[Diogo Ribeiro]

First, a primer. I used to go by the Role-Player alias at RPG Codex, until I realized I clearly knew nothing about RPGs. That's the "who", which also explains why I've decided to use my real name here and pretty much everywhere else. The "why" I am posting this next piece has to do with Vince's suggestion that I should post here to garner some constructive criticism or, at the very least, a dunce hat celebrating why I am so retarded when it comes to game ideas. With that in mind, all of this revolves around my quest to create a game. What follows was meant to be an ongoing series of memoirs as I progressed through the development of said game, but I'm posting this here to expose a bit about the background of my project.


Over my meager twenty seven years – and soon to be twenty eight – of life, I have, at last count, come up with well over 200 game projects. Design documents, artwork, extensive pages of game mechanics, rules and interactions. This would probably make me one of the most proficuous game designers in existence, except for one small detail.

None of them ever materialized as videogames.

This happened for a large number of reasons, chief among them life and its little quirks. Some of the projects were, from a perspective of personal achievement, wondeful. I can sit down and discuss most of these game projects as I’ve spent a great deal of time creating them. One of my fondest projects was Project Obsidian. This was to be a game based around the great role-playing games of Interplay’s former RPG division, Black Isle, later desbanded and reformed as Obsidian Entertainment (hence the project’s name). It was to feature just about every single thing I’ve cherished in the genre and that Obsidian, both in its past and present form, excelled at. Meaningful choices and consequences; a living, breathing gameworld; extensive social and statistical character development; an open-ended narrative; multiple endings; engaging characters.

It would tell the tale of The Stranger and The Harbinger, two entities which have sparred for centuries, and how the player's character found itself in the middle of it all after becoming the unwilling vessel for the millions of souls which both The Stranger and The Harbinger accidentaly murdered after tampering with cosmic powers beyond their knowledge. One wants to gather these souls to restore his dead planet, the other wants to gather them to fuel his power. While seemingly black and white, each of them would be given enough exposition so that their motives would slowly become more complex, until either could be seen as fighting for something which could be either good or bad. And at the heart of the maelstrom, the player character (PC) would decide who, and how, to help.

It featured many fun options for character classes, such as Druids being able to channel the powers of the Earth much like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing could. One example would be visiting a grove, deconstruct your physical body and travel across The Green, a limbo wherein nature spirits dwell, and to emerge in a grove miles away. This served two purposes. One, to mitigate the need for traveling across large area maps. Two, awesomeness which really hasn't been done much - if at all - in the genre.

Each class would also forsake much of the armor present in role-playing games for class specific options to increase their statistics and skills. Warriors and Barbarians could do face paints or tattoos. Clerics could bless themselves. Other spellcasters would carve magical runes upon their very skin. Bards would obviously spun their muzzak, while Druids and Rangers would carry animal totems, with Rogues equipping themselves with gadgets. Probably not very impressive on its own but certainly a breath of fresh air in a genre crowded with pointless loot, even moreso considering that some of these would be temporary, but others quite permanent.

I also enjoyed many of the area designs. One area I’m proud of would come late into the game, where the PC would be temporarily merged with a large city by a powerful cosmic entity. This meant that the player and the entire city were now trapped in a symbiotic state while having to defend it from attacks by invaders. Destroy invaders and the city grows more resilient. Take severe damage and half the city started to collapse on itself. You could "possess" (read: were given control) of the city’s resources such as individuals, armies, or machines of war to confront the invaders or, had you performed particularly well, literally move parts of the city to your advantage. Small quakes would stun enemies, destroying bridges or towers would prevent enemy access to critical spots, rearranging entire streets to funnel a large contingent into a dead end only to bury them with cascading rubble. You’d have to manage just how much of the city – and of yourself – was sacrificed in order to win in that scenario. It was tantamount with ripping your arm off, beating someone to death with it and, if you performed well, the arm would grow right back.

Nearly everything that was planned for the game would feature some concept as far out as this.

But then Neverwinter Nights 2 came out.

And the official campaign of the game ruined it all, because it presented a remarkably similar story hook to mine. When playing Neverwinter Nights 2, just replace "piece of a sword stuck up my character’s ass" with "a soul trapped inside my character's body" and you're somewhat there, respective differences aside, of course. In retrospect I shouldn't have discussed my idea on their official boards. This isn't to say I'm accusing Obsidian Entertainment of idea theft. But the anonimity of the internet can certainly help to disseminate ideas which, being anonymous and free of any legitimate form of authorship, are rife for picking up and use them as one sees fit. This wasn't necessarily a roadblock - I could still develop the project. Alas, modding communities have this particular modus operandi wherein interesting features may be glossed over in favor of scrutinizing just how much certain elements, like story, are based on other games. Besides, the drive to do it was gone. I try my best to come up with very interesting concepts for my projects, and I felt that the one for Project Obsidian was so perfect for what I had envisioned that anything else I'd come up with would pale in comparison.

Two other reasons working in tandem for these games never having left the planning stage are ambition and the inability to see through it. I'm not a code monkey (just a vanilla one) which puts a damper on my interest in developing games. See, game design isn’t just being the "ideas guy", it's about implementing those core ideas and make them work. Expanding these concepts can be handled by several other departments, from artists to coders, but it falls squarely on the designer's shoulders to come up with an idea, express it, and show the world why it rocks. And I can only tell the world my ideas rock, which is about as useful as a guy with a tinfoil hat telling you America is run by corporate, evil, psychopathic Elvis-worshipping alien midgets from Planet 9. It may even be true (at least the Elvis bit) but where’s the proof? I never had any, except the ocasional forum goer remark how good an idea of mine was. Much as I appreciated it, I wasn’t exactly being cooed by a high profile publisher. What did I have to show? What could I use to make these things come true?

