Story/Gameplay Ideas for a Fantasy Game

[Hikitsu 31]

Alright, Let me introduce myself, I'm quite new to RPG Maker VX Ace. I have done many projects, which all ended up being either too lengthy or I lost interest in them mid-way because i introduce complicated concepts in my games like Refining, Adding lots of Characters, Adding lots of enemies or complicated crafting systems, which made me lose my interest in continuing these games. 

 

About my Game : After having learnt not to overdo things, This time i plan to start with a very small and simple game (Say around 40 minutes ~ 2 hours of Gameplay). Since i would want it to be my first completed game, I have finished planning most of the Database elements, What remains is just mapping & planning a Storyline to keep the players interested. I want to use just a single 35 x 35 World map and let the entire game run on that single map, Making Encounter Tiles and Cities (Where you can make purchases & Recover), all possible on that Single Map. 

 

Game Concept : 

 

The Game is based on an Medieval European Fantasy Theme, A World enveloped in Darkness with Dragons, Evil Knights, Castles & Spooky Towers, where you lead the Female Hero (A Knight) to defeat the Evil Villain (Perhaps a Vampire or a Tyrant Warlord). I am also planning to make the game rather scary and spooky with elements of surprise, Mystery & horror.  

 

My Current Plans  : 

 

- I plan to use a Sidebattle System with Custom skills and animations to make the Gameplay more interesting 

 

- Currently I am thinking of making 2 Playable Characters, a Female Knight and a Male Swordsman who joins her later on, on her journey. Each Character uses around 5 ~ 7 Skills, The max level will just be Level 15 with the Players able to use 4 Grades of armor and weapons along their adventure, i.e, Around 45 ~ 60 Equipment.

 

- I have been thinking of setting up something like a roadblock along the way every once in a while, which requires the player to either complete a quest or defeat the mini boss blocking the way to pass through

 

I am looking for ideas regarding : 

 

- How to keep Players interested playing on a Single 35 x 35  World map 

 

- Ideas on a unique Plot that fits into the Medieval European Fantasy Theme

 

- Suggestions for the Kinds of skills for a Female Knight (Wields a Long Sword) and a Male Swordsman (Wields a Giant Sword)  [Holder's Battle Sprites - Knight & Dark Knight]

 

I am interested to hear your ideas regarding some/all of these 3 things

Edited July 9, 2013 by Hikitsu

[Rabie 39]

I know you didn't ask for input regarding this, but I think it's a detail that's worth mentioning:

 

If you have 15 levels and up to 60 armor pieces, you're changing your equipment basically once per level.

This becomes redundant, as the bonuses could just be accrued through parameter increases instead of on the equipment.

All I ask is that you consider putting the bonuses straight in the level ups, and have major upgrades through fewer equipment changes.

 

As for what you did ask for input on:

• A 35 by 35 world map is about the right size for this small encounter based world map idea.  It would be nice to have at least small locations, but if that's not what you want then it isn't necessary.  I would get a bit bored of seeing the same screen 24/7.  Block off certain parts of the map from the player's navigation/view until they are "strong enough" so that there's more to explore later in the game, instead of a constant grind on the same field.  Other than that, you can use parallax smoke and high-quality visuals to increase the appeal and make them forget about the lack of location maps.  Maybe not for 2 hours though.
• You'll need something short like the old "Legend Of Gladius" tutorial-project to have it kept confined to a world so small.  Think of a single objective with very few restrictions.  Say you must protect a village from a growing evil by "purifying" the land.  (Once you've battled enough in one area, it becomes "pure" with no more chance encounters) ((this would also keep the player from over-grinding early on))
• I think you have the names a bit backwards.  A swordsman typically wields a single slender blade and has agile skills with his sword-play.  A Knight has the large thick blade which is more based on power attacks.  Make your swordsman a more agile character using multiple slash attacks, counter-attacks, and the like.  Make your Knight a more powerful character with heavy slash, charge, and the like.

I'm actually really looking forward to playing this when you're finished.  I haven't had a quick RTP medieval style game to play.

 

ALSO:  Just thought about this, but add a secret difficult encounter on a special spot which is hard to get to.  Give goodies.

