogue tree, character appearance customisation, wearing different armours (mesh swapping), interacting with objects. The point is, rough as it is, the basics will be there, and I can begin iterating. Hopefully into something worth playing and paying for :).


Well, this .plan is long and rambling, and I'm tired of typing, so I'm going to stop now.