There’s certainly a lot of options to go around in terms of software, and I certainly did my best to learn. I still have a hefty tome of C Language in my bookshelf, now gathering more dust than attention. I’ve visited countless sites, support groups and browsed through many engines and languages. Blitz, Basic, assorted game SDKs from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Quake 3 to Neverwinter Nights and Deus Ex. I tried everything I could and it’s not that these options were bad – I simply fail at the code. To me, coding tingles the back of my spine in uncomfortable ways. It’s certainly not as creepy or hair-raising as the concept of ladyboys or Zé Cabra - if you’re not Portuguese then count yourself lucky for never having heard this man's "singing", which is likely to cause higher suicide rates than the people who try to make sense out of IKEA assembly instructions. But I digress.

Not being a versatile coder is why I have a certain fondness for general game-making software such as Adventure Game Studio, Enterbrain's RPG Maker or YoYo Games' Game Maker series. They're useless if you want to design something in the lines of Final Fantasy XII – but why would you want to do that, anyway? – yet it serves a purpose, and serves it well: to give neophytes something to chew on. You can even disregard most of their in-built programming languages and stick with developing something simpler. The problem with some of the communities who have adopted such programs, however, is that they are plagued with people who can't help but emulate their idols rather than create something new. What little new is created often falls into two categories: it dies quickly because it doesn't get any support or appreciation by the community (as it's not another clone of the afforementioned series) or very rarely gets some recognition (such as Aveyond, which, while not my particular cup of tea due to its focus on japanese console role-playing game diktats, certainly deserves some credit by being fresh and polished in the face of what the competition usually has to offer, which basically amounts to disgraceful Zelda/Harvest Moon/Pokémon "remakes" and "fan games").

My past ventures with RPG Maker fell into the first - projects that never went anywhere. In part because the most common reception is "no Sephiroth no love", and because of the ambition I've mentioned earlier. Apparently, a game based on Space Hulk or Superhero League of the Hoboken is not worth their time if there's no protagonist whose angst is proportional to the amount of hair gel they use. YoYo Games' projects sometimes fall into this, with a large number of hosted projects not only drawing from the afforementioned series, but also emulating (read: shamelessly ripping off) the likes of Mario, Metroid or even Halo, of all things.

But if we put this aside for a moment, you can create interesting things with these programs. Like what I hope Project Shipwrecked turns out to be.

Project Shipwrecked is, at best, my very first *real* attempt at trying to create a game, and at worst, something you’ll be able to laugh off if I give up on it. During its first rounds of brainstorming, concept art and gameplay studies, I had considered development in RPG Maker VX, Enterbrain’s latest version of the program. But problems arose between my vision for the game and what the engine could offer. Running contrary to the intended uses of the program, it's not an RPG. There are no random combats, although there are certainly challenges. There is no mountain of loot, although you outfit your character. There are no dungeons, although you will need to explore several dangerous areas with hostile critters. There is an end goal, although you’re free to pursue other interests. There are no dialogs, although you can communicate with entities.

Because of that, development is now being prototyped with Game Maker 7, although Adventure Game Studio still remains a possibility. There are a couple of reasons for this, but only one worth mentioning. For the purposes of my project, working with RPG Maker would be the same as trying to shove a square peg around a round hole. On the other hand, with Game Maker there is no hole. While there are examples of RPG Maker-based games that are far from the program’s intended uses, YoYo's application lets you define and refine a project a lot more.

And so, work is already underway.

"But what does it play like? What are its influences? And why in the Nine Hells are you bleating about this here of all places?"

I'm reluctant to mention influences because of two things. First, they often only serve to expose a developer's tastes or all-time favorite videogames rather than actual influences. Second, most gamers who read them will be disappointed once they see the final result fails to match whatever game I mention, or what they expected to be there. I could say it uses emotions as Fable did, but it's not a boring corridor slasher that always plays out the same, treats gamers like idiots, and fails to recognize their actions in the gameworld - unless I fudge a bit of code, that is, but that can be fixed, unlike Peter Molyneux's bloated project. I could also bring up Seiklus and Another World, in the sense that it's an exploration game where your interactions define the player character and its story, but it's not level based like the latter and it's not meant to be a sidescrolling platformer like the former. And it's unfair to compare the game with these titles because in all honesty, I do not predict it will reach their level of quality (unless that of Fable, which scarcely has any).

With that said, I can comment on where I want to take the project.

Project Shipwrecked isn't about busty and scantily clad femme fatales or bulging barbarians. It's also not about a badass spy who goes all emo in the thick of combat. The first draft for the game's background and protagonist was that of a small child who, after witnessing the death of his parents in a car crash, loses the ability to communicate. Alone in a clinic waiting for the next of kin to pick him up, we would take solace in his drawings. One night, one of his drawings - that of a small asteroid - would come to life and take the child on a journey across space, but would crash land on what seemed to be an alien planet. The planet was actually meant to be a manifestation of the child's fractured mind and finding the way back to his "planet" (rather, his sanity) would be the ultimate goal, and the journey itself would be a metaphor for dealing with his personal traumas.

