Survival-horror RPG

[ortucis]

WIP.

I am actually mixing random genres (eg. adventure game element like Syberia/Gray Matter), sort of throwing them together inside a mixer and hoping something eatplayable comes out.

Scares in this game are.. different. Don't expect "scary triggers" similar to games like FEAR accompanied by a loud noise to attract your attention. I am trying out something new in this department. Anyways, the whole thing is inspired primarily from movies like Blair Witch, The Descent, The Hills have eyes.. which means I get to throw in pretty fucked up backgrounds for the dead and the living (which you will witness LIVE thanks to the protagonist being a Hindu priest with an eye implant... details/reasons provided in-game of course).


Anyone here interested in coming up with ideas about what should and shouldn't be in horror-rpg's? Googling usually leads me to forums posts and sites discussing top CONSOLE horror games or why console gamers thing Dead Space, BioShock and Resident Evil 4 are the best horror games EVER.


PS: This game started its life as a isometric turn-based open-world RPG..



PPS: If I ever finish this game and it flops, I will start making Bejewelled clones. Just saying..

 

[Crooked Bee]

PPS: If I ever finish this game and it flops, I will start making Bejewelled clones.

But that would go against Jeff Vogel's wisdom. How dare you even think about it!

 

[hanssolo]

Doesn't sound like much of an rpg, honestly.

 

[Phelot]

YOu might want to check out Frictional Games for info on how to do horror. They made the Penumbra series and Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Basically, I would say the key to horror in games is to keep the player in control and avoid cutscenes that force the player to lose said control, or that allow the player freedom, but an inability to effect his surroundings.

That is, say an evil meanie bursts through the door at you. In many cases this would be a cutscene that the player has no control over. In other cases, the player may have control, can fire his gun at the meanie, but finds that nothing happens and the meanie inevitably roars and then runs off...

Lame.

As for survival horror, I suppose it's key is to keep items scarce and make management of items a top priority. Nothing ruins the point of survival like swimming in food and ammo. I'd say the main point to the genre is that you don't have enough health/time/ammo to kill every enemy.

Anyways, good luck in your game

EDIT: Yeah, actually this doesn't actually sound like an RPG

 

[ortucis]

YOu might want to check out Frictional Games for info on how to do horror. They made the Penumbra series and Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

I do know about them (I actually emailed them about engine use in third party game when first penumbra was released) but I am not really a fan of their type of scares (again, it's pretty typical setup they are following as well most of the time). Anyway, in the end my game has you shooting at canibals and mercs (not ghosts) so it includes a lot of combat in some missions/tasks.

Basically, I would say the key to horror in games is to keep the player in control and avoid cutscenes that force the player to lose said control, or that allow the player freedom, but an inability to effect his surroundings.

Agreed. Except for some intros or some action scenes where you cannot possibly have control (like the visuals of horrific violence upon victims haunting specific locations) player will always be in control. There are still triggered moments but you can actually affect them (hard to explain without video).

Anyways, good luck in your game

EDIT: Yeah, actually this doesn't actually sound like an RPG

Hmm I think I should've just mentioned at start that clearly the key ingredients:

- You take missions/tasks from villagers/camps surrounding the city (part of it)

- Game is open world (streaming levels like Oblivion) so you can go anywhere, explore and similar to Gothic, accomplish quests without actually initiating them from quest givers. You have a PDA which sends and recieve emails/messages which you use to update the quest givers as well (unlike Stalker, when you complete a objective, you simply inform the person).

- Your inventory is actually just Quake 2/Duke Nukem style weaponry you are carrying. You can throw or upgrade all weapons. Exchange them (barter system for everything in the world) or store at your house.

- You cannot magically upgrade your character stats. What you WILL upgrade is the armor jackets, weaponry (guns to grenades) and use some "illegal" substances to give you temp boost (like stamina or endurance.. which is useful when bleeding).

- You can actually kill every person you meet. As long as you are happy living alone in a world full of canibals and ghosts. Anyways, your decisions do change a lot in the world, like helping the local authorities setup proper defenses (you provide items and tools) which in turn will actually remove many quests where game requires the villagers to be in constant danger (like canibals kidnapping kids.. it won't happen if you help the village be more secure). So every decision has consequences like this.

