Role of the Hero - Dream Games Contest Entry
by Kevin McLaughlin · 05/01/2007 (1:21 pm) · 1 comments
I tried posting this yesterday, but somehow it seems not to have made it through... A friend commented that it has probably ended up posted to someone's cute little kitten blog somewhere, but I suspect it has vanished down the Great Cosmic Internet Flusher.
Anyway!
April summary of progress for Role of the Hero, a smallscale persistant world game, entry for the Dream Games contest.
Website: Domain reserved (http://www.roleofthehero.com), no site up yet; waiting til I have a bit more content before doing the web development.
Blogsite: The contest has a requirement to track our progress in both a personal blog at least weekly, and a GG blog at least monthly. The URL for the personal blog is http://roleplayersworld.wordpress.com/
Design Doc: In early stages of progress. As you can see in my main blog, I've basically gone back to raw design for this contest. I have for a long time had some rather grandiose ideas about what I wanted to make for the "Role of the Hero" game; I've scrapped them. I'm working instead on the concepts of simple game, simple design, elegant simplicity in as much of the work as possible. My design doc is due by late May; it will continue to be a fluid document, changing as I learn and adapt the game, but should have the initial copy done in time.
Raw Game Concepts:
1) Fantasy persistant online multiplayer game. I hesitate to use that "massive" adjective we all know and love. If I get a nice ATITD sized population (3k players), I'll be thrilled.
2) "Simplest Game". I wrote a nice long blog entry on this concept. Basically, I suspect that we indie devs often shoot ourselves in the feet by trying to make Our Dream Game - you know, that fantastically complex design with all the bells and whistles that those silly pro devs never thought to add? ;) At least, I know I've done a fair amount of that. So I'm working to refine the game back to several fundamental concepts and core features. If I have time, great - I can build up from there. But focus is on building a completeable game in the one year (11 months left!) timeline.
In my experience, at least 3/4 of the contestants in events like this don't even finish. I intend to finish.
3) Story first. Since I am not designing massively complex game mechanics and huge innovations for the genre, I need to have something to appeal to folks. ;) I thought about it quite a bit, and I've fallen back on my storytelling ability as my main edge. I've written a few stories that I've been paid for, over the years, and used to be an excellent tabletop RPG GM. The "Role of the Hero" name was in fact the name of my diceless tabletop RPG, released back at GenCon 93, and I got great reviews for the game sessions I ran there. Didn't sell many copies of the game, but they liked the GMing!
So instead of a massively multiplayer game where the world is static and unaffectable, I am working at something that should feel more like a very big tabletop RPG game, where the players and GM(s) are collaborating on an ongoing story together.
Next step for me are to get the design document up and running, including detailed information on the initial story and first zone(s). Then I'll begin working my way through the environmental art needed for those first areas. I plan on doing a sort of solo agile development for the project - getting a playable game running early, and maintaining a playable game at each stage of development. By sometime later this summer, I hope to have that initial playable setup complete.
So, til next time...!
Anyway!
April summary of progress for Role of the Hero, a smallscale persistant world game, entry for the Dream Games contest.
Website: Domain reserved (http://www.roleofthehero.com), no site up yet; waiting til I have a bit more content before doing the web development.
Blogsite: The contest has a requirement to track our progress in both a personal blog at least weekly, and a GG blog at least monthly. The URL for the personal blog is http://roleplayersworld.wordpress.com/
Design Doc: In early stages of progress. As you can see in my main blog, I've basically gone back to raw design for this contest. I have for a long time had some rather grandiose ideas about what I wanted to make for the "Role of the Hero" game; I've scrapped them. I'm working instead on the concepts of simple game, simple design, elegant simplicity in as much of the work as possible. My design doc is due by late May; it will continue to be a fluid document, changing as I learn and adapt the game, but should have the initial copy done in time.
Raw Game Concepts:
1) Fantasy persistant online multiplayer game. I hesitate to use that "massive" adjective we all know and love. If I get a nice ATITD sized population (3k players), I'll be thrilled.
2) "Simplest Game". I wrote a nice long blog entry on this concept. Basically, I suspect that we indie devs often shoot ourselves in the feet by trying to make Our Dream Game - you know, that fantastically complex design with all the bells and whistles that those silly pro devs never thought to add? ;) At least, I know I've done a fair amount of that. So I'm working to refine the game back to several fundamental concepts and core features. If I have time, great - I can build up from there. But focus is on building a completeable game in the one year (11 months left!) timeline.
In my experience, at least 3/4 of the contestants in events like this don't even finish. I intend to finish.
3) Story first. Since I am not designing massively complex game mechanics and huge innovations for the genre, I need to have something to appeal to folks. ;) I thought about it quite a bit, and I've fallen back on my storytelling ability as my main edge. I've written a few stories that I've been paid for, over the years, and used to be an excellent tabletop RPG GM. The "Role of the Hero" name was in fact the name of my diceless tabletop RPG, released back at GenCon 93, and I got great reviews for the game sessions I ran there. Didn't sell many copies of the game, but they liked the GMing!
So instead of a massively multiplayer game where the world is static and unaffectable, I am working at something that should feel more like a very big tabletop RPG game, where the players and GM(s) are collaborating on an ongoing story together.
Next step for me are to get the design document up and running, including detailed information on the initial story and first zone(s). Then I'll begin working my way through the environmental art needed for those first areas. I plan on doing a sort of solo agile development for the project - getting a playable game running early, and maintaining a playable game at each stage of development. By sometime later this summer, I hope to have that initial playable setup complete.
So, til next time...!
Torque 3D Owner Jay Barnson
Ah, the MUD days....