Then, the mighty Vince came, saw and crapped on that idea, suggesting something else instead - an astronaut who crash lands on an alien planet and who is unable to return home (curiously, my first idea before going with the child). Inhabiting the planet is a mysterious alien race which does not verbally express their thoughts or emotions. Instead, they rely in projection of ideas, visual manifestations of their thoughts through rebuses, or pictograms. However, being alien, their meaning is all but lost on the main character, who must find a way to convey his owns language and learning that of the telepathic aliens. If you have ever played Planescape: Torment, a commercial underdog also developed by Black Isle, you can draw a parallel with the Lady of Pain’s entourage, the Dabus. But that is background story, and background story can be changed along the way.

The core idea can be described as looking at the paradigms of role-playing and trying to present an alternative to the usual formulas. While Project Shipwrecked does not attempt to be a role-playing game, in the sense that it can be compared to anything else in the genre past or present, it carries over the mainstays of character development and social interaction. The PC will interact with the world and comunicate through emotions, feelings or concepts. These emotions can be either natural to the PC (anger, fear), based on interactions (surprise), or recognition (finding "treasure" would pop up a ballon signifying that, except there is no traditional treasure; this may be applied to how a PC recognizes previous interactions or points of interest). Interaction is based on simple key presses but can become more complex depending on the object or entity the PC is interacting with, and many actions have their own place in a higher hierarchy of consequences. Whatever the PC learns is registered by the game, enabling emotions, feelings and concepts to be used later during interactions.

There are no dialogs – instead, creatures will react to how the PC uses his emotions during interactions with them. These can be a handfull or a large string of emotions, forming something akin to sentences. Consequently, feedback from the gameworld may also be found in how the PC perceives things. Touching ice may pop up a "freezing" emote, while observing creatures in their natural habitat may help the PC discover new emotions or concepts as well, basically going from a near tabula rasa stage into someone more developed. This is still going through several revisions, of course, but does contain the essentials.

The concept could be exemplified in the two next theoretical examples:

1) The PC may, through examination of entities, learn to associate actions to emotions being displayed. Showing a frightened a rebus of “peace”, “love” or “friendship” may calm the creature down and accept the PC’s presence. Show it a rebus of “anger” or “destruction”, and it will likely run away scared.

2) Let’s say the PC needs to cross an obstacle, maybe a suspended bridge. However, a large, menacing creature stands as an obstacle, denying safe passage. By exploring tunnels above the bridge, the PC may find a large chamber. By "using" an emotion, the player realizes the chamber produces an echo. Here, the solution would be to repeatedly use an "anger" emotion, amplifying it through the echo, making it grow in power to the point where it causes a cave in that deals with the beast.

The overall concepts, such as character background and story, are still very much work in progress and may change over time, but the key aspects – those of reinterpreting role-playing mechanisms by virtue of exchanging verbal communication with an icon-based language; and of replacing statistical character growth or tools of increasing power with emotions, feelings or concepts that will help the characte evolve and overcome obstacles – are pretty much set in stone.

All that remains for now is to go full steam ahead, deciding on what kind of environment the main aspects will work best, studying what game conventions would be better suited to the game, and determining other elements, which I will attempt to discuss at length here. With that said, I am hoping to hear about everyone's thoughts on this entry before I discuss other elements.

[Bullwinkle]

Thank you for this post. It's very interesting.

I have some suggestions for you. They might not be the ones you were looking for. Please take them in the spirit of constructive criticism in which they are intended.

The "why" I am posting this next piece has to do with Vince's suggestion that I should post here to garner some constructive criticism or, at the very least, a dunce hat celebrating why I am so retarded when it comes to game ideas.

You are not retarded when it comes to game ideas. Execution, on the other hand...

Over my meager twenty seven years – and soon to be twenty eight – of life, I have, at last count, come up with well over 200 game projects. Design documents, artwork, extensive pages of game mechanics, rules and interactions....None of them ever materialized as videogames.

Yeah, this is what I'm talking about. More on this later.

One of my fondest projects was Project Obsidian....Nearly everything that was planned for the game would feature some concept as far out as this.

All sounded excellent.

But then Neverwinter Nights 2 came out.

And the official campaign of the game ruined it all, because it presented a remarkably similar story hook to mine.

Okay, well, here's your first problem. Do you honestly think that NWN2's main story line was in any way original? This is not a slag on NWN2, by the way. It's a comment on the reality of creation.

There is nothing new under the sun. Really. Take any idea, and someone, somewhere, has done it before. Sure, the names are different, the details are different, the mechanics are different...but the fact is that there really are only a handful of archetypes in existence, and you simply did not come up with a new one. Yes, technology can occasionally allow the development of techniques that are actually new. But that has nothing to do with storytelling itself.

If you doubt this, do you think that people here wouldn't have bought your game because they'd think the storyline was similar to NWN2? Most of the games out there are practically straightforward clones of other games. And most of those are inferior to the ones that came before.

This is a big problem. As someone who is right now in the thick of a (different kind of) creative process, believe me when I tell you that if every time I saw an idea that had similarities to mine, I gave up, I wouldn't be in the position I am today. Which is: with a good opportunity.

In fact, I'm grateful that some of my ideas have been seen before, in a different context. Because it gives people who might want to purchase it something easily understandable to hold on to. Look at Age of Decadence. Combat system (for example): original? Hell no. Fallout, anyone? But that's exactly the first thing that attracted me to the game. In seeing something I have enjoyed in the past, I wanted more of it. The fact that it has a similar combat system has me waiting for the game, not blowing it off. There are other facets of AoD I'm looking forward to, as well. But none of them strike me as never having been done before. I just want them to be done well.

Don't put too much stock in originality. Honestly, it's hugely overrated. Do you think every movie has a new story, new characters, new plot? A good story, well told, will always find an audience (even if it's small). What counts is execution. Which is your real problem.

