I recently created a thread discussing what is missing in RPGs today. It is a great thread so far, and I encourage you to provide your feedback there!

I am creating this thread to discuss my ideas specifically. I read every post in the other thread (and will continue to monitor it), mixed in my own observations, and have created an outline of ideas I have for building a great RPG. I am keeping things simple. I am not presenting some new earth-shattering innovation that will redefine the landscape of RPGs; rather, I am simply gathering "quality" into one spot. If you want to comment on my ideas here, do so below. If you want to comment on RPGs in general, please comment in the other thread!

#1 -- remove the predominant hand-holding mechanics -- Transparent overlay mini-maps, go-here-now markers in the HUD, etc. all need to go. Map overlays can, for instance, be replaced by paper map items (in the case of a fantasy RPG) that the player must find/buy and periodically refer to while traveling. Quest-givers can offer reminders and guidance on where an objective is or how to deal with it, but the player should ultimately be responsible for locating the objective.

The downside here is that such mechanics are what welcomed in the casual gaming crowd. I would be interested in ideas that help ease this transition or help such players welcome the increased realism of having to do the work themselves. In a worst case scenario, the player can still look up the solution on GameFAQs.

#2 -- exploration must be an option regardless of whether it is story-relevant -- It seems that many games are moving toward cramming players down a funnel where there is only one real path with occasional pockets of side quests/caves. The world needs to be freed up to where there is more than one way to reach particular locations. Those paths need to have varying difficulty and/or alternate solutions. There needs to be tons to do and find in the open world. Impatient players can focus on the main storyline; curious players can wander aimlessly and find loot or side quests until their happy. There really is no downside here aside from the increased cost of developing a larger world. Do casual players have complaints regarding getting lost in worlds that are too big?

#3 -- the game's technical details and numbers need to be hidden away -- While it is fun to analyze weapons using various numerical measurements (damage, speed, fire damage, chance to cause X, etc.), more of the world should be abstracted away. When observing enemies, seeing "200/200 HP" gives away too much regarding its vitality. If anything, the ability to see exact numbers should be a special ability or tool. It is much more interesting when opponents display "healthy, barely wounded, wounded, near-death, etc.". This forces the player to make an attempt to see how fast the target takes damage and retreat if necessary. It takes away the numerical calculation that is so commonly exploited (or flat out allowed by the fact that the developers show so many numbers; I guess it's not really an "exploit" at that point).

#4 -- the story needs to be flexible -- This does not necessarily imply multiple endings or huge plot forks. Rather, the player needs to at least feel he/she has an influence on how the story plays out. There needs to be alternate ways to move the story along.

#5 -- the world needs to feel more alive -- This is easier said than done. It is not a simple task to create a game like Majora's Mask where the town shifts so drastically as each day passes. However, small simple measures can be taken to help the player feel more part of this world. For instance, a simple start is having the world change between night and day. At night, shops close, people go to bed, and strange people emerge from the darkness. If the game features any kind of calendar system, have a huge wagon pull through town once every X days carrying particularly special loot! Have a wormhole open up that leads to a hidden galaxy! Have quests or story events change/fail based on time. Give the player's actions more consequence (not necessarily bad ones).

If I may:


#1 - Wonderfull! Instead of putting lots of efforts on completely eliminating the hand-hold mechanics, simply try to make it less "mechanic" to the player side. Make it flow nicely instead of making hard turns.

Instead of a sudden "now we must goo elsewhere and get the object xxx that does yyy and will solve problem zzz! Come on, follow the spot on your mini map". Try introducing object xxx earlier on, maybe on a casual conversation, later you would know what it does reading a curious marking on a place along the way. This way, when problem zzz arives, the player will go "oh! I know just what to do! Ill just get yyy haha. Man I´m so smart!".

How subtle those infos are will determine how difficult it is, and it will also increase the reward to figuring it out (you dont even have to reward the player, he will feel good just because he did it alone). There is no real need to puzzle the player, just let him find the way instead of forcing him on it.