[Wren 179]

You could do up a homage to 7 Samurai, where an evil overlord attempts to conquer a town, you are sent to different areas on the map to recruit different characters for the town's defenses, and that is why you can only go to a certain spot at a given time is because that is where you are sent to recruit the next person.  Once you get all the people you script in a few cut scenes and a boss fight where the characters you have recruited have weakened the overlord's position and you can defeat him, the end.

 

Might have it where to recruit the character you have to defeat them first, that way you could still do your mini boss idea.

[Bunni89 85]

To be entirely honest, it sounds incredibly uninteresting. You're setting yourself up for a fall, you seem to have picked the exact most cliche and storyless idea. Not that that's a bad thing, but just bear in mind that for this idea people will wanna see good gameplay and probably not be too interested in the "World enveloped in Darkness with Dragons, Evil Knights, Castles & Spooky Towers". Especially because its so short and limited to a very small area to explore.

So I'd say either...

* Focus on making the battles really good and really plentiful. Have strategic bosses! Have unique skill ideas! Make it more of a challenge and less of a "just use whatever move deals the most damage" thing. Final Fantasy can get away with that because they focus on story XD

* Add loads of non-battle gameplay! Like sidequests, minigames, item crafting...

* Make the story really damn good! To be slightly rude, it sounds terrible from the very brief description you've given. But I can't know that, can I? Short descriptions make everything sound bad! If it's indeed gonna be suspenseful and scary then it could totally work! Or perhaps a very tragic plot? Or a humourous one? The only thing you can't do in that amount of time is have a serious dramatic adventure... think of it like a movie! except with RPGs people kinda get dissappointed by the action genre (aka a short two hours of lots of explosions and barely any characterization for anyone)

* or all of the above XD

 

That's how you'd get more people to play it despite the fact it's very small and similar to 80% of all fantasy RPGs on this site. People here don't tend to have much patience because 79% of that 80% is TERRIBLE! If you're not terrible, then it would really really suck to have nobody try your game because of preconceived notions. (So another tip- when you release your game, have lots of screenshots of the best, most unique bits. A good impression is very important and many people go straight to the pictures.)

 

Good luck dude! And sorry if any of this sounded rude, I'm terrible at offering constructive criticism politely.

 

EDIT: Oh! and with regards to the equipment issue...

If you're gonna have 50-60 equips for only 15 levels, don't make it a full equip set for each level or anything. Make it more like you get new stronger equipment every 3-5 levels, but there's a few varieties to choose from. (Like one is high def but penalizes attack, one is low def but gives a huge speed boost...) Maybe sell one variety in shops, a few varieties found in dungeons and a few that are rare drops from monsters or rewards for accomplishing stuff? (beating a boss, solving a puzzle etc)

Also a neat shortcut to variety is to have different equipment types for the two characters. So those 60 equips are actually 30 female and 30 male. It's less overwhelming.

Edited July 13, 2013 by Bunni89

[+ morewordsfaster 28]

I disagree with Bunni89, I think it has the opportunity to be VERY interesting. Especially with such a small scope, you have the opportunity to really focus on the details and make it a really fun quick game. Also, "people kinda get dissapointed by the action genre???" Are you kidding me? The action genre is the most popular film and video game genre (FPS falling firmly in the action genre). Plus, there are tons of action games and movies with great characterization!
 
Anyway, I'm not trying to flame Bunni89, just trying to make sure you don't take that post as gospel. 
 
On to what you actually asked for:

- How to keep Players interested playing on a Single 35 x 35  World map 

 
I like Wren's idea, but when I read your first post, the first thing that came to my mind is to have the map change over time. Considering this is going to be a shorter game, have the character's actions and choices and the storyline actually change the visual look of the world. You could do this DQ7-style or Dark Cloud-style, or even simpler, just with a fog-of-war approach. Some examples would be if there is a huge battle in a village, after the battle, the village is gone and is just a wreck. As encounters happen, change the tile to show that the ground was torn up by magic or cavalry charges, etc. That NPC that you used to buy stuff from was killed by the enemy and now his dead body just lies at the crossroads. Little changes like become metonymics for the player that help measure the experience of playing the game. In simpler terms, it helps the player to feel like they have really accomplished something because "look at how different things are from when I started."
 