- I am toying with Borderlands like random weapon system. At least the enemy placement, type of loot in various places is random.



It isn't perfect but anyway, even if all this doesn't make it a RPG, I would welcome suggestions on making it like one. I am interested more in choices and consequences examples in a world infected with hauntings, canibals and mercs (no not like STALKER).

 

[Quilty]

Doesn't sound like much of an rpg, honestly.

You're playing a role, dude.

 

[Crooked Bee]

So this is a FPS with stats. What stats are there? Since it's a FPS, I assume it's centred on player skill, not character skill? What do your stats influence, then?

Your character doesn't magically grow in strength every level... SO basically, your equipment is upgraded, not you.

Are there skill trees? Skill checks? Perks? Non-combat skills? If there are skills, are they stats-dependent?

 

[Lord Rocket]

This sounds interesting. Please tell me you've implemented a decent portion of this stuff and aren't just farting around with level design though.

 

[lisac2k]

I wish I could help you. If there is a talent in the world I miss, it is creating horrors in games. I can't do it, at least not en masse. Being honest with yourself is the first step you should take if you're about to reach the other side.

But I do have questions! Do you work alone? What tools do you use? Is this the first public presentation of your work, is there any other info (website, external profile)? Speak, man, speak already!

 

[ortucis]

Honestly, I posted here to get more ideas on setting up RPG elements for game like this from RPG pros here. Though I guess I should post more details later on after I am done with characters and world (I design the characters around the world and setting they live in).

Are there skill trees? Skill checks? Perks? Non-combat skills? If there are skills, are they stats-dependent?

I have been going around poking through skills/abilities done in DeusEx to Fallout for this. Passive skills which enable player to use different weapons, higher level tech/research skills which allow better upgrades and recovery of higher quality parts during scavenging. Non combat skills like stealth (which is actually easy to implement similar to Thief from my perspective), medical/science/herbalism which allow you to use and create higher quality/powerful medicine (poison antitodes, morphine, etc.) or temp boost items.



Anyways, I don't think it is really much of a RPG for you guys (or very interesting one) so it won't interest you much . I'll go back to working on the game now.


@Crooked Bee
Thanks for those questions btw. Got me thinking outside the box (seriously, I am the only one working on it and you kinda get lost in the graphics and forget the actual RPG stuff ).

 

[asper]

This project sounds waaaayyy too ambitous.

 

[ortucis]

I wish I could help you. If there is a talent in the world I miss, it is creating horrors in games. I can't do it, at least not en masse. Being honest with yourself is the first step you should take if you're about to reach the other side.

But I do have questions! Do you work alone? What tools do you use? Is this the first public presentation of your work, is there any other info (website, external profile)? Speak, man, speak already!

Heh, you posted while I was ranting..

I am just interested in a horror RPG that plays like a tactical shooter similar to Rainbow Six (not Vegas) and SWAT games for PC audience. Don't really expect it to be the OMGBESTHINGEVER but just a world where player's actions will change the world and characters mentally and even physically. I tried this already in my Wc3 RPG campaigns and maps to some success (though weather effects and AI affecting the gameplay was really fun).

Working alone? Yes. Tools? Mix of commercial and freeware with game using UDK. Was using Unity before, dumped it in favor of UDK since I have previously modded for DeusEx and SWAT4. I knew the UnrealEd good enough to concentrate on coding and modelling only (instead of fighting with the editor like in Unity..).

First presentation? Yup, just wanted some RPG ideas from Codex gurus. As for website, tis here.

This project sounds waaaayyy too ambitous.

It is. Ambitious is good. I don't think I will add EVERYTHING I am planning in the end but enough to keep it fun and different from the competition in Indie RPG market.

 

[hanssolo]

Hmm I think I should've just mentioned at start that clearly the key ingredients:

- You take missions/tasks from villagers/camps surrounding the city (part of it)

- Game is open world (streaming levels like Oblivion) so you can go anywhere, explore and similar to Gothic, accomplish quests without actually initiating them from quest givers. You have a PDA which sends and recieve emails/messages which you use to update the quest givers as well (unlike Stalker, when you complete a objective, you simply inform the person).

