Greetings! My name is BurnAsEmbers, and I'm here to go through my game design process, step by step, pixel by pixel, and idea by idea.
Want to know the best part about it? I have absolutely no idea how to code, draw, or program. Funny, how people immediately jump to those 3 major principles when they think of game design. While they are the 3 fundamental professions necessary to game design, my skill set derives from a conceptual point, instead of an implementation device.
I have been doing this since I was maybe 6-7 years old. I never "finished" a game, obviously. But I have crafted a few board games, beyond your Sorry! and Monopoly style. The one game I made that I remember vividly was as such:
After spending a day drawing out a grid pattern on multiple pieces of 8.5x11 computer paper, I drew out a basic map, with resources and terrain features. Then, cutting up the extra sheets to provide pieces for the game, which would represent units such as Archers, and Knights, I played against a friend of mine with a very early rule set.
The idea behind the game was to capture resource points with your units, which would allow you to build more and more units. The goal was to either A) Capture the opposing castle or B) Take and hold all the resource squares for a set amount of turns. Using dice and a "rock-paper-scissors" combat system, it was a decent, if not unfinished, little board game.
I've toyed around using similar approaches for years, never getting beyond the basic concept point due to many negatives. Lack of motivation, no one to share it with, no actual skill set beyond imagination... All this has held me back in the past from going beyond the very basic ideas. However, I think it is time to break out of that shell, and actually make a freakin' game!
It shall be an old school RPG, "16" bit. I use quotes for this reason: the "pixels" will actually be .25 inch square grid paper, each colored with crayon. Why? Because I can, and because I want to.
Lets make this clear from the get go, however. I am certainly not a visual artist, and I certainly have no experience with pixel art itself. As I move through this project, I hope to improve my skill set with pixel art, and doodling/sketching as a whole. While it won't be my major focus, it is a skill set that is necessary in this field. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do!
In the overall, the game will be simple enough where someone unfamiliar with old school RPGs could jump in and understand the base mechanics, and make it through the game. However, it can also be played by an experienced, veteran RPG player without boredom. While that may sound like a very difficult scale to balance, I think I know how I can at least start going about it.
The key, I think, is to mix the simplistic outer shell of a JRPG, with the open ended, open world aspects of a Western RPG.
Think of the fundamentals of Dragon Warrior. You moved about, square by square, in a town, dungeon, or the world map, with random encounters that played out in a turn based style. The combat wasn't overly complicated. Attack or cast a spell, gain levels that in turn allowed you to do more damage or cast better spells, and take less damage. Lather, rinse, repeat. While extremely basic, there eventually was a thin layer of tactics. When do I attack instead of cast a spell? What turn should I heal? It was simplistic logic, but was still effective in its ways of drawing a player in because of that. There wasn't some crazy equation, or multiple kinds of dice rolls you needed to memorize.
Now, take the fundamentals of an Elder Scrolls game. A giant open world, with tons of control over character skill development, as well as a dynamic and open ended story line. This aspect gives an entire layer of complexity, and if mixed in properly, could be ignored to its own extents to keep a player ill-accustomed to RPGs as a whole engaged without losing them to the deeper layers of strategy, yet still keep veterans to the genre immersed into the world and its mechanics.
Of course, I don't have the details in place as of this moment. I have some general ideas as to what I wish to have, and a few options in mind for things like the combat system and character mechanics. As I go through the design process, I may very well become overwhelmed with the different routes I could take with the mechanics and game play. This, my dearest readers, is where you come in.
I frequently will ask for input. I may present a selection of different ways I could go about doing something, or I may just ask for general opinion on something as a whole. I would love hearing from you all, as I almost consider this entire project a love-letter to RPG gamers of old. I have my own dream game ideas, but those are mine and mine alone. What about you? What would you want to see in an RPG? Do you like crafting? What about morality scales? Do you like basic turn based combat, or do you prefer a tactical-RPG approach? What kind of stories do you like to be a part of?
Over all, I do have the final say. That doesn't mean I won't listen, and engage in civil discussion about the games design. I plan to have an entry a day, even if it is just a short list of things accomplished. I know for a fact that the hardest part will be the art direction: I've been proving myself terrible at pixel art so far. Examples of the graphics will show up as I deem them acceptable for display. My main focus for the time being is the mechanics and stories, however.
Thank you for reading this long intro post, and I look forward to providing an entertaining read, a (hopefully) fruitful project, and getting to know you all!
~Jeff Lee, AKA BurnAsEmbers~
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