This wasn't necessarily a roadblock - I could still develop the project. Alas, modding communities have this particular modus operandi wherein interesting features may be glossed over in favor of scrutinizing just how much certain elements, like story, are based on other games.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but who gives a damn? Seriously.

Two other reasons working in tandem for these games never having left the planning stage are ambition and the inability to see through it. I'm not a code monkey (just a vanilla one) which puts a damper on my interest in developing games.

Well, yes. It would, wouldn't it?

See, game design isn’t just being the "ideas guy", it's about implementing those core ideas and make them work.

Right. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everybody has got a game, or a screenplay, or a novel. Just ask them.

Much as I appreciated it, I wasn’t exactly being cooed by a high profile publisher. What did I have to show? What could I use to make these things come true?

Why would you be? Like I said, ideas are a dime a dozen. And in existing development houses, it's not like they make 100 games a year. Try one, maybe two. And for the next project, they're going to develop...their own idea. Because they have more than one idea they want to develop, too. And it's theirs. Why on earth would they want to pay you for yours?

I tried everything I could and it’s not that these options were bad – I simply fail at the code. To me, coding tingles the back of my spine in uncomfortable ways.

Well, then, you're in the wrong business. This is like saying "I'm a novelist, but I just can't write". Code is the medium of the trade, just like words are the medium of a novel.

You have two options: do it yourself, or hire someone else to do it. If you don't have the money for the second, you're going to have to suck it up and do the first. And if you can't, frankly, you should hang it up. Because you're wasting your time.

How can you possibly have over 200 game ideas and no actual games? I'm sorry, but you're not even trying. You have to start coding, or stop fooling yourself.

The problem with some of the communities who have adopted such programs, however, is that they are plagued with people who can't help but emulate their idols rather than create something new. What little new is created often falls into two categories: it dies quickly because it doesn't get any support or appreciation by the community (as it's not another clone of the afforementioned series) or very rarely gets some recognition...

This is the second time you've worried about what the "community" has to say. What do you care? Why is this such a big deal for you? You're all interested in developing your ideas and offering them to the world, and then you worry about what some assholes on the internet are going to think? And they are assholes. Just listen to them talk.

All that remains for now is to go full steam ahead...

Yes. Yes!

...deciding on what kind of environment the main aspects will work best, studying what game conventions would be better suited to the game, and determining other elements, which I will attempt to discuss at length here. With that said, I am hoping to hear about everyone's thoughts on this entry before I discuss other elements.

No. No! You're procrastinating again. Again! You are trying to fix the wrong problem.

YOUR IDEAS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. YOUR FAILURE TO EXECUTE IS.

Forget about the perfect idea. It doesn't exist. Forget about the perfect framework. It doesn't exist. Forget about the perfect toolset. IT DOESN'T EXIST.

You need to study the story of Vic Davis, creator and sole designer (other than artwork) of the amazing Armageddon Empires. He took an idea of his own, developed it on his own, coded it on his own, and put it out on his own (again, apart from the artwork). He used Adobe Director: by all accounts, a somewhat odd choice that gave him some good options for what he wanted but left him with some awkward gameplay quirks. The game has serious interface issues, and it needed a lot of support to patch it to something more user-friendly. But it's an awesome game. And his success is fundamentally due to that. And, of course, THE FACT THAT HE ACTUALLY MADE THE DAMN GAME.

I'm not saying you don't need to plan. Of course you do. But, once again, that's really not your problem at this point. What you need? Butt in chair. Code. Start now.

I like your ideas. If they were actually games, I'd buy them and play them, and if you executed them well, I really wouldn't care if they were similar to previous games. You've also got a pretty good sense of humour. So, honestly, you either have to execute, or pull the plug for good. Because, right now, you're wasting your time, and I can tell from everything you've written that it's not doing you any good.

I really do wish you the best of luck. Because I want more good games!

[Oscar]

Well, if you can't code, you should certainly get a coder interested in the game, just like Vince got Nick.

[Palmer Eldritch]

All right, it's saturday night, and I can't really stay in front of the computer screen much longer. I just want to say that this thread was an excellent read, and that your ideas are good.

Bullwinkle is offering some sound advice, I mean look at all the punks over at the codex proclaiming their imaginative games which will never see the light of day. However, you're clearly not a punk, so get to work...!

As for your idea, well it's definitely something I'd like to see. So you obtain pieces of this language by exploring the world and interacting with its inhabitants. Is this basically how you progress as a character, or is there more to it? Because at this point, I'm kind of envisioning a dark, atmospheric adventure game, where you solve puzzles by "emoting" and communicating in this strange way you've described. What about combat? If combat is entirely absent, I don't know if it even qualifies as an rpg, but maybe that's just me.

Good luck with your project!

[Diogo Ribeiro]

@Bullwinkle:

I greatly enjoyed your criticism, from the hot collar-grabbing action to the full support I just want to address some of your general points to clear some things, though.

First, I want to address originality. I don't think I am particularly gifted in that department but in anything I create I try my best to come up with interesting concepts or at least, interesting quirks in game mechanics. I don't always achieve this, of course, and there are certain projects that are neither original nor engaging. In some ways, my projects are analogous to the Three Hundred Mechanics project, in that some game concepts are improvements over past ones. As such, the number I mentioned was not meant to suggest I was some misunderstood genius at game design, but rather, that many of the ideas I've had have reached a certain point of development - some barely made it beyond conceptual stage while others were largely detailed, but something always "gets in the way" of actual development - execution, as you've stated. But the ideas that have been left underdeveloped have largely remained so because I felt they would not be received with much enthusiasm; as I've said, I try my best to make them stand out in one way or another. If they don't, if I cannot achieve that particular bit of chemistry, I lose interest. Project Obsidian was certainly not the most original game concept ever, but it was certainly I was proud of for the most part because I designed concepts I rarely - if ever - saw in the genre, and would like to see more of.

