Rpg Idea

[Jourdy288]

OK, I came up with an ingenious (if I do say so myself) idea for an RPG. It's based around this story I wrote. Writing is really my strong point, and I would like gameplay to revolve around the path you choose: a nomad or a settler. I'm really looking for your input on this one.

Now, please read this before reading the following.

Nomad story:
Well, it's been a long while since that incident. I pass through the old abandoned neighborhoods, just imagining what it was before. I really miss the old world, so does my poor family. So on we wander, picking up bits and pieces as we go along. It's a tough life, but we have our rewards. As we drift along, we make friends (and sometimes, enemies). It gets a little tedious, sometimes it just becomes a routine, and occasionally I worry about how the children are to make new friends. But, at the end of the day, we're all satisfied, being able to look back at the adventure we put together.

Settler story:
I remember it like it was just yesterday; we were all just flying. Our technology was superb

Spoiler

In fact, the Pandora was about to be released in Two Hours[sup]TM[/sup]

. But, it all came crashing down around us like a house of ice under the sun. So now off we go, in search of a new, permanent home, where we'll be appreciated, maybe building back up the fragments of our civilization. Thus, we shall arise again from our ashes!

I wrote this on very short notice, so the stories aren't that great, but I wrote them on very short notice, so you just get the gist of the factions. Please tell me what you think!

 

[Exophase]

Okay, first, all of the following doesn't have anything to do with your story in particular.

You'll never get people to implement a game for you based on ideas that you have. Especially if the ideas are only premises for a story. Games are 1% premise and 99% execution. Tons of people have good ideas, far more than those who have the means to turn them into a game.

In order to get people interested enough in what you're doing to want to submit complete creative control to you they're going to have to not be doing the majority of the work. Loosely speaking, you have to convince them that when it comes to making this game you have more to offer than they do, otherwise they won't want to be subservient to you. This is especially the case if you're not an adult and they are. If they're going to have to do a majority of the game themselves then chances are they'd prefer to do it without you and gain more control and credit. Now, if you're just saying "here's this story, it'd be cool if someone used it in an RPG" and wanted no creative control or even involvement in it then that could be different, but it'd still have to be a pretty damn good story.

They also need to believe that the game has realistic potential to get done. Programmers won't want to work on a game if they don't think it'll get the necessary assets completed, like artwork, level design, and music. The same goes for the people doing those things, they need to have confidence in the programmers. No one wants to work on something where their contributions will ultimately go to waste.

I think you'll find that not a lot of indie games come together like this. In fact, most successful indie games are done by single person teams.

On the other hand, you could get people to do things for you if you paid them, at realistic wage levels. But I'm quite certain that's not an option.

Now, about the story. It's an interesting/creative concept, although you don't really explore things much. I guess that's not exactly the point. Still, if you do want to make a more full length story with it I think you can have something interesting. I do think you need some more technical experience. I'm not a reader, much less a literary scholar or linguist, so I don't want to give you specific advice. I just think that it's pretty rough around the edges, but this should be an area that you'll improve in naturally with more practice.

For what it's worth, the basic premise, a sudden absence of technology, isn't exactly highly original, but I do think it could provide a useful setting for an RPG. A lot of RPGs do play on the "ancient lost technology" concept but this seems more meaningfully immediate than that. By the way, making a game with two paths is twice as hard ;P

 

[Tempel]

Well, the stories are a start, but you've said nearly nothing about gameplay! If you're going for a pure narrative-driven, standard RPG, you might as well use one of the various RPG makers out there. Sure, it may not work on the Pandora, but you'll be able to produce something without having to wrangle programmers and artists who, as Exophase says, don't want to do all the work for other peoples' projects. If you want to do something more complex, well, your sig says "I'm trying to learn some programming", so take this as an opportunity; once you have something tangible, people will be more willing to come on board. This is what I'm doing right now; I hope to eventually finish designing, writing, and programming most of my game, then showcasing the result while asking assistance for art and better graphics code. (Shh, don't tell anyone; it might never get done, and I don't want the embarrassment of public failure).

