A developer pitches their RPG to you, what do you want to hear about?

[Tavernking]

Aka please help me write my pitch

 

[Darth Roxor]

how does it compare to ELEX?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Low level mobs of the eight legged variety.

 

[Citizen]

Start laughing maniacally as soon as they mention it's an RPG then kick them out

 

[Disciple]

What is the setting? Is it single character (plus maybe companions) or does it feature a party? What about the perspective: top-down 2D, isometric, first person, etc? What kind of combat does it have: real time, turn based, or RTwP? Will it implement/adapt an existing ruleset?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Easy.
Do you have a working demo?

 

[Tavernking]

Easy.
Do you have a working demo?

You think just release a demo upfront? Shouldn't you build some interest before that point?

 

[new fucking guy]

does it have coop, funny writing and shit armor mechanics? people love this stuff

 

[Wunderbar]

There was a planescape torment pitch written by MCA lying somewhere. He tried to sell his game to publishers by talking about girls with big boobs.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Easy.
Do you have a working demo?

You think just release a demo upfront? Shouldn't you build some interest before that point?

I've read thousands of game ideas and barely any of them ever amount to anything. Show me a working product and I'll start caring.

 

[JarlFrank]

"I want to make the type of RPG I personally enjoy, where I can get invested in the development and excited about the direction the game is going into. No market research, no catering to certain target audiences, I just wanna make a badass game that stands out in the marketplace rather than blending in with the crowd."

Ok you have my money. Create your masterpiece.

 

[Sykar]

What every game needs:

 

[Lilura]

"I've read Lilura's blog, and agree with everything written in it."

 

[J1M]

What is the setting? Is it single character (plus maybe companions) or does it feature a party? What about the perspective: top-down 2D, isometric, first person, etc? What kind of combat does it have: real time, turn based, or RTwP? Will it implement/adapt an existing ruleset?

Also, is the party comprised of stupid mandatory companions with opinions, or can I create a custom party?

Does it have one well-designed difficulty setting, or do I need to invest several hours of my time to do the game designer's job by finding the closest approximation from the available options?

 

[Viata]

"I want to make the type of RPG I personally enjoy, where I can get invested in the development and excited about the direction the game is going into. No market research, no catering to certain target audiences, I just wanna make a badass game that stands out in the marketplace rather than blending in with the crowd."

Ok you have my money. Create your masterpiece.

Then goes on to make Underworld Ascendant.

 

[Absinthe]

Let's see:

• A meaningful system of character creation and advancement with depth and variety in its offerings.
• Non-linear level design.
• Choice and consequence. The game should react to who you are (like background), what you are (ie. class, race, gender), and what you do, without just being idle lip service.
• If the game features a stealth-based class (like the rogue), it should feature actual stealth routes and content that makes sneaking a useful approach, along with rewarding people for sneaking instead of just killing everything. Don't do the WoW-like invisible rogue who has to kill everything anyway.
• No auto-map or quest marker reliance. It's a crutch for bad level and mission design. Who needs reasonable level design, landmarks, and proper mission debriefing when you can just auto-pilot people like idiots instead. The game should be fully playable without them, even if you intend to use those features.
• If you have classes, they should have meaningful niches from a gameplay perspective. If the mages are like magical archers that double as artillery and a basket of utility options while the rogues are just mundane archers without good utility or artillery options (This is what Dragon Age does), we have a problem. There should be a reason to prefer a rogue in your party over a mage depending on what you're doing, and that should extend beyond lockpicking random chests for shitty loot.
• Meaningful resource management. Items like health potions should be a resource to be managed carefully rather than a tool to heal up endlessly in and out of every fight. Players should be incentivized to consider how they're approaching through combat and how to make it through with minimal resource loss if you're going to do trash mob encounters. Otherwise health potions become brainlessly abused and trash mobs are just wastes of time since they don't even have value in challenging the player as a form of attrition because the party will be in optimal fighting state at all times anyway.
  
• Sensible looting and item design. Don't have spiders randomly drop swords and health potions, and try to make it so that different gear types all have meaningful reasons to be better for certain builds or situations. Also, try to avoid creating pure trash loot which serves absolutely no purpose other than to be vendored for a select amount of coins later, unless you are attempting to create logistical challenges for carrying loot versus carrying utility items and thus reward players for making combat more difficult on themselves.
  
• Good combat encounter design. It's fine to start off easy and ramp up the pressure or give players incentives for taking on more difficult combat challenges so they can ease into the difficulty and play more flexibly at the difficulty level that suits them, but don't make combat with health sponge enemies where you fire endlessly and pretend it's "fun." Combat should be challenging and rewarding. If your primary gameplay is combat and yet you reduce combat into a chore and mindless button mashing, get the hell out.
• Character stats should all be variously useful. Don't make a health stat which everyone ignores because max hitpoints rise significantly every level anyway and there is an excess of convenient healing in and out of combat. Don't make a stat that handles everything (like Dragon Age: Origin's magic stat for mages, which boosts their damage, their magical defenses, their heals, and even their health and mana potions or the same game's dexterity stat for fighters and rogues, which gives them damage, attack, and evasion, thus making extreme dexterity builds impervious to mundane combat while still remaining highly potent attackers, and with the right gear and dwarf race they can achieve 100% spell resistance too). Min-maxing should be an option, but it should be an option where you weigh your trade-offs, not just an automatic "this is the best way to go to break the game in half."

There's more but these should be a decent start.

 

[RNGsus]

Romance. Story. Dialogue Wheels. Everything a true rpg needs to win in today's world.

 

[Harthwain]

Easy.
Do you have a working demo?

You think just release a demo upfront? Shouldn't you build some interest before that point?

Good practice would be having a proof of concept at least. The idea alone often fails when put into practice (or requires serious reworking).

 

[Lilura]

Also, is the party comprised of stupid mandatory companions with opinions, or can I create a custom party?

Full party creation can be good (Icewind Dale), but companions with principles, beliefs and opinions is superior if done well. See Jagged Alliance 2, which is the ultimate party-based RPG.

 

[J1M]

Also, is the party comprised of stupid mandatory companions with opinions, or can I create a custom party?

Full party creation can be good (Icewind Dale), but companions with principles, beliefs and opinions is superior if done well. See Jagged Alliance 2, which is the ultimate party-based RPG.

I want full control over class and talent selection. It is a game, not a therapist simulator.

 

[Lilura]

It is a game, not a therapist simulator.

Did you just call the greatest tactical RPG - indeed, the GOAT RPG - "a therapist simulator"?

 

[Tweed]

Are people of color and non binary genders represented?

 

[toro]

Don't believe his lies

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Also, is the party comprised of stupid mandatory companions with opinions, or can I create a custom party?

Full party creation can be good (Icewind Dale), but companions with principles, beliefs and opinions is superior if done well. See Jagged Alliance 2, which is the ultimate party-based RPG.

Reminder that ja2 isn't an RPG