Introduction:
I've been designing a game for some time now. A lot of developers regard magic as a multi-elemental force with many variables, and box melee in one dull category. This game is here to change that.
Features/Description:
Medieval Fantasy Setting (how original : P)
Gameplay is top-down (Think Pokemon games, including graphics) world in where you do various activities for survival and skill-up (logging, mining, fishing and such), Perhaps something similar to minecraft in that regard.
The game is singleplayer (since i cant possibly consider multiplayer at all because of the difficulty of it) and focuses on the adventures of your character as he visits the legendary blacksmith of the town whose missions are about using your skills in combat or resource gathering to get the ingredients he needs to make you better equipment and weapons.
A quest system similar to Grand Theft Auto's (Something I've seen used seldom) in where you take missions but meet other people who will then have their own mission storyline so you can decide whose missions you want to finish first.
The game ends once you completed all the storylines which will open up the final quest that ends up in you slaying a dragon (The gameplay is the primary focus, so i consider the story to be good if well executed, even if its not original)
Real time combat similar to TLOZ for NES, except with different skills.
There is magic in the world, in the form of NPC's such as enemies, allies and magical creatures, however; the player CANNOT use magic.
Combat:
Attacking and Blocking
Basic Attacks can be performed by left clicking while holding a weapon in one of your weapon slots. Each weapon has a specific attack cooldown. Basic Attack cooldowns do not interfere with Ability cooldowns. Blocking can only be performed while holding a shield in one of your weapon slots. All shields have a toggle mode for shielding, being active as long as the button is pressed, overwriting any offensive ability.
Abilities
Abilities are combat movements learned by your character that apply besides your basic attack. Some abilities are learned by completing quests, others can be looted from scrolls and found in the Gameworld, and others can be learnt by getting to certain skill in the specific weapon.
Each kind of weapon has its unique secondary condition and stats which affect its effectivenes, such as swords being brittle making them sharper but with less duration.
Sword weapons: Bleeding
Axe Weapons: Higher Crit chance
Club Weapons: Armor penetration
Polearm Weapons: "Agression" condition in where the enemy lowers its defense and attack speed or such.
Shields: Chance to block 100% of the attack's damage. (Normaly you cannot mitigate damage completely with shields)
==== Would you play it?
There are a lot more assets that could be discussed up to what i have designed. If you want the full read you can check it out
Your introduction says the game will change how we perceive magic and melee combat, but you never really describe how. If that's the main hook, I'd need to hear more about how it works before I can tell if I'd play it or not.
Your introduction says the game will change how we perceive magic and melee combat, but you never really describe how. If that's the main hook, I'd need to hear more about how it works before I can tell if I'd play it or not.
Real-time game? Turn-based? What are the winning/xp gaining conditions? What are losing conditions? Are there enemies? How to kill them? How do they behave? Is there an interaction with environment? Are there similar games?
There are so many questions that need to be answered. Right now it is impossible even to closely imagine the gameplay.
Real-time game? Turn-based? What are the winning/xp gaining conditions? What are losing conditions? Are there enemies? How to kill them? How do they behave? Is there an interaction with environment? Are there similar games?
There are so many questions that need to be answered. Right now it is impossible even to closely imagine the gameplay.
It would be real time combat, i thought putting up all the info in one spot would get me "tl;dr" responses or something of the sort, thats why i didnt put everything.... but ill update with much more info now
For myself, I've found whether I pick up a game and play it or not ends up being an unknown function of impulse and marketing. So I couldn't really say. All the information you have there is probably going to be great when you're programming and otherwise establishing the lore of your world. But as a potential player, I'm not sure what you're trying to offer me. Can you sum it up in some way.
What exactly would you say is the main intended hook for your game and why? The combat system? The story you're writing? The graphics? A particular atmosphere or style? Is it the genre itself? A system that you're planning or a mechanic? A general experience?
I'm not necessarily looking for innovation or a lot of details about planned content. It's just that, like Suspense, I'm a little confused. I first thought your game was going to somehow center survival in a world of magic. Then you indicate the player won't be using magic in combat and instead will be focused on using melee weapons. Which then gets me thinking about how you mention a quest system and a story line which, ok sure, that's not unusual for an RPG to have, sounds fine to me. I guess maybe I should think of it as a streight forward RPG and maybe the story is some kind of magic vs metal thing. But wait, how does the survival aspect come in? I'm just having a hard time visualizing what the game is going to be.
But then, that might just all be a marketing thing for you to worry about later. So, alternatively, if there's a particular mechanic or aspect that you have a question about or would like to discuss, let us know.
I'm still not sure how magic interacts with the player here.
But thumbs up for this:
The game ends once you completed all the storylines which will open up the final quest that ends up in you slaying a dragon (The gameplay is the primary focus, so i consider the story to be good if well executed, even if its not original)
What you have so far sounds reasonable and if well executed will probably be enjoyable, but I can't tell you whether or not I'd really enjoy the game based purely on the information provided.
