There are a small handful of quests in my game that lead to an already small group of people losing another character, and it makes the area pretty lifeless. I think I'm going to end up removing those quests entirely. I wasn't really thinking in terms of liveliness, just how interesting the quest would be. It's also one of the more potentially controversial quests in the game, and although I know you shouldn't compromise your creative vision and I haven't, it just doesn't sit quite right with me.

@beardalaxy
>small group of people losing another character

Does your game have permadeath?

@xianc78 not for the playable characters, but there are a decent amount of NPCs that can die.

@beardalaxy Permadeath sounds like an interesting concept because I really think games don't really punish players for dying. Seriously, why call it a "game" if you can't lose. But I think for more complex games, permadeath only works with randomization because people will get sick of the same levels if they keep on dying. I guess that's why that mechanic is used in most roguelikes and roguelites. But I don't want to use roguelike mechanics in my games because every other indie developer is doing it.

For action-adventure games and RPGs I think dying should reset all the dungeon progress for the current dungeon and take away all your money (unless it's deposited in a bank) and perishable items. That's why I plan on doing for my dream game.

@xianc78 zombi u had pretty good permadeath. it isn't randomized at all, and your previous character's progress sort of transfers to the new one in that it makes it easier to get back to the point you died at. but then you have to fight your previous character's zombie version and take their stuff. kind of a cool concept.

my game's death system is kinda different, you can save anywhere you want like normal, but if you die you can resurrect at the last church you went to without losing EXP from the fight (because EXP is gained from actions during a battle, not at the end of a battle) but losing a little bit of gold. if you don't want to lose the gold and want to jump to your last save point, which is probably closer to where you died, then you can load that instead but you won't keep the EXP.

although i have made an rpg, and you can crank up the difficulty if you really want to grind, that's something i have tried to minimize. so it does give players a bit more opportunity to get around the grind if they're alright with losing some gold in the process. i've considered increasing the gold requirement for reviving over time, maybe based on the player's level, but i'll have to see how that goes in testing.