In terms of coding, I understand that at some point, I will need to put on my cowboy hat, stride into the sunset and tell my imaginary friend that "it's time to face the code, Kemosabe". Which in turn takes me somewhere to the first point - some projects had numerous layers of gameplay which, alone, I would not be able to complete in a satisfying timeline. I am aware that I don't own anything to anyone but myself and that such an endeavour should ultimately be my own. But I would like to develop some of these and if I take years to develop one single project, then it is possible many others will never see the light of day. Nonetheless, I am willing to invest in coding based on the priorities of a project. This means that game-making programs provide me with the advantage of developing most things I want in a simpler way, and that advanced play mechanics - should they ever need to be implemented - will require some more investment.

As for communities and reception... Yes, the internet is plagued with a legion of faceless assholes. Like that Role-Player guy. However this is not born out of a necessity to please a community or of gaining tremendously favorable reception, but to reach a particular sweet spot. I entertain no fantasies about becoming an indie darling but would like the project to reach as many people as possible. In the end I supposed it would all boil down to the strengths of the project itself but there is no short amount of games which, while not excellent, were perhaps good enough to have deserved a bigger reception and failed to do so. And as it turns out, it wasn't even because of the game. Remember how Jaws Unleashed, which was critically buried, ended up selling close to a million copies, far outselling Psychonauts and forcing the publishers of the latter into bankrupcy. So, to me, it is important to develop something I want but also something that others may find appealing as well.

Finally, the procrastinating bit I already am prototyping several systems but I'll explain in detail the last part of what I wrote. I was looking for a particular visual presentation and discussed it with Vince. I was undecided in regards to perspective, specifically, if I should attempt to do a side-scrolling or isometric perspective. Vince was very vocal (God bless the man's vocals) about side-scrolling, presenting numerous reasons to do so. But the style eludes me. Here's a couple of examples - from other games - of what I'm talking about.



Another World/Out of This World - awesome adventure game, in a very minimalistic style but nonetheless very visually evocative. All the action and movement is linear, in the sence the character only moves across a straight line in the environments.



Samorost 2 - another good adventure game, but in a very detailed style, equally impressive on its own. Movement is generally all over the map, as the character can move into the background and diminish in size due to perspective, or even go behind background hotspots like trees.

My reasoning for an isometric perspective was that the illusion of depth is much greater than in sidescrolling, and that often, while some backgrounds in sidescrolling are very detailed it's still based on a modicum of platforming. Here's a pic to explain what I'm talking about, from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night:

).

However, Vince pointed out that in sidescrolling you could offset this by having less relevant characters per screen or area, and to "paint" detailed scenarios or even moving characters in the background.

That was it, basically

[Diogo Ribeiro]

@Palmer Eldritch:

At this moment, progression across the game is handled only through exploration and interaction. The PC's journey involves - once again, thanks to Vince's input - a great deal of survival in an alien world, and it focuses squarely on how the PC interprets what goes on around him. As I've stated, I have not considered physical combat at all, but there are situations where these emotions may be used to overcome obstacles. The large creature in a cave was one such example. Some situations might be seen as puzzles of sorts, where the character may try to discover more about the aliens but not having discovered a concept they are familiar with. Another example which I'm currently writing involves finding out more about the aliens' past. Some legends or events may have a certain meaning, but as you peel away at the various levels of the language - specifically, how certain concepts may be discussed or considered - you might discover a fragment of the past actually had more meaning than what you initially thought.

These situations may be necessary to progress in the game or to simply find more about the virtual world. But instead of reading things from a book like you would in Morrowind, or finding a convenient dusty tome with a table translating glyphs, you are actually discovering things the more you interact with these creatures and the more you think upon the possible interpretations of these concepts. Some concepts may only be found as you explore the gameworld, and as you observe aliens or creatures interacting among themselves, you may discover new things.

The icon-based language will be a two step development: initial phase is to write actual dialogue for the game, then breaking down said dialogue into the concepts, emotions and other thoughts.

[Bullwinkle]

More hot hand-on-collar action follows. 

As such, the number I mentioned was not meant to suggest I was some misunderstood genius at game design...

No, I didn't think you were suggesting that. On the contrary, I thought you were being too self-critical, dismissing perfectly workable ideas--or even great ideas--as inadequate.

...but rather, that many of the ideas I've had have reached a certain point of development ...but something always "gets in the way" of actual development - execution, as you've stated.

This here is the crux of my point. You have two problems. In terms of priority, this is Problem # 1.

But the ideas that have been left underdeveloped have largely remained so because I felt they would not be received with much enthusiasm; as I've said, I try my best to make them stand out in one way or another. If they don't, if I cannot achieve that particular bit of chemistry, I lose interest.

And this is Problem # 2. You are imposing upon the creative process an impossible, and illegitimate, standard. How can you possibly know what will be received with enthusiasm and what will not? You, yourself, have mentioned in your reply a perfect example of this: Psychonauts vs. Jaws Unleashed. If you had developed Psychonauts, I bet you would have (legitimately) been bursting with pride, and would have had real hopes for massive success. On the other hand, if you had developed Jaws, I bet you would have never even finished it; it never would have seen the light of day. Knowing what you know, does this seem like a good idea to you?

