Good morning, GameDev! Before I get on with the main topic, let me just give some background about me and this project. I've been wanting to get into the game industry since about 1-2 years ago, and was set on being a Game Designer. The problem wast hat I didn't know really what a Game Designer did though. To top it all off, it seemed that no one was looking for a Game Designer in a team, and it just occured to me that in Indie Teams, people (not everyone) seem think Game Designers are lazy in the teams and just do basically nothing. Between April 21st and 25th, I was part of a 5-man QA-team for Massive Entertainment to test their new World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. I got the chance to speak with one of the game designers there, about lots of things related to his job. That week made me positive I wanted to be a Game Designer. On April 18th, I started my Exceed Designs, which will hopefully be a small indie team to create fun and challenging games. Due to my not knowing enough programming to actually program games (and no programmer wants to work with someone who claims to be "Game Designer" it seems), I decided to pick up Game Maker, and use GML (Game Maer's programming language) to start making a game. Working Title: THE RED MAGES Genre: Action Strategy Platform: PC style: 3/4 Top-down Graphics: SNES/PSX The idea is to have a sort of varied combat system which may completely eliminate melee combat. Basically, the main character has harnessed the element of fire, and the entire battle and character growth system will be based on fire. So, gameplay-wise, I'll be implementing the system both in combat and out of combat in as many ways as I can. Combat gameplay itself is supposed to mix the tempo of any standard Action-RPG with some strategic elements as every attack will exhaust a resource that is as of yet unknown. The four different "trees" you can invest in will be: Melee - All skills require the character to be close to the enemy. Ranged - The efficiency of these skills lie in the character being distanced from the enemy. Support - These skills are more defensive, with more focus on evasion and countering than head-on fighting. Tactical - Tactical skills are more strategic; they require more planning ahead, but usually they're more powerful. I have five skills in each tree. Currently, it's my intentions that you can only master one of the trees and you can't reach the top skill of a tree (these top skills are exceptionally powerful). The basic story is that the hero (a female - a heroine), is in an island, and this island hs just one town. The idea is to have more important characters than a common RPG, and to have these characters all in the same town, which gives the stories of the characters more depth/importance than the overall story (as I find character-based stories more involving than any save-the-world plot). The main plot is that this monster (Echidna) keeps laying eggs which, during the red moon, turns them into vicious monsters. Fortunately, they're all susceptible to fire. That's where the heroine comes in. I'm planning to do the programming as well as level designing. In addition, I'll be the game designer of the game. I know a person who's going to help out with concept art and character design. I'll be getting a sound programmer/composer, a sprite artist and graphics artist, so the project itself will probably not require that big a team. Do you think this is a good idea? Does it sound like a run-of-the-mill game, or does it seem somewhat innovative? Is there potential for the game to stand out in some way, or should I reconsider the concept or even scrap it? Feedback MUCH WANTED :)

Hey Metallon. Congrats on the testing experience and decision to jump into the world of game design.

I think you idea is valuable in that, even if you end up not liking the result, you'll have gained from the process of breaking everything down. One of the biggest challenges is getting a handle on just how much work seemingly simple things are, such as how the interface looks and functions or how choices are exposed to the player-- let alone the good stuff like spell options and monster types.

An island with one town sounds like a smart choice from a design perspective because it can focus you on what's important without giving you so much territory to cover that your design runs amok.

I wanted to comment more specifically, but I don't have a clear picture of your intended gameplay. Even based on fire, your skill tree breakdown is too general for me to say anything useful. What role does fire play, and how is it strategic? Could the terrain be flammable, creating chokepoints and boundaries? What are the tradeoffs between ranged and melee fire combat (heat as a resource meter? Do weapons and armor melt over time, creating tradeoffs?)

I think you have a good start but the devil in every design is the details. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about being original. Treat this more as an exercise that develops your designer skills in terms of organizing and explaining information, balancing gameplay mechanics and (a big one) developing your ability to complete a design.

Honestly, I like the idea for the story.

As for genre, though: Think about the long run-- do you really think an RPG is the type of game for this? Personally, I think you're better off as a Half-N-Slash/BeatEmUp with cutscenes or RPG elements. Fire effects will look impressive for so long in an RPG environment-- and the types of moves would better serve real-time action, not so much for a turn-based type of game.

