I was giving some thought on the direction of my new game and i started thinking about what my dream game always was…
Iv been a massive fan of RPGs ever since i played one for the first time, some of my favorites being Star Ocean: Second Story (Original), Final Fantasy Series (7, 8 and 9) and Diablo Series, just to name a few.
I also loved old school top down adventure games, like Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past…
So my dream game to make, is a top down action RPG, but instead of story driven, id like it to be more Roguelike, with endless replay-ability potential.
I also love crafting and gathering in games, so sprinkle some of that in!
“Mana Rogue” is gonna be my attempt at my dream game, but i doubt ill get to the end goal for a long time, i know how to make some of the stuff i imagine, but some still needs way more studying
So what kind of game do you dream of creating? What inspires you?
Hey Magic, how’s it going?
Yeah, I’ve always wanted to make a game similar to Diablo 2 or Torchlight 2. Definitely multiplayer. I’d like it to be more coop-oriented. Me and some friends used to play those quite a while back. I noticed there’s hardly any “coop” involved. Just go to an area, kill all you can, pick up the loot, rinse and repeat. Oh, one in the party died, eh he’ll catch up. Hang on, gotta organize my inventory, yeah catch up.
I’d like it to have good action and at the same time kinda have Dungeons and Dragons elements. Though I’ve never played dnd but I just kinda get the gist from videos. The game probably won’t be very popular since the coop-rpg elements would mean the action will have to slow down.
Ah but then again, even if I could pull it off at all, that’s still quite a long way off. Right now I have yet to complete a simple shmup and it’s already taking forever. lol.
You know… i think i slower paced DnD RPG style is something GDevelop is made for, and you can even make it online to play with your friends.
You could make simple room generation, then create a turn based system so that way everyone is involved, and make a “roll for stuff to happen” system too…
Then create things like levers that need to be held by someone, so other people can pass and pull them trough…
If i wasent knee deep in my new game, i would have a crack at it Sounds like lots of fun!
Thanks! But… uhh… yeah… Though I forgot to mention, it’s to be in real time rather than turn-based. And the dice roll might be applied only in a few select situations. The best real time dice roll implementation I’ve seen is probably with Morrowind. Yet when it comes to fights, I think it’s still unsatisfactory.
But yeah, the game is gonna have to be slower paced. It’s rather ambitious, i know. It’s gonna have to strike a certain balance where everyone could participate, keep up with the situation, yet still flows naturally, rather than artificially freezing time. All characters has to rely on support to a certain degree or else they would just go their own merry way. Having a party might be kind of pointless if they’re all self-sufficient. Though there still should be a way to achieve self-sufficiency for solo players but it’s gonna come with a cost. Like healing potions for instance, but mighty expensive. Bring a healer into the party and the cost goes away.
Then there’s the issue of most players not wanting to play support. Gotta make those classes a bit more enticing. But not too much that no one wants to play vanguard anymore.
The fights are to be mostly like arpgs but more tactical. Where players don’t just go blindly charging into a squad of goblins or something. They gotta pick their targets, position accordingly, make adjustments if necessary, etc. And all in real time. Did I mention that it’s rather ambitious? Yeah…
Ooh! That lever thing is a good idea! Then solo players are gonna have to be more crafty. Maybe bring a rope with them or something. It will be taking up precious inventory space. lol.
As you were describing the game, i was imagining it and working out how to do it and at no point i had to stop to really think about it.
For example, the tactical positioning thing with the goblins… to keep the example simple.
You can have melee and ranged goblins.
Enemies have a priority list for targets depending on class.
Support and Healers are high on the priority list, meaning if their in range, theres a high chance of going for them.
That way if your Healer gets in range of the ranged goblins he will be snipped straight away, you can even add extra damage to ranged enemies when hitting certain classes.
Then to create more group dependency, you can have classes like Rogues or Bandits that can spot traps or hidden loot, being awesome for scouting and keeping the group safe.
I love DnD RPG stuff like this, your imagination is the limit really.
I do tend to look a bit too far ahead and overthink. Of course, it’s all doable.
Part of the reason why I feel it’s ambitious is probably that it’s not just the technical stuff with the npcs, enemies, game world, etc, that concerns me. Those are not really that big a deal (and dare I say easy even?) Rather it’s how to get the players to play it in a dnd-ish way. And if those programming memes taught me anything, users have a tendency to not play them as intended.
“Hey guys, a bunch of goblins over there.”
“Alright, come on, just like we practiced. I’ll aggro them. Marcille, you go up those rocks so they couldn’t reach you easily.”
“I’ll get the attention of the big one. Jo, make sure to use a paralyze arrow on their shaman first.”
“And Meg, for the hundredth time stop using those mini bombs.”
Yeah, kind of like some of those VLDL skits. lol.
It’s pretty much the usual thing for dnd, but for arpgs? idk. I’ve never experienced this kind of thing in the mmos or arpg games I’ve played. Then again I’ve only ever played a small select number of games so there’s that. I don’t really know much. But you’ve probably seen everything, so, yeah you’d likely know better.
Also I tend to think of all the in-game items that Diablo 2 has. A bit overwhelming for me, but yeah, it’s totally uhm… doable. So it’s also the sheer amount of work for one person that makes it feel ambitious.
Ah but for now, I really should first focus on the simpler project I’m making. No point in dreaming up big things when I couldn’t even complete the small things. And, thank you for your ideas and words of encouragement.
I really appreciate it, Magic. And good luck to you on your projects as well. Cheers!
I have too many “dream game” ideas and realized years ago that starting those projects is pretty dangerous. But yeah, someday I want to make a 2D MMO with real focus on survival, crafting and exploration. So many games are just fast-travel here, kill mobs there, craft all sorts of stuff but none of it really matters because you’re just going up the gear tiers. I’d change this up by not allowing fast travel, if you want to go to the next town you actually have to get there and think about the resources you are bringing or can gather along the way, this opens up so much more player interaction such as grouping up or being a guide for other players, or ambushing people on the road to steal their stuff… and I would want almost everything to be created and destroyed by players, towns can be built but also attacked and destroyed.
Anyway that is such a huge undertaking that I currently just fantasize about it and try to think of different aspects that would help make it possible. For example I think you would need a system that handles all destructible objects the same way, so basically you wouldn’t have a separate system for enemy taking damage and item taking damage. Whether it was a mob walking around, item in your inventory, or static object such as a wall, they should all take damage or get repaired using the same system which would basically be a whole bunch of different effect types that hurt or heal based on each objects “resistances”. This way you could reconcile actions that hurt one thing but heal another (throwing stones at a person hurts them, but at a rock wall heals it :P)
In the meantime I’ve been trying to focus on much smaller projects that I can actually finish. However I always have that big magnum opus in the back of my head and I try to gain knowledge to get closer toward that goal.
Thats such a cool idea for a game, i get what you mean
You could probably try making that game but in a very small scale just to get the feel for it, im pretty sure all you suggested can be done without much effort… i mean, it will be time consuming like everything, but its doing so using the basics, so it well possible!
haha thanks, maybe some day I do like the idea of a micro-version and have considered doing this within the format of a classic turn based game (FF style) but even that can be a big project.
Right now I’m just working on a straightforward action game, sometimes you just want to blow stuff up without much thinking invovled
I like the name Mana Rogue. Strangely, it doesn’t seem like there are any other games with that name! (I found someone developing a tabletop game called “rogue mana” but that’s basically it)
Sounds like lots of fun!