Ideas on a unique Plot that fits into the Medieval European Fantasy Theme

 
First of all, worry less about an GRAND EPIC plot since you're focusing on a short game. Make it something simple and formulaic, then get creative with the details.
Next, and slightly more helpful advice: take some existing cliches or tropes and turn them on their head. 
Also, the interesting twist or M. Night Shyamalan special can be of good use in this kind of game as well. For example, the game opens on your decidedly female knight getting drunk in the local tavern. She suffers from Browncoat-itis, depressed because her side lost in the recent civil war. Despite peace and happiness across the Kingdom, she feels like a loser because her side gave in and made peace with the Other Guys. All of a sudden, she is approached by a mysteriously magical Wise Man who says that she is the last hope of overcoming the Oh So Baddies in charge! She is strung along by the Wise Man, her personal sage of wisdom and guide to glory, fighting her way past all these Terrible Enemies, only to discover that the Wise Man was using her all along to depose the Good Guys and take control of the Kingdom. What is she to do now? (Crisis of conscience leads to the last quarter of the game and wrap-up).
 

Suggestions for the Kinds of skills for a Female Knight (Wields a Long Sword) and a Male Swordsman (Wields a Giant Sword)  [Holder's Battle Sprites - Knight & Dark Knight]

 

Like Wren Rabie (oops), I agree that a swordsman is usually someone who fights with a saber or an epee, kind of like a fencer, with light armor and focused on maneuverability and avoiding attacks while trying to land a killing stroke. Knights are much more focused on victory through attrition, wearing heavy armor and able to take a number of direct hits, whacking away at their foe with heavy weapons like broadswords and claymores.

 
I'd also suggest reconsidering having two sword-wielders in this type of game. If I had a game with only two player characters, I would try to make them a little more different. Players like variety. With a medieval fantasy setting, it only makes sense to make one a magic user or support character. In fact, considering your main character is a female knight, you're already flipping the mysoginistic male hero damsel-in-distress trope on it's head. Why not make your guy a cleric who is dependent upon the knight for defense? This could actually lead to really fun dialogue and characterization, contrasting their personalities with their roles.
 
Anyway, hope this helps!

Edited July 18, 2013 by morewordsfaster

[Wren 179]

I didn't say the stuff about the swordsman and knight.

 

I only suggested using ideas from 7 samurai.

 

Good luck on your project, I think if you go with a short plot but work on making the combat and itemization polished you can really set up something good.

[Bunni89 85]

Whoops, I may have been confusing! Thanks morewordsfaster! I didn't mean the action genre is unpopular, here's what I said:

"except with RPGs people kinda get dissappointed by the action genre (aka a short two hours of lots of explosions and barely any characterization for anyone)"

It was badly phrased. I meant that the action genre IN FILMS is not what people want from an action RPG. Specifically an action film is short and 100% action and barely any plot or anything. This is enjoyable because it's visually spectacular and really dramatic, plus nobody had any preconceived expectations regarding story. Whereas in an RPG you kinda DO expect either a story or fun gameplay or both. You don't really play a game purely for the graphics and how many explosions are there, and it'd be hard to focus an RPG around that.

Basically an action film and an RPG with the same concepts and the same exact events happening.. those are two very different experiences.

In a film you can have a big dramatic battle with huge booms and wild camera angles and epic swordplay and cgi and WOWWW. In a game, you feel cheated if you can't play that battle.. and if you play it it's generally not as dramatic. Unless it's an action RPG or a really tense well-developed battle system such as the boss AI puzzles in Shin megami tensei games. And even if you did try and make a cutscene with all the movie-style dramaticness, it's either gonna take ages and lots of animation skill, or its gonna be an underwhelming minimal detail thing where a tiny sprite runs at another tiny sprite and an explosion sfx pops up.

So in sumamry RPGs generally can't be sold on action ALONE unless that action is optimized as an interactive experience. (In which case it is badass and super popular)

I was just trying to say "this game could be really fun if it was actiony, but not hollywood movie actiony". But I suck at words! XD

 

Anyway i hope that helped, and sorry for being negative earlier!

