ひげ
Damn, spent about 5 hours working on the D&D campaign tonight. No idea how far my players will get in it because there are quite a few conditionals. Could be 2 hours or 2 sessions.
@beardalaxy Let me guess. All your unused video game ideas went into that D&D campaign or this is just an excuse not to work on your game.
@icedquinn @xianc78 the D&D campaigns, both of them, are in the same setting as my game. They have built off each other quite a lot, actually. There are some cool places and ideas in the game that wouldn't exist if it weren't for the first campaign, and we wouldn't be playing D&D if it weren't for the fact I already had a world I knew very well, since I created it. D&D is really the only thing I get to do with my friends anymore, so I DM it.
Game is God's Disdain.
Campaign 1 is the sequel to the game's "bad end." It'll be turned into an actual game if I live long enough to get God's Disdain finished xD
Campaign 2 is the sequel to campaign 1 where the party goes to an ancient and cursed continent.
They all have the same motif of gods needing to be dealt with.
I ran campaign 1 first for my group, then started up campaign 2 for them after another guy DM'd a campaign for over 2 years. So that group is in campaign 2 right now.
I have another group too, and I'm running campaign 1 for them right now, albeit much more lighthearted since it's just a temporary thing we can't do as often so it's hard to get too invested.
@icedquinn @xianc78 campaign 1 with group 1 ran from 2019-2020, campaign 2 and 2nd group's campaign 1 started last year.
It is really hard to work on my game these days, so it is cool to at least still have a creative outlet that I can build ideas on.
I'm not adding anything else to my game at this point, just working on stuff I have planned. I might incorporate some of the world building that has been established more recently to some NPC dialogues or something, but it isn't really necessary and will be more for a little flavor. Gotta just focus on side quests I've had written since like 2018.
Every game I make after this is going to be much more refined, linear experiences lol. Massive, open world game dev has been hell. It's a lot easier to do that in a D&D campaign where you can do a lot of improv on the spot if you have to and then jot it down afterward. In game dev, everything needs to already be there for the players to experience and it's pretty overwhelming. I mean, fuck, I had to create an entire wiki to keep things organized or I would have lost my mind in spreadsheet hell.
@beardalaxy @icedquinn
>Massive, open world game dev has been hell. It's a lot easier to do that in a D&D campaign where you can do a lot of improv on the spot if you have to and then jot it down afterward.
Are you seriously going the western-style RPG route for your game? Most indie RPGs appear to be JRPG inspired right down to their structure. I can't even think of a single open-world indie RPG.
@xianc78 @icedquinn I'd say it's a blend. It's doesn't have a long and intricate plot like all the classic JRPGs do, the main story is probably 5-6 hours long. I always intended on making the game more about the world itself and the little stories of all the people there. My vision was to try and make every NPC named, with weekly schedules and unique backstories. Most towns have a unique feature to them, and have a bit of lore that go along with them about something cool that happened there. It's much less a classic JRPG and much more a western one, but it still has the gameplay and visual style of something like classic Dragon Quest.
I'm currently working on getting those NPCs actually put in the game. They are all written on paper, including their quests to give and their spritesheets. Now it's just the tedium of programming then into the game proper, which isn't really hard, it's just going to take time. I've already built the backbone for pretty much everything I need to, and that was the difficult part... But that is kind of what made it more fun.
Talking about the game actually does drastically improve my motivation to work on it, kind of reignites my passion. So thanks for humoring me at the very least.
@xianc78 @icedquinn the boss order isn't even technically set, it's a pretty non-linear game. You can even get some extra scenes and stuff based on the order you do things in, the choices you make, and the characters in your party. There are plenty of dungeons, towns, a whole system to upgrade gear with elemental gems, collectibles, most of it being completely unnecessary to beat the main story. My main idea was to just make a world that a main story would take place in, while showing that everyone there had their own stories going on at the same time.
Very ambitious. Way too much. I know I can do it, because I have the experience to be capable of it... it's just a matter of actually getting down to business.
@beardalaxy @icedquinn
>I always intended on making the game more about the world itself and the little stories of all the people there.
>My main idea was to just make a world that a main story would take place in, while showing that everyone there had their own stories going on at the same time.
So it seems more like a Majora's Mask style game. It probably would've been better if you had it mostly set in a single town or hub area. Doing that on a full scale RPG map would be difficult. I mean, Majora's Mask had most of it's NPCs and side-quests in Clock Town while the rest of the map was mostly dungeons and the occasional shop or minigame. You rarely see games with a massive overworld while having NPC scheduling, outside of western RPGs which are huge in scope and take a huge amount of time, budget, and people to make.
I think you are also trying to solve the problem of most RPG/adventure game NPCs being nothing more than information dispensaries, and you are doing that by giving each NPC their own schedule. A much simpler approach is just to give each NPC a unique personality by using clever dialog and give them additional dialog if the player backtracks to their location even long after they've completed their relevant quest.
For example, you could have an NPC that is building a house. After completing each dungeon he progresses further on completing the house. There might be relevant side quests that are unlocked during these times. Earthbound was famous for having NPCs like that and it didn't have NPC scheduling.
Of course, it's too late to change things now, but I hope you understand that what you are trying to make is difficult for even AAA developers. Can you imagine a game like Majora's Mask on an Ocarina of Time sized overworld? (maybe yes after BoTW, but still)
@xianc78 @icedquinn yeah I know lol, I appreciate the advice though hindsight is 20/20. I actually have a few things where NPCs will have different things they say depending on where you're at in the main story, side quests, and even how long you have spent playing the game. I actually had planned a guy that was moving out of his house and heading for a different land, but I'm unsure if I'll be able to get to that one. I've got a list of priorities and that's a little low.
Thankfully, the schedules are made a lot more manageable because the week is only 4 days, there are just 2 times of day (day/night), and it isn't real time. The days progress when you exit towns and stuff.
@xianc78 @icedquinn I can't remember what game it was, but I was inspired by this GBA RPG where all the NPCs were like that, even the shopkeepers had names and such which was pretty cool.
ship product
@xianc78 @icedquinn it's worth noting that I'm doing the majority of the programming, using an engine and plug-ins made by others of course. I did most the map design, all the music, most of the main and side story writing, and most of the game design as well. I did have a lot of help on writing, particularly with the lore and a little on the main story, and none of the art or sound effects are done by me. I have voice actors, too (that will be optional and only in main story cutscenes). So I'm not *exactly* a one man show here, but it is true that I've done most of the nitty gritty design stuff. There is no way I could have done it without the rest of my team, though. I would have given up by now.