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How to be good rpg developer?

Apostle Hand

Liturgist
Batshit Crazy
Joined
Apr 18, 2018
Messages
1,552
Location
Inferno
I guess you should know few things about computer programming, some things about design...

you should probably have thorough knowledge about rpgs both in practice and theory. all those things like character development, level design, encounter design, gameplay...

you should probably be well read and informed about things and possibly have some knowledge about music.
 

Black Angel

Arcane
Joined
Jun 23, 2016
Messages
2,910
Location
Wonderland
I prefer evil RPG developers.
I prefer Chaotic Neutral RPG developers.

We need an alignment chart to clarify the way devs should be.

Peter Molyneux is chaotic evil surely?
I found two version showing him as Lawful Neutral and Chaotic Neutral respectively:
Wb8UM.jpg
DhiDf.jpg
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,758
Have robust and varied interests and life experiences far removed from all forms of gaming, computer or otherwise.
 

HarveyBirdman

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
1,044
Think about the game you want to make.
Run the idea past people you trust.
Get feedback.
Think about feedback, and adjust your idea of the game you want to make.
Start making game.
Keep getting feedback.
Keep adjusting as necessary.
Become disappointed in the game halfway through.
Start hating the game.
Eventually finish the game.
Never play it once its finished.
 

Martyr

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
1,095
Location
Bavaria
You also should not under any circumstances be a fucking storyfag. No exceptions.

I also noticed to my suprise that I found the writing in some non-story focused games like Wizardry 6 and Temple of Elemental Evil to be far more enjoyable and subjectively better than in most of the top rated story-focused games.
 
Joined
Jan 28, 2015
Messages
891
Location
Canuckistan
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
This is all a red herring. There is no such thing as a good rpg developer. Developers are nothing but vessels to be used by the will of the ur-force that makes good RPGs. A zeitgeist of what is a good RPG if you will. Those who try too hard to harness that force will fail, for the zeitgeist has a mind of its own, it will not be controlled and is fickle. It's best to give into it and ride the wave of success while you can as a developer.
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
A while ago, editorial shared an article from The Digital Antiquarian blog, Part 1 Making Ultima Underworld.

The author narrates the early career of the people that later will form Looking Glass Studios, and their approach on UU development's stage. Anyways, I wanted to highlight a few lines I read in one of the paragraphs in regards of the hired team of developers for UU:

None of these people had ever worked on a commercial computer game before. In fact, most of them hadn’t even played any commercial computer games recently, having been ensconced for the last several years inside the ivory tower of MIT, where the nature of gaming was markedly different, being a culture of creation rather than strictly one of consumption. And yet, far from being a disadvantage, the team’s sheer naivete proved to be the opposite, making them oblivious to the conventional wisdom about what was possible.

Also,
At a time when most studios had begun to systematize the process of game development, dividing their employees into rigid tiers of specialists — programmers, artists, designers, writers — Blue Sky made a virtue of their complete lack of formal organization. It was an org-chart-wielding middle manager’s nightmare; just about everybody wound up doing a little bit of everything. There was nothing like a designer giving instructions to a technical team. Instead, Blue Sky’s method of working was more akin to the way that things got done among the hackers at MIT — a crowd of equals pulling together (and occasionally pulling apart) to work toward a common goal. Anyone could contribute absolutely anywhere, knowing his ideas would be judged only on their intrinsic worth.

When it became clear that it was time to start making the actual dungeon the Underworld player would have to explore, the team divided up this design work in the most democratic manner imaginable: everybody made one level, then they were all combined together to make the eight-level final dungeon. Dan Schmidt, who had officially been hired for the role of “AI programmer,” agreed to take on the mantle of “writer,” which really meant coordinating with everyone to merge the levels into a seamless whole.
 

vota DC

Augur
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
2,258
Start with something your relatives could like. For example main character is your grandmother, you can recruit family members, you fight against your mayor/gang of noisy youngsters/neighbours. You already have all models. After that you have only to try the lottery to make something interesting for strangers. But I guess manufacturing something, even on a very small scale, for people you know is the best exercise.

Peter Molyneux is chaotic evil surely?

He was good. He is undead since more than a decade, so yes he is chaotic evil now.
 

anvi

Prophet
Village Idiot
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,530
Location
Kelethin
Rich dev: release a single character dumbshit action game with a few stats and an inventory and call it an RPG. Release it 8 months too early, so buggy as hell, but everyone buys it anyway because everyone is a graphics whore pleb.

Indie dev: release a broken gimpy old school RPG, release it 8 months too early, because you are poor, and nobody buys it.
 

user

Savant
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
835
Get feedback.

True feedback is important. Had made a small rpg and when my friends played it, they said something about me giving them cancer and they still remember it up to this day. I consider that successful. Aim for something similar.
 

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