The RPG design posts are getting really tiresome. For variety''s sake here''s a question for the forum: What techniques do you employ in designing games? What do you do to make things easier?

RPGs are really tiresome. To think, I cause all this trouble and I don''t even make them! =)

However, I think your question is a little more broad than is answerable. What are you asking? Are we to sum up game design in one post? Or do you just want to hear little neat things? Isn''t that what the whole forum is about, not just one thread?

Landfish,

I was hoping the reader would pick what''s important to him and proceed from there. The question is intentionally broad and isn''t meant to be answered in an exhaustive fashion. I''m simply interested in useful and productive design techniques.

Landfish,

I was hoping the reader would pick what''s important to him and proceed from there. The question is intentionally broad and isn''t meant to be answered in an exhaustive fashion. I''m simply interested in useful and productive design techniques.

Paper and pencil {colored ones help more }
That''s how I''ve always worked. Some of my older designs were pages crammed with pictures of enemies and explanations squeezed in using writing that you''d need a magnifying glass to read.

I take quite a bit more space now. In general I seperate the different areas of design on to pages. One group will have mechanics, another enemies, and yet another story/setting. I usually go on with more groups, but they tend to vary. Quite often there''s a User Interface group of papers. This tends to be quite extensive, as a bad interface contributes to bad gameplay very quickly.

First i decide what type of game of want to design. In this process i usually try to keep in mind ease of implementation. Once i know what type of game i want to make i think for a long time about what would make this game fun. Then i alpha test.

Past that point, it''s time to start at the bottom and work on some game logic structures to see which ones would best foundate the game. During this stage i constantly analyse to find areas that conflict badly.

If i now have the game clearly in my head on move on to the stage of alocating game mechanics and work on each of them seperately. The most important step for me here is to know which game mechanic is the most to least important and work on them in this order.

If you can get this done then the game should be near completion. You may still have GUI/Map Design problems but i usually solve them with deductive logic - how many time has that saved my ass ;-)

That''s a "very" brief summary. I didn''t mention my scrap book, bouncing idea''s off people, beta testing, gamma testing etc.

The most important thing is being able to balance your analyse of your game with an equal amount of negetive and possitive thoughts whilst maintaining your motivation, or so i say.




The measure of intelligence is in the question not the answer.

When designing something humerous, I stay up all night with a few of my wittiest friends and we scribble on blank pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 paper with a big thick sharpe marker. We call it our "design doc" then send it to the artists and writers to clean it up. The end result reads something like the script for an episode of the simpsons, and the best part is, nobody remembers who made what joke.

Once, we thought involving drugs would be a good idea. It wasn''t.

There, how was that, chronos?

quote:
There, how was that, chronos?

That was fine Landfish, thanks. Now that a few of you have contributed I will tell you of my own approach to design.

I''m using a sketchbook to sketch out as much of the game as I can possibly think of. While I couldn''t draw to save my life, my current approach is somewhat image-intensive. I make use of stick figures and other crude representative shapes to illustrate game concepts, game mechanics, elements of mood, etc. The images are accompanied by captions, and perhaps an occasional description. I don''t use color, but perhaps I should. Does anyone know of color pencils that are easy to erase? I do a lot of erasing.

So that''s how I do it. Thank you all for sharing. Please keep ''em coming.

quote:
There, how was that, chronos?

That was fine Landfish, thanks. Now that a few of you have contributed I will tell you of my own approach to design.

I''m using a sketchbook to sketch out as much of the game as I can possibly think of. While I couldn''t draw to save my life, my current approach is somewhat image-intensive. I make use of stick figures and other crude representative shapes to illustrate game concepts, game mechanics, elements of mood, etc. The images are accompanied by captions, and perhaps an occasional description. I don''t use color, but perhaps I should. Does anyone know of color pencils that are easy to erase? I do a lot of erasing.

So that''s how I do it. Thank you all for sharing. Please keep ''em coming.

Funny how easy it is to forget to log in. Twice even! Sorry about the duplicate messages. Perhaps there should be a "post as anonymous" checkbox that you must click on to post as anonymous. If the box is unchecked and the username field is left blank you get a warning message. This would help prevent unintentionally anonymous messages. Sound good?

Edited by - chronos on June 20, 2000 12:49:20 AM