by Ice Cream Jonsey » Sat Oct 10, 2015 11:39 pm
It's not so much that I have to keep a lot in my head. I'll try to explain what I mean about why this game looks unfinishable:
I want to have 7 levels of spells. (Well, in the game they are computer programs, but let's use fantasy D&D nomenclature.) You should be eligible for a new spell level every other level, so the game needs to let characters get to 14 of their own levels.
It's lame if it's expected that each character levels up more than once per "area," so originally I wanted 14 levels. Well, originally originally I wanted 20, but I cut it down before I even started to 14.
What's a nicely-sized level? Well, if I had an art team, I'd make them each 100 squares, 10x10. I do not have an art team, so at most they are 10x10, but some are smaller.
Most of the squares need a daylight and night time graphic. I have to make them both.
Most of the squares will depict a third graphic if the player has a particular actor or actress in their party. So I have to make those extra cases. (So if you are playing the game and picked Gerrit as one of your characters, the game could see that you have him and display the Gerrit graphic for a given room rather than the standard daylight one.)
I also need to make art for enemies and items.
There should be SOME text in each room. If not a joke then something where the player is glad they entered the room. "Good writing," or an argument in the party or an observation or something. So that takes a little time.
This brings us to quests. There's 10 character classes in the game, but you can't have two of anything. So I need to write at least six solutions to a puzzle or quest to ensure that the party can use one of them. I need to populate the game with a plot, interesting antagonists, allies and the like.
But with the classes, I am essentially giving these 8 classes cool things to do since they don't cast spells. I do want the Chemist to be able to make different kinds of prescription drugs that do different things. I do want the street magician to be able to cut a person in two and do card tricks and so forth.
When all of that is done, I need to go through the entire game and edit the writing.
When that is done, I need to go through the entire game and play it myself looking for bugs.
When that is done, I need to find testers, set them off at different levels and fix the bugs they find.
When all of that is done, I need to give the writing one more draft.
But even more than that - tonight I had a problem because I couldn't figure out why some thugs weren't responding to questions. I think it is unlikely that other mediums have these technical brick walls, but making games have them. A few hundred people made the last Bethesda game. I'm one dude doing all of this, essentially.
It's not so much that I have to keep a lot in my head. I'll try to explain what I mean about why this game looks unfinishable:
I want to have 7 levels of spells. (Well, in the game they are computer programs, but let's use fantasy D&D nomenclature.) You should be eligible for a new spell level every other level, so the game needs to let characters get to 14 of their own levels.
It's lame if it's expected that each character levels up more than once per "area," so originally I wanted 14 levels. Well, originally originally I wanted 20, but I cut it down before I even started to 14.
What's a nicely-sized level? Well, if I had an art team, I'd make them each 100 squares, 10x10. I do not have an art team, so at most they are 10x10, but some are smaller.
Most of the squares need a daylight and night time graphic. I have to make them both.
Most of the squares will depict a third graphic if the player has a particular actor or actress in their party. So I have to make those extra cases. (So if you are playing the game and picked Gerrit as one of your characters, the game could see that you have him and display the Gerrit graphic for a given room rather than the standard daylight one.)
I also need to make art for enemies and items.
There should be SOME text in each room. If not a joke then something where the player is glad they entered the room. "Good writing," or an argument in the party or an observation or something. So that takes a little time.
This brings us to quests. There's 10 character classes in the game, but you can't have two of anything. So I need to write at least six solutions to a puzzle or quest to ensure that the party can use one of them. I need to populate the game with a plot, interesting antagonists, allies and the like.
But with the classes, I am essentially giving these 8 classes cool things to do since they don't cast spells. I do want the Chemist to be able to make different kinds of prescription drugs that do different things. I do want the street magician to be able to cut a person in two and do card tricks and so forth.
When all of that is done, I need to go through the entire game and edit the writing.
When that is done, I need to go through the entire game and play it myself looking for bugs.
When that is done, I need to find testers, set them off at different levels and fix the bugs they find.
When all of that is done, I need to give the writing one more draft.
But even more than that - tonight I had a problem because I couldn't figure out why some thugs weren't responding to questions. I think it is unlikely that other mediums have these technical brick walls, but making games have them. A few hundred people made the last Bethesda game. I'm one dude doing all of this, essentially.