#2 - I totaly agree. Maybe a solution to the get lost problem is making exploration dangerous enough to get the player killed if he justs wander without planning. A good idea to add value here is again trying to keep the side-quests "involving"(does this word exists?). Sometimes I think that developers ruin their own ideas trying too hard, I remember when I played Grandia, that I found a side-quest for accident, and I would have no idea it was a side quest IF the game didnt go like this:
"Warning, this is a side-quest, go back if you want to keep on the main story!". I think you got the idea :D.

#3 - I would like this, a lot!

#4 - Agreed. And I think that some aspects of number #1 would help here also, maybe by taking it easy with the hand-holding, the feeling that you have no options will just go away. A few forks on the paths would add value to going through the game again.

#5 - Yes! absolutely. Plus small details like being able to lit/unlit lamps, closing/openning windows (only to be scolded by the old man that lives on the place), or even events that happens only in text add lots of dinamics to the world. Maybe small details would add even more value than a sudden story changing one.

Good suggestions. The only one I disagree with is #1. Being lost just isn't a fun game mechanic. Its not uncommon for many players to be pulled away from a game for weeks/months. It's extremely frustrating to try to get back into a game you were playing and not know where you are or where you're headed (picking the wrong direction, perhaps, and backtracking through half the dungeon). I'd like a way to see where I am, and where I'm headed.

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Original post by Polama Good suggestions. The only one I disagree with is #1. Being lost just isn't a fun game mechanic. Its not uncommon for many players to be pulled away from a game for weeks/months. It's extremely frustrating to try to get back into a game you were playing and not know where you are or where you're headed (picking the wrong direction, perhaps, and backtracking through half the dungeon). I'd like a way to see where I am, and where I'm headed.

Well, I think there should be a balance. For instance, I am OK with an automated quest log and whatnot. I'd help the player at least get back on the right track, but I would like to take away the glowing beacons that tell the player where to go. For instance, it should be obvious that the player needs to find Bob in town York, but once the player enters York, he/she should have to find Bob, not follow a neon blimp that says BOB IS OVER HERE.

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Original post by Polama Good suggestions. The only one I disagree with is #1. Being lost just isn't a fun game mechanic. Its not uncommon for many players to be pulled away from a game for weeks/months. It's extremely frustrating to try to get back into a game you were playing and not know where you are or where you're headed (picking the wrong direction, perhaps, and backtracking through half the dungeon). I'd like a way to see where I am, and where I'm headed.

I agree to a certain extent, however I think this is one of those situations where the issue can be resolved through level design. By making each individual area unique (yes, including the standard lost woods forest vibe), the player has an easier time tracking where they've been and where they haven't explored yet.

Excellent list! Loved it! Will probably even re-adjust my approach to game design because of it. Can't wait to see the kind of RPG you're able to pump out (hopefully), armed with these goals in mind.

Re: #3
I've been working hard on a rogue-like lately that's attempted to remove all numbers and it's been enormously troublesome. (Admittedly, a lot of the problems probably could have been helped from my perspective if I'd had greater visual design control over the direction of the game from the beginning rather than joining the project after the foundations had been laid.)

I'm not even going to get into the details of how we sat down and tried to think of all the ways to show that one item is better than another, and then implementing them and discovering that most of the solutions were way too subtle for a player to extract from the other 'noise' of complex gameplay. We ended up hiding the detailed numbers but displaying a rating of everything on a scale of 1 to 10 (but using roman numerals, see!). And then everything else in the game - spell attacks? Buffs? How to display stats without numbers? Oh, the pain. ...Did I mention that I'm the only artist?
Maybe next time we can do it right from the ground up.

What it comes down to is that writing the numbers out is 'cheap'. Showing, not telling, is generally 'expensive' in terms of asset creation. Such is the cost of making a clever game. It's probably worth it to get away from the inane DPS crunching; I'm a warrior, not a statistician!

I am even OK to an extent with having that paper map item display current objectives. I just want the player to execute.