Fire is already setting up your game for nothing but fire related moves, do you really want to use the same type of enemies over and over again? Eggs laid by one monster leads to hatchlings of the same specie?

These two things can really make the game tedious unless you elaborate.

To do so, you can do some of the following:

a. Have a huge choice of weapons and fire moves, and make the player have to choose whether to duke it out with special powers or using her arsenal. (You can even have a mid-point type weapon, that you can have a fire-enchanted sword, but it won't be as effective as having the physical fire moves.)

b. Have a "specialist" on the monster explain in-game that the Echidna lays eggs, but what hatches from them depends on its surroundings. The creatures evolve into different things-- not just a smaller image of the Echidna. OR have the hatchlings go through larval stages and there you could have all sorts of enemies associated to the main monster, but not looking identical to it.

One game I suggest you check out, JADE COCOON. Your game reminds me of it for some reason. And honestly, that's one of the best designed games (RPG battle systems) I've ever seen.

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Original post by Wavinator An island with one town sounds like a smart choice from a design perspective because it can focus you on what's important without giving you so much territory to cover that your design runs amok.

That was more or less my intention :)

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Original post by Wavinator I wanted to comment more specifically, but I don't have a clear picture of your intended gameplay. Even based on fire, your skill tree breakdown is too general for me to say anything useful. What role does fire play, and how is it strategic? Could the terrain be flammable, creating chokepoints and boundaries? What are the tradeoffs between ranged and melee fire combat (heat as a resource meter? Do weapons and armor melt over time, creating tradeoffs?)

So far, I have these trees:

Melee - Close-ranged fire abilities, focusing on getting up close with the enemy. Examples are: an attack similar to a sword attack, though a swipe off ire replaces the swing of a sword; an ability that grabs (locks) your opponent, burns for certain damage and then have some sort of knock-back effect afterwards.

Ranged - Abilities that work best from a distance: it takes a bit longer to take out an enemy, but works much better when used against multiple enemies (crowd control). Examples are: walls of flame on the ground to impede enemy advancement; cause the ground on-screen to turn red (and basically damage everything on-screen).

Support - Abilities that allow you to stay clear from enemies. Examples are: a smoke screen, obviously temporarily blinding enemies; increasing overall damage to enemies.

Tactical - These abilities are often timed, and their target is specified by the player. Examples are: Marking a spot where a descending fire ball collides with the target enemy; wrapping an enemy around fire, and bringing the enemy to you or bringing you towards the enemy (or any other object that can be targeted with this ability).

I haven't yet thought of a balancing system, but I had in mind something along the lines of heat as some kind of energy source. Certain parts of a level (objects, ground, certain enemies) are particularly susceptible to fire, allowing you to use this to your advangae (if used correctly). There are no particular equipments in the game.

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Original post by deathtojohnny As for genre, though: Think about the long run-- do you really think an RPG is the type of game for this? Personally, I think you're better off as a Half-N-Slash/BeatEmUp with cutscenes or RPG elements. Fire effects will look impressive for so long in an RPG environment-- and the types of moves would better serve real-time action, not so much for a turn-based type of game.

My mistake for using the expression RPG at all; when I say Action-RPG, or something to the sort, I'm not restricting myself to turn-based combat systems. The game itself was (and is) intended to be fully in real-time.

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Original post by deathtojohnny Fire is already setting up your game for nothing but fire related moves, do you really want to use the same type of enemies over and over again? Eggs laid by one monster leads to hatchlings of the same specie?

I considered that a few days ago, and as I continued to develop the story, I became more and more inclined to give more meaning to the process of laying eggs during a red moon. So they all become various monsters, each specie different from the other, but most of them have a common trait with their mother; they don't do well with fire. I forgot to add in one other detail; those Echidnalings carry some kind of virus which mutates its host into a monster (red moon and Echidna have something to do with the virus). The basis of the story is that the villagers are facing the danger of not only the creatures themselves, but also the virus.


To both of you, many thanks for taking your time with this :)