Trying to predict what will be a hit and what won't is a fool's game. Forget about it. You can't do it. Even if there are people who generally succeed at this (and I think that there are), you are not one of them. You just don't have the experience. And every time you kill your own project, you are denying yourself that experience.

Project Obsidian was certainly not the most original game concept ever, but it was certainly I was proud of for the most part because I designed concepts I rarely - if ever - saw in the genre, and would like to see more of.

Then why stop? The reason you gave was just about the worst reason I can think of. Too similar? Please. If you had tried to write a novel about a theme park where dinosaurs are brought to life with genetic material preserved in amber but everything goes wrong because it's a chaotic system, well, okay. Time to hang that one up. But the basic principle behind your idea was neither original nor a ripoff. Or, at least, no more of a ripoff than pretty much every other story out there.

Most people talk like originality comes from the high concept. Yet that is only one facet of a work. In reality, it's the blending of ideas that creates truly original--or, at least, sufficiently original--work.

In terms of coding, I understand that at some point, I will need to put on my cowboy hat, stride into the sunset and tell my imaginary friend that "it's time to face the code, Kemosabe".

Well, this is a red flag for me. It's like an addict saying "Yeah, I'll quit real soon. I just need to do this one thing first...". It wouldn't be a red flag if you had ever executed before. The fact that you haven't is your biggest problem. You really need to face this. If there's one thing you need to do, more than anything else, it's this.

Which in turn takes me somewhere to the first point - some projects had numerous layers of gameplay which, alone, I would not be able to complete in a satisfying timeline.

Then the whole project is pointless. A solution to a problem only counts as a solution if it can be executed. You are the one who is designing these projects. If they become too complex to be implemented, that's your fault. You need to recognize your pattern of behaviour and shut it down. One thing is that you need to be realistic about what you, working alone, can accomplish. You're never going to make GTA4. So what are you doing trying to design it in the first place?

But this may only be part of the problem. It also sounds like you're getting so caught up in the "perfection" of an idea that you allow no room for reality. I'm sure you tossed numerous projects because you felt they were too complex and you couldn't remove elements without gutting the game. Honestly? Bullshit. There's a saying in screenwriting: "You have to kill your babies." That is not a reference to a project as a whole, but rather a favourite line, scene, or even an entire character within a screenplay. It may be the best scene in the screenplay. It may even be the best scene you've ever written. But if it doesn't work within the context of the screenplay, it's gotta go.

The scene is supposed to serve the screenplay, not the other way around. Similarly, the layers are supposed to serve the game, not the other way around. I'm willing to bet a lot of money that you threw out ideas that would have been perfectly workable even with far less detail.

And remember: just because you have to remove a mechanic from this game, doesn't mean you can't use it in the next game. So don't get so down on it. No idea is ever truly gone forever.

I am aware that I don't own anything to anyone but myself and that such an endeavour should ultimately be my own.

You say this, but you don't act like this.

However this is not born out of a necessity to please a community or of gaining tremendously favorable reception, but to reach a particular sweet spot. I entertain no fantasies about becoming an indie darling but would like the project to reach as many people as possible.

People respond to three things: bias, quality, and passion. You are granting the first of these way too much control over your creative process. Where I have noted your reference to a community, it is because, at that point, you have clearly deferred to the importance of what they will like. What you need to remember is that whatever it is you like, there are other people out there who will like it just the same. No matter how mainstream or off the beaten path. Of course, if you're worried about financial viability, then which path you're on matters. But it doesn't sound like that's what you're worried about.

There are many people who have achieved, or hope to achieve, success with niche products or ideas. In gaming, the aforementioned Vic Davis with Armageddon Empires (a turn-based, hex-based, unit-driven combination CCG/wargame? Seriously?), Vince with AoD (Fallout-style throwback), Spiderweb Software, or even the recently hugely successful Stardock's projects are just a few of the developers who fall into this category.

Aiming for bias might be a good way of achieving success, but is also a good way of producing a mediocre product, unless (and, sometimes, even if) you deeply hold that same bias. Because if you don't care about it, then where will the passion be? And where will the drive be that produces quality?

Every project you have mentioned as one you have been passionate about you have killed--YOU have killed--because of OTHER people's biases. This is a recipe for repeated failure. Recognize that, and make an effort to ignore it, or you'll be stuck in limbo forever.

In the end I supposed it would all boil down to the strengths of the project itself but there is no short amount of games which, while not excellent, were perhaps good enough to have deserved a bigger reception and failed to do so.  And as it turns out, it wasn't even because of the game.

Absolutely right. This is true in every creative endeavour. Where is Looking Glass Studios?  So, since you can't do anything about it at this point, why bother? Just make your game and everyone else be damned. Because even Psychonauts can bankrupt you.

So, to me, it is important to develop something I want but also something that others may find appealing as well.

Absolutely. Please don't think that I'm advocating a lunatic strategy of making something so weird that no one will want it. What I'm saying is that your current biases as to what you think make for good games are already shared by a significant enough number of people. So you don't need to take on anyone else's.

Finally, the procrastinating bit I already am prototyping several systems...

Excellent. So stop reading this and get back to work. 

Vince was very vocal...

I've noticed that, too. 

about side-scrolling, presenting numerous reasons to do so. But the style eludes me.

That's fair. Finding a style with elements you understand is important. But, at this point, even more important--yes, MORE important--is finding a style that you can easily execute. I imagine that was one of Vince's reasons for advocating for side-scrolling.