@dbaumgart -- Yeah, maybe I should clarify. I don't mean to imply that all numbers are evil. Frankly, I like looking at a weapon's stats and its long list of added attributes. It brings me such joy. I would never eradicate ALL numbers, but a good place to start would be like in the game Pirate Galaxy. If you've never played that game, try it out for a while. It's a free spaceship MMO, and it's not all bad. I liked the way they handled loot, stats, etc.

Hey, its great to see people looking for improvements. I thought I'd just throw a few considerations regarding your improvements into the ring:

#1: The vast majority of RPG players these days are what you call "casual" players. They don't want to read much text. They don't want to have to scratch their head to think of the solution to something. They just want to get to bashing on stuff and gaining loot/levels. I personally think this is a shame and wouldn't want to focus on that sort of mindset, myself, but that's the way things are. By all means go down this path (and there are plenty of people who will applaud you for it), but be aware that you will be missing the majority of the market here.

#2: No, casual players (and any players really) will not generally complain about a large, content-rich world. The problem is that teams only have a limited amount of time to make these things. Given the alternatives of a smaller, more densely-packed environment or a massive, largely barren place, most would pick the former.

#3: I agree. I think this sort of thing will encourage gamers to get into the "role" part of the RPG a bit more as they are spending less time crunching numbers and min/maxing. However, there is a significant portion of the market that wants those numbers.

#4: sounds great! This will obviously multiply the development time though and make testing more difficult as the number of possibilities to test increases.

Personally, I really like all of the ideas you've highlighted. I think that at the end of the day, if you're making a game that you would like to play, then others will appreciate it too (unless you have some really weird tastes!).

1- I'm not sure what to think about that. As a developer, it is tempting to design your game in such a way that the player has to explore areas you took a lot of time to create, and not having quest helpers might be attractive to that end, but it can frustrate the player if it takes 20 minutes to find Bob Knight in Castle of Huge because the quest never hints where to find the dude, and this is just painful if he knows that it unlocks the cool human vs orc battle quest with tons of movies, good equipment, etc. While the quest helpers are exaggeratedly hand-holding in World of Warcraft, I think that a decent quest log with CLEAR instructions is necessary.

2- Free to explore a bit, but not TOO free, otherwise that includes balance problems. There is no cheaper death then getting zerged by level 82 enemies as a level 11 because you were exploring the wrong area. There needs to be barriers restricting the player to zones he should be exploring. Of course, it mustn't be FF13-restricted either, that was totally ridiculous, even Super Mario Bros 1 is less linear. Giving total freedom on exploration probably implies adding a mechanic where enemies grow to match your level, which is a terrible concept in my opinion, seeing as it completely defeats the purpose of having a character progression system.

3- As someone who loves to tweak and try new builds, I want to have a good deal of details on my characters' performance so I can make good decisions, and that involves having numbers. Personally, I like how Final Fantasy handles numbers. You can see your health, your mana, your characters' and their equipments' stat. You also see how much damage you deal with each attacks. However, you don't see your enemies' stats and resistances unless you use a special spell (in other words, you don't get that knowledge for free), and the developers don't tell you how those stats are computed to form final damage, so it still leaves room to experimentation.

4- I have nothing to add, I totally agree.

5- I disagree, I think it just complicates the game by adding a cute but useless and even potentially frustrating (say, you want to sell things but it's the night) level of detail. It takes effort to program a daily routine for each NPC, shop, building, not to mention the need to create night lights, etc. I would rather re-localize that effort in the creation of additional content that truly prolong the life of the game.

[Edited by - Bearhugger on June 2, 2010 8:57:50 PM]

You could give players visual and 'verbal' cues areas are out of their league.

Asking about the area in a town to hear a deadly lich who killed a dragon has conquered it definitely makes you think "...maybe later...", as does seeing the land around you die and give way to magma fields, which just screams "Evil deadly area run away!"...

Giving them "warning enemies" that they have no chance of killing at too low a level but a chance to flee from also works.