As for the stories, they're mediocre, but I was worse at your age; I can only recommend both reading and writing more short fiction to learn and practice. Still, postapocalyptic settings are somewhat clichéd, but video games tend to do them from an action standpoint; I've never seen one done about the quiet rhythms of scraping by. This interests me greatly. For further inspiration, you should read Jimmy's Roadside Cafe, one of my favourite stories on the subject.

 

[skeezix]

Ideas are good; dont' get discouraged, but now the reality

Exo is bang out; don't take it personal, but you need to get wooped up the head with reality or you'll neve get anywhere. The important thing is, when reality hits you, how do you manage it -- do you continue or, or give up? (and if you give up, you shouldn't have posted in the first place

I have often compared it to childbirth (like many creative things) -- making the spark is easy; carrying the baby for 9mo is hard; follow through to end of life is brutal "I want to write a song" is easy, "this is what the song is about" is easy, working on and refining it could take months. We're raised to think ideas are important.. and they are; but follow-through is what turns an idea into a revolution, a game, a product, etc, and that takes order of magnitude more work. "I want to write a database, its going to work like this" is a few days work; spitting out Oracle is a decade of effort by hundreds of people.

So yeah, Exo is on the button; you've got the spark at the beginning, but to get it done (and you've started right!) you'll need to refine the idea until its a workable game design (premise, gameplay flow) and get commited assets on board (artists, music, code, level design, object and enemy design, etc).

And these need to be committed resources; if you get an artist on board for 4 months, and then he quits and oyu get another, you end up redoing all the art since the second guy can't make it look the same and blend in with the first guy half the time.

So keep at it, refine your idea, and go get yourself a team assembled, and away you go. Don't give up... unless you work it over in your head and decide 'yeah, this isn't worth a year of work from 5 people', or shelve it for later.

jeff

 

[Jourdy288]

Thanks for the advice, my premise isn't really 'ancient lost technology' so much as it is about some sort of electromagentic storm that destroyed almost anything electronic. Everything can be rebuilt, but the infrastructure to recreate everything else is going to take some doing. A few electronics still do work, and they can be found throughout the game. As far as gameplay and graphics I apologize that I didn't really specify, but my idea as far as that goes is a little bit of a crossover between Chrono Trigger and The Oregon Trail. Perhaps instead of learning moves, you have to sort of overcome obstacles like waterfalls, hills, canyons, decaying bridges, and people who will just be jerks by using your technology. As far as stuff you can find, maybe radios and, um, stuff used to build bridges, lol. I'm not really doing to well ATM, and I'm not really thinking to too well. But I'm really hoping you understand! It's been a while since I've done much work with sprites, but I once created a couple hundred fish sprites in an attempt to add them to a game (it failed) and unfortunately I lost them. But, I know how to make good looking sprites! I've also been a pianist for most of my life, consider the music taken care of.
As for the stories, you did read the one on my blog, right? These are just what I would consider fragments of something much, much larger, more of a fictional world, like all those Star Wars books that exist that weren't written by George Lucas.

Thanks for all the advice and support, I'll carry through!

EDIT:

Ideas are good; dont' get discouraged, but now the reality

Exo is bang out; don't take it personal, but you need to get wooped up the head with reality or you'll neve get anywhere. The important thing is, when reality hits you, how do you manage it -- do you continue or, or give up? (and if you give up, you shouldn't have posted in the first place

I don't take anything personally unless I've been informed it's such, Exo and I are friends , he means well.

 

[Rockthesmurf]

I wrote this on very short notice, so the stories aren't that great, but I wrote them on very short notice, so you just get the gist of the factions. Please tell me what you think!

Short notice? Not your best work? Perhaps spending more time, and producing your best work, would give everyone something better to evaluate on? It's like saying "Hey guys, I cemented three bricks together, I had to do it pretty quick, but in the long run it could be the basis of an *amazing* house! Who fancies being a labourer for me? I don't really do the manual stuff but I am happy to put in creative input!"

Steve

 

[Enverex]

Why your game idea sucks...

 

[Prometheus]

Why your game idea sucks...

An example of game industry mentality.

 

[Jourdy288]

*BOOKMARKED*
Thanks, I get it, I'll come back in a short while with a much more detailed explanation of gameplay, factions, and exactly what it I'm looking to accomplish. Thank you so much for your patience! You don't know how much I value it, I'll try not to wear it thin.