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Suggestions for an RPG in production?

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Jesse Douglas

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May 31, 1999, 3:00:00 AM5/31/99
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Let's see if we can't get a little bit of life in this newsgroup.

I'm currently designing an RPG in Java (the one I mentioned earlier), and
I wanted to see if anyone here has any suggestions for it. The game is
going to be text-based, though it will be a true RPG with stats and
battles as opposed to an adventure in the vein of the old Infocom games
(although it will definitely have a fair share of logical puzzles and
exploration as well). Since there won't be any graphics to eat up our
development time, the game will be very story-centric and will have a deep
plot, not to mention quality writing in every other respect. This means
the characters will have to be prefabricated since they're heavily
intertwined with the story, but they'll also be different enough to
provide a lot of variety. There will be many different ways to earn gold
and raise in levels besides pure hack-and-slash combat, but there will be
a lot of fighting for those who want it as well. I can't divulge much of
the story lest I spoil it for anyone, but I can say that it will be set in
an original fantasy world. (And I emphasize original; there will be no
generic elves or dwarves or anything of the sort.) The whole thing will be
a lot like the text-based MUDs that you can telnet to, except it will be
much more story-oriented and less combat-oriented, and obviously single
player.

If anyone has any suggestions, questions, or comments, I'd like to hear
them, and I'm sure those who watch this newsgroup would like something to
read as well. :)

--
Jesse Douglas
tdou...@erols.com
(Please remove "NOSPAM." from "tdou...@NOSPAM.erols.com" when replying via email.)

mrand...@my-deja.com

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Jun 1, 1999, 3:00:00 AM6/1/99
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> Let's see if we can't get a little bit of life in this newsgroup.

good idea!

> If anyone has any suggestions, questions, or comments, I'd like to
hear
> them, and I'm sure those who watch this newsgroup would like
something to
> read as well. :)

ok here's a few random thoughts, feel free to ignore any/everything I
say! No doubt you've thought of most of this already, but I might say
something useful :-) Most of these comments are from playing lots of
MUDs which often get this wrong.

- Make the game fairly non-linear, as in several quests people can go
off and try to do at once, to decrease the possibility of getting stuck.

- Make the start of each quest really obvious! Some games I've played
the quests are really easy when you start, but so hard to find in the
first place! I find this really annoying :-)

- Try to keep each individual quest fairly well localised, and if the
player does have to trek all the way across the map to get the mystical
sword of Glargh! then at least tell them roughly where to look, or else
they'll just never find it!

- And finally how about some sort of hint system? I'm (very slowly)
writing my own java rpg, and eventually I want to have this oracle type
thing up a mountain where you can go, and it will give you a hint on
your current quest. Obviously you should make it fairly hard to get to.
(i.e put it out of the way, and protect it with some monsters) but it
does stop people getting completely and utterly stuck!

Thanks
Andrew


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