As I see it, there are four distinct elements to (your kind of) game design: story, gameplay, mechanics, and visuals. All are important, although a game can find success even if it only executes well on one of these. But you must execute. Just as in writing, there is artistry in game design. But there is also craft. And you only develop your craft by doing, and doing to completion. Every time you kill one of your projects, you deny yourself the experience you obtain in doing it, and just as critical, the feedback you will get from others. Remember that, the next time you feel like killing a project. Maybe you'll see it through instead.

[Tigranes]

Woah, Diogo = RP? How did I miss that?  And here I thought RP left the internets to set up a mid-West American suburban family or something.

It was a good read Diogo, and I have to agree with Bullwinkle (and again, where have I seen that name before?): the answer boils down to something very simple - just code.

My own dabbles in modding/etc in my teens never got very far, so I can't offer you pearls of wisdom from personal experience or anything, but with something like game design there are so many things you can turn your mind to - story, plot, characters, setting, backstory, perspective, combat/combat rules, world interaction, economy, navigation, music, art, dialogue system, blah blah - that you can lose yourself for a long time just 'working' on all that groundwork. Honestly? I think it's better to set the very bare bones down, then make something. Like the first level/town/village/area. If you ever continue, you'll probably end up making that area all over again (or change some fundamental things about it, or change the engine/language). Doesn't mean that work is pointless and down the drain. I don't really know how far you got in coding/game-building systems, and exactly what you are struggling with in that respect... but having 200 abandoned shells of playable areas benefits you and prepares you a lot more than 200 abandoned game ideas.

And yeah, I'd agree that you're setting yourself too high standards with your ideas. The stuff you described in your posts don't make me tremble in anticipation and scream SLAM DUNK, but they certainly sound interesting enough to look twice at. (Which is all ideas can do - the rest is up to how its executed). It looks like you do your research and put time into it as well... so I hope you get this worked out. Would be good to see more indie games rise from the depths.

[Krancor]

Oh boy.

I have seen you around seemingly every place on the internet, and I have a couple things to say.

First off, you need to learn to communicate much more effectively to even get your basic ideas across, let alone finish up the writing of an actual game. You are incredibly verbose and it takes you a paragraph to express what is in essence a very simple idea.

Second, as with most anything the key to success is less talk and more do. This fits in somewhat with the first bit of advice, but there is more to it than that. You don't need public approval for your projects or for help with ideas. If you do, your ideas suck anyhow and you may as well quit before you even start.

More importantly, you are unrealistic when you talk about what you expect a game designer to do. Coming up with storyboards is absolutely not what a game designer does. A game designer designs...gameplay. Crazy, but true!

If you can't code and you can't write particularly well, and you are not even actually designing a unique game but just storyboarding ideas on message boards that are just derivative of other people's major IPs...well, I don't know what to say except you are confused. It's not surprising that your derivative uninspired crap based off every game they've previously made is similar to yours because they 'borrowed' from all the same sources.

Not to say you are not a nice guy, but there is not even a one in a million chance of someone being hired to do what you are doing. No one needs storyboarding, anyone who is in the industry is going to want to do that themselves. It's expecting to do what the big money producer types who've made ten successful projects do as the fun part of their job for a living, or to somehow sucker a team of folks to make your dream game for you when you don't have any ability to make any part of it yourself.

If you are serious about making games you're either going to have to learn to code (which in a way you can't learn, you either can or can't), be born with out of this world talent, or learn to model and texture very well and find someone else's project to help with. Otherwise you are completely wasting your time if you have any other goal than to while away your time in something slightly less boring than watching TV.

[Krancor]

There is nothing new under the sun. Really.

At least not coming out of [fill in the name of any company stil making RPGs].

Are you David Gaider?

Though I guess I somewhat agree. The idea that mere ideas with no ability to followthrough are going to be worth anything to anyone just isn't realistic.

On the surface any idiot could say how unoriginal torment is because of even basic things like it having a hero. There is more to creativity than the brod strokes of a plotline, though. Star Wars is a great example - Lucas intentionally tries to make a basically cliched hero and story arc, the hero archetype. Yet, there are many little touchs and details that make it a great movie series, excluding the prequels.

If you don't have creative ideas screaming to come out, there is no point in trying, and not many people seem to. Otherwise the best you can hope to achieve is mediocrity, and who would bother with that? If you had the secret fire, you'd have no doubt in your mind that YOUR quest to find the various chunks of the silver sword would be infinitely different than THEIRS. YOUR movie about an alien that bursts from people's chests would be unique, nothing like Alien at all.

I don't mean better, just unique. It's hard to judge quality of creative work, especially your own, but if there's any question in your mind that you are not going to be completely different from anything else even something with the same exact one sentence description then you are probably laboring in vain.

[Grov]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting read.
I'll watch for your creations Diogo.
 

[Bullwinkle]

...and I have to agree with Bullwinkle (and again, where have I seen that name before?)

Hmm. I don't know. I've never posted on RPGCodex. I don't even go there. I think I've read a total of two threads, which was all I needed to see. The only place I've really been actively posting is on the FFG forum (a boardgame company). Probably a different Bullwinkle.

Are you David Gaider?

Heh. No. I'm not in the game business at all, and never have been, actually, except as an extremely avid consumer of all kinds of games.

On the surface any idiot could say how unoriginal torment is because of even basic things like it having a hero.

Uh...no.

Gather round, friends, as I display my idiocy for the world to see. For I will now say how unoriginal PS:T is. 

WARNING! ***MAJOR PLANESCAPE: TORMENT SPOILERS COMING UP!*** If you haven't played the game, don't read this. Also, see a psychiatrist.