- Your inventory is actually just Quake 2/Duke Nukem style weaponry you are carrying. You can throw or upgrade all weapons. Exchange them (barter system for everything in the world) or store at your house.

- You cannot magically upgrade your character stats. What you WILL upgrade is the armor jackets, weaponry (guns to grenades) and use some "illegal" substances to give you temp boost (like stamina or endurance.. which is useful when bleeding).

- You can actually kill every person you meet. As long as you are happy living alone in a world full of canibals and ghosts. Anyways, your decisions do change a lot in the world, like helping the local authorities setup proper defenses (you provide items and tools) which in turn will actually remove many quests where game requires the villagers to be in constant danger (like canibals kidnapping kids.. it won't happen if you help the village be more secure). So every decision has consequences like this.

- I am toying with Borderlands like random weapon system. At least the enemy placement, type of loot in various places is random.

To reiterate, this doesn't sound like an RPG. At all.

Drop any pretense of applying "RPG elements" to your game and just focus on the adventure/shooter that you've described. It's a good format for survival-horror, it's been pretty well proven to work well.

How do you plan to deal with equipment bloat? Will there be significant drawbacks to upgrades? Will there be increasingly more powerful enemies, and if so, will encountering enemies that were threatening at the start of the game still be possible? It ruins a lot of a survival-horror games atmosphere to be able to BFG 9000 the creatures that you desperately tried to avoid initially.

 

[ortucis]

Yeah the more I work on it the more it seems to be better suited for action-adventure genre. I am going to rework the design doc and see what I can add and what I can remove as far as "RPG" part of game is concerned.

Anyways, I will work on this more and keep implementing ideas that work together. Probably won't be a pure RPG I wanted it to be in the end, oh well.

 

[DarkSign]

Gotta love the crushing spirit of the Codex.

 

[Unradscorpion]

Gotta love the crushing spirit of the Codex.

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Unfortunately indie games are too frail not to be killed.

 

[ortucis]

Gotta love the crushing spirit of the Codex.

This thread has actually helped me focus more on the little things I was ignoring (probably turn it into Codex favorites like Mass Effect.. only with low budget romances ). Honestly, some consider games like Mass Effect 2 a RPG and some just a shooter, I am sure whenever the hell in this life I release my project, someone will find it RPG enough.


On project rambling (last time, I promise)..

The level design is taking up a lot of time (the reason why I didn't show much of what I am talking about above), mostly cause there are about 32 houses in the city at the moment and each floor is explorable with every house setup to the tell the story of the residents/victims/hauntings/etc. It's a lot of work playing interior decorator of a giant ass "Sim City" with no locked doors (actually, there are but you can get around them or through them with the right equipment (read = C2).

Joy.


Also, Glock, shamelessly porting it from my Doom3 mod (and yes, there is no bullet counter in-game, you have to take clip out and see how many bullets you are left with.. or just memorize it I guess)..

 

[Rpg fanatic]

WIP.

I am actually mixing random genres (eg. adventure game element like Syberia/Gray Matter), sort of throwing them together inside a mixer and hoping something eatplayable comes out.

Scares in this game are.. different. Don't expect "scary triggers" similar to games like FEAR accompanied by a loud noise to attract your attention. I am trying out something new in this department. Anyways, the whole thing is inspired primarily from movies like Blair Witch, The Descent, The Hills have eyes.. which means I get to throw in pretty fucked up backgrounds for the dead and the living (which you will witness LIVE thanks to the protagonist being a Hindu priest with an eye implant... details/reasons provided in-game of course).


Anyone here interested in coming up with ideas about what should and shouldn't be in horror-rpg's? Googling usually leads me to forums posts and sites discussing top CONSOLE horror games or why console gamers thing Dead Space, BioShock and Resident Evil 4 are the best horror games EVER.


I'm working on an rpg that has survival horror sci fi mixed in.

Its one where you are a young military recruit and on your first day an entire planet goes under attack and you don't know why and almost everybody is dead and you are mortified by it and start running away from it.

I'm trying to get the player to feel what the character feels to add a depth to both the causer to this destruction and the character so you sympathize.

My inspiration:resident evil silent hill parasite eve and final fantasy series and ultima series.

I wanted to make it also so the actual cause is directed to someone and you are afraid with the character to make you feel like you are the character.