Summary

Role-playing games, either on tabletop or on computers, allow players to immerse themselves in complex worlds with manifold gameplay options. With several gameplay modes, including communication, exploration, combat, and inventory, building CRPGs can be enormous undertakings requiring intense design and a lot of content. You need to be concerned with creating a memorable world with a wondrous environment and giving the avatars the challenges to allow them to increase experience points and level up while unraveling the story by journeying through the world. But the satisfaction of playing an avatar with great powers makes it very rewarding to make such games.

Design Practice Case Study

Choose a CRPG that you believe, from your own experience of playing it, is an excellent example of the genre (or use one your instructor assigns). It should be a single-player CRPG for the purposes of this exercise. You are free to select one with a single avatar or one in which you control a party. Write a report documenting the features that place it in this genre as opposed to another one and explaining why you believe it is superior to others of its kind. Be sure to cover at least the following areas:

• Consider how much time you spent before the start of the game selecting, creating, or modifying your avatar(s). Was that time well spent? Was the system easy to follow and to use? Once in the game, did you feel that you had made good choices? If not, with what information could the developer have provided you to make character selection easier?

• Describe how well the game maintains your immersion within the gameplay. Are there any interface interruptions that remind you of the computer? Are there any game mechanics that should be hidden but are not?

• Describe how well the game maintains your sense of immersion and emotional attachment through the character development of your avatar. Are the dialogue choices fitting for your character and do they reflect the personality of your character? Do NPCs respond appropriately to the behavior, actions, or dialogue choices you make? Does your play in the world affect the story?

• Review the interface for the inventory. Does it make it simple for you to store or use items? Are there limitations to the inventory system that affect your ability to play or that require you to spend an inordinate amount of time manipulating objects?

• Address the experience points and leveling up of your character(s). Does it make sense? Were you able to clearly understand how the leveling up worked when you selected your avatar(s)? Do you feel that the XP and leveling is well balanced, and does it enhance or hinder the game play experience?

The design questions in the next section may help you to think about these issues. In your report, use screen shots to illustrate your points. End the case study with suggestions for improvement or, if you feel the game cannot be improved, suggestions for additional features that might be fun to have in the game.

Alternatively, choose a game that you believe is particularly bad. Do the same case study, explaining what is wrong and how it could be improved.

A case study is neither a review nor a design document; it is an analysis. You are not attempting to reverse-engineer the entire game but simply to explain how it works in a general way. Your instructor will tell you the desired scope of the assignment; we recommend from five to twenty pages.

Design Practice Questions

1. Which type of game are you going to create? Is it going to be heavy on story (as in the Final Fantasy games), or will character advancement and combat be the main thrust (as in World of Warcraft)?

2. If it is story-based, how will you structure the quests—one big overarching quest with side quests or a more free-form approach? This will have an effect on the difficulty of production and the feel of the game.

3. What is the setting for your game? Are you going for the standard science fiction/fantasy fare, or are you using something else? Are you using a licensed work? Are you convinced that your setting is different yet recognizable enough to be compelling?

4. How will your world function? What are the underlying rules for the way the world works? Are they self-consistent and logical? Are they based on a preexisting system (as in Baldur’s Gate)?

5. Is the player going to be given a group of avatars, or will he be responsible for a single character? Will his character be configurable (as in Arcanum) or will he be forced to take a predefined role (as in Anachronox)?

6. What will be the primary focus of your game? Will it be uncovering the story, improving the player’s character, or combat and exploration? The majority of games attempt to cover all these bases equally, but some exceptional ones have focused more on one aspect, such as Anachronox and Diablo II. This affects the pace of your game.

7. What camera model will you use in your game? Will you use isometric 3D (as in the older BioWare games), or will you use a fully 3D engine (as in Fallout 3)? Will you use something else entirely?

8. Is your game going to include a magic system? How is this magic system going to be constructed? Will it be based on preexisting concepts, familiar regimes (such as law/chaos/good/evil) or something completely new? Will it be internally self-consistent or not? How will it be balanced with nonmagic forces within the game?

9. How will you handle inventory management within the game?

10. Finally, will your player’s character end up saving the world? Are you sure you want to do that? Can you think of anything slightly more original (as in Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines, for example)?

About the Fundamentals of Game Design E-books

You understand the basic concepts of game design: gameplay, user interfaces, core mechanics, character design, and storytelling. Now you want to know how to apply them to individual game genres. These focused guides give you exactly what you need. They walk you through the process of designing for game genres and show you how to use the right techniques to create fun and challenging experiences for your players.

All of these e-books are available from the Peachpit website at www.peachpit.com/ernestadams.

Fundamentals of Shooter Game Design discusses designing for this huge and specialized market. It examines both the frenetic deathmatch style of play and the stealthier, more tactical approach.

Fundamentals of Action and Arcade Game Design is about the earliest, and still most popular, genre of interactive entertainment: action games. This genre may be divided into numerous subgenres such as fighting games, platformers, and others, which the e-book addresses in as much detail as there is room for. It also looks at the most popular hybrid genre, the action-adventure.

Fundamentals of Strategy Game Design discusses another genre that has been part of gaming since the beginning: strategy games, both real-time and turn-based.

Fundamentals of Role-Playing Game Design is about role-playing games, a natural outgrowth of pencil and paper games such as Dungeons & Dragons.

Fundamentals of Sports Game Design looks at sports games, which have a number of peculiar design challenges. The actual contest itself is designed by others; the trick is to map human athletic activities onto a screen and control devices.

Fundamentals of Vehicle Simulation Design addresses vehicle simulations: cars, planes, boats, and other, more exotic modes of transportation such as tanks.

Fundamentals of Construction and Simulation Game Design is about construction and management simulations in which the player tries to build and maintain something—a city, a theme park, a planet—within the limitations of an economic system.

Fundamentals of Adventure Game Design explores adventure games, an old and unique genre of gaming that continues to earn a great deal of critical attention by its strong storytelling and its visual aesthetics.

Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design examines puzzle games and casual games in general.