***SPOILERS BEGIN***

The sarcastic sidekick with a terrible secret. The live-and-die-by-a-code noble warrior who has lost his way. The fiercely angry, unwanted child with a deep well of love. The fallen angel with sorrowful wisdom. The humourless yet comic machine. The hideous that loves the beautiful. The amnesiac at the centre of it all. The hero in a prison of his own making. The blessing of immortality as curse. The hero who heals the wounds of his friends. The bondage of chains released by love. The redemption through action and wisdom. That which can change the nature of a man. Shall I continue?

Not one of these elements--these MAJOR elements--of story and character is original. Not one. Even the most innovative of ideas in this game--the death-as-necessary-story-progression mechanic--is not really original as a storyline. Many major religions hold as a basic tenet that you return to life until you get it right (although obviously not quite in this way). The implementation of this is as a mechanic is new. But I'm not sure that's not more related to technology than anything else: the one thing you do in CRPGs more than PnP RPGs is die. A lot. And then, of course, reload. So why not take it to the next step and play with this element? PS:T does it brilliantly (and first? I don't know). The Longest Journey? Awful choice.

***SPOILERS END***

If you think that I don't think that PS:T is brilliant, or original, you're wrong. Same with most other creative works. Like I said, originality usually comes not from high concepts, but from the collection of elements that make up the work. While each of those elements mentioned above are individually not original, they way in which they are put together do make something (mostly) original.

What takes it to the next step, though, is not the archetypes or choice of combination of those archetypes. It is the excellence of its execution. It's not just that the dialogue is wonderful, or deep; it's that it is integrated seamlessly with both the story and the gameplay. Story is compelling, characters are made interesting, gameplay is addictive because the various elements are executed well, not because they're original. And this is true of virtually every creative work.

[Krancor]

...and I have to agree with Bullwinkle (and again, where have I seen that name before?)

Hmm. I don't know. I've never posted on RPGCodex. I don't even go there. I think I've read a total of two threads, which was all I needed to see. The only place I've really been actively posting is on the FFG forum (a boardgame company). Probably a different Bullwinkle.

Are you David Gaider?

Heh. No. I'm not in the game business at all, and never have been, actually, except as an extremely avid consumer of all kinds of games.

On the surface any idiot could say how unoriginal torment is because of even basic things like it having a hero.

Uh...no.

Gather round, friends, as I display my idiocy for the world to see. For I will now say how unoriginal PS:T is. 

WARNING! ***MAJOR PLANESCAPE: TORMENT SPOILERS COMING UP!*** If you haven't played the game, don't read this. Also, see a psychiatrist.

***SPOILERS BEGIN***

The sarcastic sidekick with a terrible secret. The live-and-die-by-a-code noble warrior who has lost his way. The fiercely angry, unwanted child with a deep well of love. The fallen angel with sorrowful wisdom. The humourless yet comic machine. The hideous that loves the beautiful. The amnesiac at the centre of it all. The hero in a prison of his own making. The blessing of immortality as curse. The hero who heals the wounds of his friends. The bondage of chains released by love. The redemption through action and wisdom. That which can change the nature of a man. Shall I continue?

Not one of these elements--these MAJOR elements--of story and character is original. Not one. Even the most innovative of ideas in this game--the death-as-necessary-story-progression mechanic--is not really original as a storyline. Many major religions hold as a basic tenet that you return to life until you get it right (although obviously not quite in this way). The implementation of this is as a mechanic is new. But I'm not sure that's not more related to technology than anything else: the one thing you do in CRPGs more than PnP RPGs is die. A lot. And then, of course, reload. So why not take it to the next step and play with this element? PS:T does it brilliantly (and first? I don't know). The Longest Journey? Awful choice.

***SPOILERS END***

If you think that I don't think that PS:T is brilliant, or original, you're wrong. Same with most other creative works. Like I said, originality usually comes not from high concepts, but from the collection of elements that make up the work. While each of those elements mentioned above are individually not original, they way in which they are put together do make something (mostly) original.

What takes it to the next step, though, is not the archetypes or choice of combination of those archetypes. It is the excellence of its execution. It's not just that the dialogue is wonderful, or deep; it's that it is integrated seamlessly with both the story and the gameplay. Story is compelling, characters are made interesting, gameplay is addictive because the various elements are executed well, not because they're original. And this is true of virtually every creative work.

Hmm, well, you seem to have not really read my post. There are lots of thinsg that on the surface could be seen as unoriginal or even cliche and yet it still has been done in a very good manner and it all comes together for an absolutely original experience. Which seems to be what you are saying, which seems to be what I said.

I feel like maybe I was too harsh on Diego, but it's better to be honest but harsh than to let someone waste their time. Not to say he can't get something made if he truly wants but if he does it will have to be a huge gear shift to even have a chance to succeed.

[Vince]

It's definitely better to be honest, but is making a hasty conclusion that his ideas are "derivative uninspired crap" being honest?

[Oscar]

The overall concepts, such as character background and story, are still very much work in progress and may change over time, but the key aspects – those of reinterpreting role-playing mechanisms by virtue of exchanging verbal communication with an icon-based language; and of replacing statistical character growth or tools of increasing power with emotions, feelings or concepts that will help the characte evolve and overcome obstacles – are pretty much set in stone.

All that remains for now is to go full steam ahead, deciding on what kind of environment the main aspects will work best, studying what game conventions would be better suited to the game, and determining other elements, which I will attempt to discuss at length here. With that said, I am hoping to hear about everyone's thoughts on this entry before I discuss other elements.

Are you ready to go more indepth? I'm curious to see more detailed and concrete aspects like a list of the different emotions, which ones are basic and which ones more advanced, and different types of quests or situations in which they are applied.