I've been brainstorming a lot of game concepts lately, and I decided to try and sit down to design an RPG. As anyone can tell you, the story is king in an RPG, but in recent times the tales are still fairly cliched. One of the biggest offenders, I decided, were not the effeminate/androgynous heroes, nor the evil empires hell-bent on conquering the world, but amnesia. How many games have you played where a character, usually the player, is conveniently lacking in memory? So, here is my response, and the storyline of The Aisenma... ******************************************************************************** We cannot forgive ourselves so easily. However simple it is for us to let go of past grudges against other people, we will always hate the one in the mirror. I heard of the legendary river long ago, in some wretched old tavern. A river that removes the curse of memory, forever erasing it from existence. A river that washes away sins in a flood, drowning sorrows and losses in its wake. A river named the Aisenma. That bloody tavern. I was likely drunk at the time, but another group was in search of finding the golden stream, and I insisted on joining them. So, here I am, on this dusty caravan in the middle of God-knows-where, looking for something that may not even be real. And so all four of us pitiful souls wander, looking for what is our last hope. ******************************************************************************* Pretty emo-ish, I know, but the main character's meant to be that way- another RPG cliche. :P As you can guess, the gameplay is likely turn-based, and even more likely it will be 2D in the classic Final Fantasy style. I'm pulling a lot of influence from FF 7, even though I didn't even make it out of Midgar (I kept throwing the controller against the wall in frustration), so there will probably be some steampunk involved as well. But please tell me: What do you think of the concept? Is a black-comedy RPG something that interests you?

I think the bottleneck of the design lies in the gameplay (the gameplay has to be designed to not get in the way of the story). Whether this concept translates well into a game depends on the gameplay mode available to the player.

At this point, I think that FF7 style graphics is a turn off. I am 30% positive that such graphics would work for the game.

Overall, without much info on the story or implementation, I think your concept has 60% to be a good design. What this means is that your concept will work by default, assuming that you exert a normal amount of effort. There is nothing you need to fix in order to make it work.

EDIT:

Another thing that I am uncertain is the genre of black-comedy. It could undermine the story, because in your intro, you didn't integrate the vision of black-comedy. So I don't know whether you can successfully write black comedy. If you cannot incorporate it in your first two paragraphs, perhaps you can't maintain it in the story. I am skeptical about this, so I am thinking that your concept will fail at this moment. I am afraid that you would try to introduce comedy in the story that leaves the story confused or forced.

I think your concept has a success rate of 37%. My biggest concern now is what you meant by black comedy and how you would put that in the story. If you did not mention comedy, the design would work by default. If you could put in the comedy I think your design worths 60% confidence. It is still unclear how the gameplay won't get in the way of the story and vice versa.

[Edited by - Wai on September 19, 2007 7:39:33 PM]

@Wai

Please show sources for all of your statistics [lol]

Parody is something that is very difficult to get right... how confident are you that you can make something that is really, genuinely funny to other people besides just yourself?

If you're a good enough writer you can certainly make the story/humor work. However the other thing you have to consider is that the gameplay has to be engaging enough to keep a player moving forward to the next punchline. It sounds like you don't yet have a clear idea of how the game will play, and I really wouldn't recommend just making a "standard" 2D FF clone and hoping it will ride on it's story. Find ways to turn the standard RPG cliches on their ear. Take the things that you find ridiculous about standard RPGs, pick a few of these, and improve on these aspects while poking fun at the goofy limitations we've accepted for so many years. Do this not only in the story, but in the interactivity as well. How exactly does a group of nobodies become strong enough to kill a God in less than a week simply by going into the wilderness and killing hundreds of animals?

Attention to detail and subtlety will help keep your game from falling into the Pit of Forgotten Geek Humor (TM).

The genre is black comedy

I didn't have sources but this was what I thought based on what was given:

Story: 30% (I was sketical that the story would be a good black comedy)
Gameplay: 30% (I was sketical about the game play)
Arts: 50% (I was sketical about the sounds and musics, I think graphics are fine)

overall: 37%

If I multiplied the % instead, I would get 4.5% success rate, which didn't feel informative, so I took the average. If the story is perfect (with respect to the genre), then the overall would be 60%. I could imagine the musics for an epic story, a dark story, or a comedic story, but I don't know what musics would go well with a black-comedy.

@JBourrie
(I know you weren't serious)

Quote: Original post by Wai
...but I don't know what musics would go well with a black-comedy.

Lil' Jon

...

*ducks*


I wouldn't worry too much about music right now... not until there's a solid game concept. But I would hope that you could find a musician talented enough to do a humorous take on the standard RPG fare as well... Earthbound for the SNES did a great job with making bizarre but wonderful RPG music and I'd suggest looking at it for inspiration, not only on music but on all aspects of making an offbeat humorous RPG.

As for the music, wouldn't something in the Gypsy Sound category work? It's a little dark and can be humorous, but the music isn't something to worry about right now. I liked what i read and i can see the dark humour in it, once the concept s more planned out and you get further into the game, i say it has potential...

Ack! Too many percentages! The math, the math...

Looking back on the intro, I realize that wasn't comedic at all. In regards to gameplay, I absolutely HATE the traditional turn-based style, so it would likely be real-time, a la Sword of Mana or similar games. For graphics, well... I personally would prefer old-school 2D design, but that's probably just because I've been playing Cave Story (wicked game!). I actually had some ideas about the player encountering a slime civilization, eventually defending them against some would-be level grinders. I even considered the idea of making one of these slimes a companion afterward (although you could kill him for Exp. :P). Of course there will also be an evil corporation involved, so plenty of comedic opportunities there- "The Evil, Inc. tour will begin in approximately three minutes. Please stay with your proper tour guide; our agents are all very similar, so please take note of the number on their chest..." Just some ideas to throw out there....