I'd suggest throwing together a rough prototype and seeing if you can "find the fun" -- start off with a small selection of items and abilities, a couple of varied enemies and a small level to play in with no storyline, and see if the combat system is actually fun to play with. You can then tweak and adjust as needed and can use the prototype as a testing-area for new weapons and abilities as you go along without having to develop the entire game up-front.
I certainly think it could be fun, but it really depends on the specifics of them items and abilities, the capabilities of the enemies, and the interactions between them to create an enjoyable experience. As for the crafting and other non-combat skills, they're potentially a good idea, but you haven't really given any detail on them yet.
Don't worry about giving a wall-of-text or boring people -- just give as much information as you think people will need to really form a proper opinion, and perhaps ask some specific questions to get us to focus on areas you want input or suggestions for.
I'd suggest throwing together a rough prototype and seeing if you can "find the fun" -- start off with a small selection of items and abilities, a couple of varied enemies and a small level to play in with no storyline, and see if the combat system is actually fun to play with. You can then tweak and adjust as needed and can use the prototype as a testing-area for new weapons and abilities as you go along without having to develop the entire game up-front.
I think this is one of the most important steps you can take in game design. Before you ever write up a design document or start defining specifics (I know you've already done these), take the time to actually find the fun core of the game. All the rest is just fluff. You can't assume the core gameplay will be fun until you actually do the prototyping.
Thanks for all your input guys.
Okay i'll try to explain myself and hopefully answer all of your posts with this :1
Justification of Theme
My inspiration for this game is the fact that if you check your RPG's and MMO's you'll notice that the Warrior, Knight or otherwise melee (Not tank) class is never one of the "Top tier" or "top dps". This is understandable considering there is nothing to prevent you from using magic which normally deals higher damage than melee for the simple fact that mages are less resistant to damage themselves. This is unless of course you talk about games like Mount and Blade or War of the Roses, but the scope of those games is far beyond what an indie dev could dream of.
My solution for this is rather simple. You simply focus and categorize melee into sub branches and apply those "Elemental" or "Different rules" to each kind of physical weapon and put it on par with a magic counterpart. Allow me to give you an example.
Say you have a shield. Well that could be pretty much it. My kind of focus would be to ask, what kind of shield? is it a wooden shield?
A wooden shield would be very poor when defending against melee... but perhaps it can be useful when dealing with Energy/Electricity-based magic users.
Then it comes the problem of fire magic! a whole world opens when you "Corner" your player in the non-magical role. This also helps fix part of the Gary Stu problem of being a "Chosen one" in the world, with understanding of magic being a gift.
My goals when creating this game/the hook.
I want the main hook of this game to be playing the role of a non-magic user sticking it to the magic users! for all the knight/warrior/barbarian/archer lovers!
I want the player to think about magic-based games and look at the other side of the coin. You don't just wave your wand and conjure whatever you want. On the contrary; you must adventure into caves and recollect ingredients, get ores from mines with a pickaxe or slay people and loot their armor for it to be smelted and reforged. You work for your equipment, you feel the upgrade, you get the thrill of being kind of powerless. The survival comes in when you get thirsty and hungry and you can very well get poisoned, burnt, frozen, etc. (Much more information on the link i put up with the design document.)
Hopefully, as a secondary goal, i want to set the atmosphere and pave the way for other games to be set in this gameworld, there is much more to this land than these drawings i present you. But that's a story for another time.
"We want an alpha or prototype!"
The reason of why i haven't thrown a prototype yet is a rather dull and sad one, but in case you are interested: I began trying to teach myself how to code since i love all of this lore making and drawing and what not (pixel art is actually not my best style, but it is objectively better to make a lot of content easier and faster) and nobody likes the "idea guy".
I had gotten to the point in where i honestly believed that codding was simply not my thing. Spending days trying to fix ridiculously easy mistakes such as syntax and caps. But i love making games, i love it so much i want to do it for a living. I waited until i was 18 and got into college in Systems Engineering (My county's equivalent of Computer Science) in hopes of learning more... the career supposedly included c++, c# and some java on the side.
I'm in semester 4 out of 8 and dear god we have learned jackshit, pardon the word. I can barely make programs in console with objects, methods, classes, reeaaally basic stuff.
So i am now rather desperate and decided on sitting back, giving this project another go as text... doing ALL of the required text assets, because i believe one thing is being the "idea" guy, and another one is developing the ideas to the finest detail, balance, numbers, prices, feedback, advertising, etc. And then i have some skill in drawing, i have a tablet and the rig to run specialized design programs and such.
This is why i wanted to finish the whole document before throwing a "prototype", because unless you have money to throw to people (which i sadly don't), nobody believes in an "Idea Guy".
I'd like to share my specific questions about mechanics and stuff like that, but first id like to hear your opinion on this.