 

EDIT: Incidentely "worry less about a GRAND EPIC" plot was also what I was trying to say with my negativey comment... I'm glad at least someone managed to articulate it properly! XD

I didn't mean your idea sucks, I just mean that you have a short amount of time to do stuff so if you try a grand epic plot it probably won't be as good as a full-sized game. Not enough time to get invested in the story before it's already over.. people would be dissappointed. So perhaps better to focus on a single small story rather than a big save the world thing, or else make it a gameplay-focused thing.

 

Oh and I like the idea of Dark Cloud style changing areas! I think it'd be really hard to pull off customizeable towns that you build, but it could be a good small plot goal if you have to rebuild a demolished town or something. Simple eventing where houses reappear when the town variable is equal to 50, or whatever.

Good excuse for an adventure too! Either do it Dark Cloud style where you have to collect magic items that turn into buildings, or go back in time and defeat villains who killed the dude who built the town. (Which is what the sequel was.) Or it could just be realistic and you have to collect building materials and recruit people to build stuff or run jobs in the town like postman, etc. Maybe give the player boons and new features as the town expands?

 

EDIT: Oh and I love the idea of a male cleric! We don't see too many of those, whereas "dude with a small sword" is kind of too similar to the female character and too similar to 50% of all male protagonists. (The other 50% is men with large swords XD) Plus if you're only having two characters, most people would probably choose a healer or other support class as the second one. (Or is it just me? XD Healer + heavy damage dude is the best partnership, c'mon I can't be the only person thinking this? XD)

Basically everything morewordsfaster said is gold and they are awesome! (Incidentely dude, don't worry XD If anyone accuses you of flaming simply for disagreeing, they're a jerk. Feel free to disagree with my terrible ideas whenever you want! XD)

Edited July 18, 2013 by Bunni89

[+ morewordsfaster 28]

I think it'd be really hard to pull off customizeable towns that you build, but it could be a good small plot goal if you have to rebuild a demolished town or something.

Yeah, sorry, I should have been more clear, I didn't necessarily mean the actual town building/management, I just meant how as the game goes on concrete evidence builds up that marks your accomplishments and experiences in the game. Not to say that a demolished town couldn't be one of the quests, I just wouldn't focus the whole story on it.

 

Unless... actually, this kind of goes to another idea I had been thinking about where you start playing after the bad guy has won. What if the entire world is covered in this evil spell and your quest is to reverse the effects in different ways in different places? That could actually work here because the world would sort of clean up as you go along. It would be almost like Kingdom Hearts where your task is to find the hole and stick your dick keyblade into it and then there's no more heartless running around. 

 

Feel free to disagree with my terrible ideas whenever you want! XD)

Hey your ideas weren't terrible at all, I just didn't understand the first time through. I can be thickheaded like that I still disagree that action films don't have story, but that's another tale for another time.

[Bunni89 85]

Again, I was really unclear with my talkings XD I didn't mean action movies never have story, but like.. the story isn't generally the thing you come for. It's not the big appeal, it's not what they focus on. And it's entirely possible to have an action movie with no story at all.. which just doesn't work as an RPG. (But it might work as an FPS or racing game etc)

Sorry sorry, it was entirely my fault! I'm a native english speaker but I have social difficulties so it's hard to.. express what I intend to say.

 

Oh, that idea sounds good too! *squirrels away my townbuilding idea so I can use it myself instead XD*

Just the general idea of big concrete progress changes in the world.. that's really awesome! So maybe something like DQ7 where towns appear as you progress? (or an equivelant with something other than towns) Maybe something like as you're going along you fight a magma demon who makes a volcano erupt if you lose, and then the map changes in various ways to show the aftermath? That could go with your bad guy victory reversal idea.. like maybe you play for a while chasing the bad guy and then he does this volcano event and you have to clean up after it. Like you'd end up with three versions of the map- original peaceful world, half-destroyed firey demon realm and then a restored peaceful world that's different and better.

It'd be a great way to have a game happen in a very small map but still have clear progress and exploration.

[Hikitsu 31]

Thnx for all your ideas and suggestions everyone 

I have noted down all your useful ideas and suggestions regarding my game, Your ideas really helped me a lot !!!