The Search for Quests

Currently, development is tightly focused on providing formal goals, presented as quests. The game can potentially provide hundreds of them, ranging from extremely simple fetch and carries to chained quests which are more complex. I thought I'd use this space to talk about how more formal gameplay works now that the quest system is running.

Quests are obtained in-character by talking to quest-givers, and almost every NPC can give a quest, with higher status NPCs providing the more elaborate variations. Quests have to serve direct and meta purposes, providing setting exposition to the player while not turning into an info dump.


All quests give the player something to do, sometimes in such simple fashion as carrying a package from one person to another, and sometimes more elaborately such as casing a warehouse, then breaking in with a stolen key and rifling crates looking for a desired item. There are rewards for completion, and incidental EXP, costume parts and useful items are gained along the way.


The writing is challenging, how to set a story in motion in the player's head using as few words as possible. The quest tech is so far quite simple, so the writing has to be clear. More elaboration will come, but discovering exactly how best and where additional exposition belongs and is useful will only come through play--I've never had much luck designing by fiat.

Discovering gaps in the process by using the system works better, and in the meantime quests already work end to end, taking players through the complete cycle of pickup, fulfillment and completion.


Using a game engine is another way to manifest and tell a story, so the same story doesn't always repeat in exactly the same way--the goals may stay the same, but encounters in crossing maps and the pacing are left up to each player, so each telling is a little different and entirely your own.

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