Castle Paradox

Shadowiii · **It's been real.** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 2460

And music! Can't forget music!
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But enough talk, have at you!

Uncommon · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 10:32 am Post subject:

Well, music helps, but it isn't completely necessary, as Eld says in his post, if you read it...

Friend · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 235 Location: California

Here are what I think are the components of a game: atmosphere and gameplay. Both of them are equal in importance. If you have just the gameplay part right, then what you have is comparable to Pac-Man, Galaga, or tetris. Not that they're bad games, by the way, but the objectives and goals are weak. In a sense, they feel just like toys. That being said, if you want your games to be these types of games, there's nothing wrong with it. There are RPGs that focuses on gameplay more than anything else and I think that's fine, I had lots of fun playing them... but they could be better.

The second component is somewhat harder to explain. To me, the writing, audio, and visual work together to create a sense of atmosphere. All games have a sense of atmosphere; some has weaker atmosphere than the others. Yes, even tetris has one despite the absence of writing (I think russian folk songs really help establish the feel/atmosphere of the game...) For example, let's take a look at Metroid. If you ignore the manual, the game is absent of story. Yet, Metroid is one of the most atmospheric game ever created for the NES console. The graphics are stylistically unique despite being utilitarian. And of course the music, I think they're just awesome and conform to the graphical style of the game. I'm not saying saying that storyline is not important of course, I just think that audio and visual should be as important as the writing portion of a game. If you ignore one part of it then you're crippling a portion of the game's atmosphere. Mario and Sonic games have minimal story/storytelling... but the game has awesome atmosphere/gameplay. The same goes for Metroid 1, Civilizations, Sim City, Zelda 1-2, etc.

In any case, here's my diagram:

Atmosphere:
-Writing
-Audio
-Visual

Gameplay:
-Balance
-Gimmick: The feature(s) that make a game unique for its genre or features that make a genre unique. For example, the radio in Silent Hill or the stealth and CODEC in Metal Gear.

Atmosphere + gameplay:
-Pacing: The flow of the game

PS: I think it also doesn't hurt to read non-RPG game design documents. I'd recommend Craft of Adventure by Graham Nelson. It's mostly a design document for a text adventure game, but you can apply most of the principles to RPG games.

Friend,
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"I am Collins. From my position in the moon's orbit, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land and walk on the surface. I was so close to the ground of the moon, and yet I returned without having trod upon it... I am Collins." -Friend

Iblis · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:11 pm Post subject:

I love Galaga. That's one of my favorite arcade games.
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Uncommon · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:45 pm Post subject:

I suppose that's true, Friend. Atmsophere really is what keeps you in a game... Eternal Darkness (only good game for Gamecube), for instance, had a gimmick that affected both gameplay and atmosphere: the sanity meter. When sanoty went up, things got generally creepy, and your character eventually started to hallucinate. That was the greatest thing about the game.

RPGrealm5 · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:59 am Post subject:

I too agree, with you.
Another thing to consider is how important gameplay really is. We've all played pong in one form or another. Even to this day it still is the same despite graphical, audio, and musical differences. Compex gameplay works, but sometimes its simplistic gameplay that people seek. But you so rarely find it...
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madhatter · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:24 am Post subject:

Heh, I actually had an original pong machine. Don't ask me why. I have lots of useless junk. Unfortunately, I sold the pong machine for five bucks.

To make this post not entirely spam, I agree with Friend.

Uncommon · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2003 2:44 pm Post subject:

You know, now that I think about it...

The best music placement decision in FF7 was putting Aeris' Theme in the battle with Jenova-LIFE. It just makes that battle so much sadder. I almost cried the first time I played that part...

jabbercat · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:02 am Post subject:

anouther piece of advice is to allow the player to play an evil guy .(try playing D&D ans a gnoll)
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Uncommon · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 8:25 am Post subject:

Yeah! I'm wanting to do that in WGMD. THe final battle would be weird, though...

RPGrealm5 · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:01 am Post subject:

I actually did that in one of my first games using the OHR. The final battle was wierd, because you had to make a final decision on whether you want to fight for good or evil.
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Gyu, Doh!

Hyperdrmr · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 3:14 pm Post subject:

In my opinion i think that the ohr should create better musical capabilitys because if you think about some of the great games have great soundtracks which keeps your subconsious self interested. For example, you cant really express a point of suspense with text and graphics as well as you could with a dark or powerfull ambient music, Bam and MIDI cant really do that
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Uncommon · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 3:16 pm Post subject:

Sure it can, you're just not trying hard enough. Some of the guys around here are really good at that stuff, actually.

Hyperdrmr · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 3:43 pm Post subject:

but you have to admit it would be cooler Cool

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"i can see it in her eyes she acts just like a nurse to all the other guys"-Perfect Circle

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