Post by Leonard on Feb 29, 2016 23:28:56 GMT
Developer's Diary #3 - Quests
Quests are perhaps the soul of the traditional rpgs, even if the gameplay is lacking, the interesting quests can still hook the player in.
Before expanding upon on the design of the future quests, I'd like to reflect on what went right and wrong in the demo.
Demo quests - thoughts
I think the main quest line in the demo was done okay for the most part. There was a variety of tasks for player to do, some exploring, some thinking, some fetch quests, some fighting, some display of standard warrior tasks.
Different outcomes to the main questline turned out well, with an exception of one significant bug (Nightkit always dying, if he went to abandoned twolegden). I think that player's choices in that felt mostly natural and not forced upon player by the mechanics (to the degree that the engine allows) . I intend to continue doing things in this manner.
I'm however, unsatisfied with how side quests were done in the demo. There is only one sidequest in the game, and a rather typical one. While this feeling of lack of optional content may have been mitigated somewhat by different endings to main quests, and even possibility of failing them (letting both kits die, for example), or refusing them outright (like the meeting in the thicket) as well as some other optional content, I don't like how it turned out. This has to change, and the plan is to have 2 to 1 ratio of sidequests to main quests.
The other thing that I find important to notice, is that all the quests in the game were very direct and short-term tasks. Part of this is intentional (not wanting to add quests to the demo which couldn't be finished in it!), but may cause the player to feel the game is a bit disjointed, and the quest journal felt like a wasted potential.
Knowing what went wrong, let's see the planned changes.
Changes
First, an interface change. I've decided to explicitly mark quests as either main quests or sidequests - part of the purpose is for the player's clarity and to eliminate the worry of players, that they may progress the story too far, and lock themselves out of completing the quests. This is explicitly marked in the quest journal, and the player has the option to filter only main- or side- quests.
Next change is designing the quests in mind with always giving a player some long-term goals, some mid-term goals, and some actions that can be done right here, and right now. This will not only reinforce the continuity and give more of a scope to the game, while keeping players motivated and having them always have a goal in mind, that they keep working towards. This means that not every quest can be completed right away, and player may sometimes have to wait for a good opportunity to try and do it - and perhaps, may fail it.
The number of sidequests needs to improve, as does their quality! Occasional fetch quest isn't a bad thing, but variety is a key. Adding in a puzzle here, convince someone task there, a mystery to solve somewhere else and all the things will seem a lot more lively. Particularly, if there are a few ways to approach every task. Ideally, player should never feel like they wanted to solve a problem in some particular way, but the game doesn't allow that. At this stage I don't think about too much, but I hope the testers will provide the feedback, what options they found missing, that I'd subsequently implement.
Quests are also intended as a main source of experience, as they were in RPGs that inspired RtI. Aside from experience, player may also influence (positively or negatively) future events, earn relationship points with characters, increase their stats, or learn a new skill.
Work on quests is going to be long and hard, but I find it one of the most important factors - and the game will either strive or fail on the quality of them, therefore all the work put into them is worth it.
Traditionally, some screenshots at the end:
Quests are perhaps the soul of the traditional rpgs, even if the gameplay is lacking, the interesting quests can still hook the player in.
Before expanding upon on the design of the future quests, I'd like to reflect on what went right and wrong in the demo.
Demo quests - thoughts
I think the main quest line in the demo was done okay for the most part. There was a variety of tasks for player to do, some exploring, some thinking, some fetch quests, some fighting, some display of standard warrior tasks.
Different outcomes to the main questline turned out well, with an exception of one significant bug (Nightkit always dying, if he went to abandoned twolegden). I think that player's choices in that felt mostly natural and not forced upon player by the mechanics (to the degree that the engine allows) . I intend to continue doing things in this manner.
I'm however, unsatisfied with how side quests were done in the demo. There is only one sidequest in the game, and a rather typical one. While this feeling of lack of optional content may have been mitigated somewhat by different endings to main quests, and even possibility of failing them (letting both kits die, for example), or refusing them outright (like the meeting in the thicket) as well as some other optional content, I don't like how it turned out. This has to change, and the plan is to have 2 to 1 ratio of sidequests to main quests.
The other thing that I find important to notice, is that all the quests in the game were very direct and short-term tasks. Part of this is intentional (not wanting to add quests to the demo which couldn't be finished in it!), but may cause the player to feel the game is a bit disjointed, and the quest journal felt like a wasted potential.
Knowing what went wrong, let's see the planned changes.
Changes
First, an interface change. I've decided to explicitly mark quests as either main quests or sidequests - part of the purpose is for the player's clarity and to eliminate the worry of players, that they may progress the story too far, and lock themselves out of completing the quests. This is explicitly marked in the quest journal, and the player has the option to filter only main- or side- quests.
Next change is designing the quests in mind with always giving a player some long-term goals, some mid-term goals, and some actions that can be done right here, and right now. This will not only reinforce the continuity and give more of a scope to the game, while keeping players motivated and having them always have a goal in mind, that they keep working towards. This means that not every quest can be completed right away, and player may sometimes have to wait for a good opportunity to try and do it - and perhaps, may fail it.
The number of sidequests needs to improve, as does their quality! Occasional fetch quest isn't a bad thing, but variety is a key. Adding in a puzzle here, convince someone task there, a mystery to solve somewhere else and all the things will seem a lot more lively. Particularly, if there are a few ways to approach every task. Ideally, player should never feel like they wanted to solve a problem in some particular way, but the game doesn't allow that. At this stage I don't think about too much, but I hope the testers will provide the feedback, what options they found missing, that I'd subsequently implement.
Quests are also intended as a main source of experience, as they were in RPGs that inspired RtI. Aside from experience, player may also influence (positively or negatively) future events, earn relationship points with characters, increase their stats, or learn a new skill.
Work on quests is going to be long and hard, but I find it one of the most important factors - and the game will either strive or fail on the quality of them, therefore all the work put into them is worth it.
Traditionally, some screenshots at the end: