CRPG development article by Leon Boyarsky of Troika

[Saint_Proverbius]

We have our second <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=19">second editorial/article</a> from <b>Leon Boyarsky</b>, the man behind the ending to <a href="http://www.interplay.com/fallout">Fallout</a>, as well as having worked on <a href="http://www.arcanum1.com">Arcanum</a>. Here's a sample:

<blockquote>The hardest thing to accomplish when creating an RPG is to make an in-depth RPG that sells. Now I know all you purists out there think that what's important is the quality of the game and not how much it sells, but try finding a new contract when your last game sells less than 400,000 units. The ultimate challenge for an RPG developer is to find some kind of hook that will convince the marketing dept at your prospective publisher that this really isn't a "hardcore RPG" they're going to have to sell, it's an action RPG! (My skin is already crawling.) So not only do you, as an RPG designer, have to create a compelling RPG (which is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult genres to do right) you also have to find a way to sell it as something else - or, at the very least, an RPG hybrid of some sort. But never state it's a hardcore RPG to the marketing people - it tends to give them seizures.</blockquote>

Well, this should cause a stir.

Thanks, <b>Leon</b>!

 

[Rosh]

Repost from DAC, sort of:

There's many factors that led to Fallout not selling well. It's known pretty widespread, had dismal advertising, and was easily pirated.

Hell, even Baldur's Garbage sold pretty well, but take a look at the #1 complaint about it. It's dry and boring, and pretty much only one way to play through it, making a good cry for an expansion pack.

The real trick to do is make a game that accomodates different playstyles and allows the people to play those different styles, go back and explore more about the game...and then go try to do this on other games. Games like Thief brought a whole new aspect to the FPS genre, and the hardcore CRPGs could appeal a bit more to the hack and slashers, by providing a bit of gameplay that could be brute-forced through. Take a look at Fallout, for example. It brought in a good number of people who otherwise wouldn't be around what you would call hardcore CRPGers, even before FOT brought in the clannies.

I believe that a hardcore CRPG could do well, if it's marketed as being for wide audiences, but in regards to allowing numerous balanced playstyles. The trick happens to be with how well it's made, and how approachable it is. Fallout certainly has a good mix of combat and other non-cerebral interaction that it isn't too intimidating for your average D&D rodent or other computer game players, but still has enough there that can draw them in to try other playstyles.

 

[Briosafreak]

What action rpg`s sold a million in a week besides Diablo?
He forgot that...

What he is saying is that one can pick a good CRPG and market it as a shitty action click fest, and sell a lot. If the marketing departments on pc games companies had some good people working on that, it could catch up. But we all now the marketing genius we have to deal on a daily basis...

Still, if i had idols, Boyarsky would be one of them

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Does this means that details about the other game will leak soon ? :D :wink:

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

What action rpg`s sold a million in a week besides Diablo?
He forgot that...

Yeah, that's the funny thing about it. Most of them tank and tank hard. Nox, Throne of Darkness, Darkstone, Revenant, etc. have all bombed on the shelves.

Apparently the only action CRPGs that really make the money are the ones from Blizzard, BioWare, and Black Isle.. And Black Isle's basically been piggy backing on BioWare's left overs, as is the case with IWD2.

And when you think about it, outside of the BIS fanboy forums, how many people were clammoring for a sequel to IWD? It's nearly impossible for a news site to post any news about IWD2 or Lionheart without someone, or many someones, bitching that it's not Fallout 3 even on the general news sites.

In addition to that, Fallout and Arcanum were both warezed to hell. Fallout 2 was, as well, but it was also fucking buggy as shit. They're not going to have the numbers because of that.

Fallout and Fallout 2 had no copy protection. I've mentioned this numerous times. As long as you knew someone that bought the game, you didn't have to download it if you wanted to warez it. All you need to do is install it on your computer and pass it around. 700MB wasn't even a lot back in 1997, so you know that occured quite a bit.

Arcanum was heavily warez because Sierra was extremely stupid in delaying the release for localization even though the warez version was leaked a full two plus months before the localization efforts were going to be completed. When you have an eagerly anticipated game, like Arcanum was, and it's available for free to anyone that downloads it 2.5 months before release, it's going to get warezed a lot.

You couldn't go a day in #arcanum without having a warezer popping in with some question. #arcanum is also on GAMESNET, no less, which isn't even a server with warez channels. I seriously doubt the majority of those people did the "right thing" and bought the game when it hit shelves either.

Another thing to note is that most of the successful "action" CRPGs have tried to have some hardcore elements, such as Morrowind and Deus Ex, even though Deus Ex did it poorly. NWN has a speech skill as well. So, it would seem that, other than Diablo, the "action" CRPGs without any hardcore elements are the ones that tend to bomb the most.

 

[Reorant]

I totally agree with this article. People don't buy hardcore RPG any more. It just seems that a lot of voices in the forums cry "We want Fallout 3!!!". There are not so many of them. Even if there are 10 000 of them game will not be succesful. Game will be even less succesful if you put the price of the game sky high. What is better: have 5$ from 1 000 000 copies or 20 from 100 000 copies??? Only true hardcore fans will buy Fallout3 for a 100$ - and there aren't a lot of them (their numbers reduce as time passes). And Diablo III will be baught by more than a 5 000 000 peoples. Simple games are much more profitable right now and game development is not an art - it is business.
Moreover, Fallout 2 was released a long time ago. Gamers were different at that time, now they want more casual games and pays well for them (Diablo II and Sims are the examples). Compare ElderScrolls II and III. Daggerfall and Morrowind. Morrowind is prettier, but Daggerfall is much more deeper. Its RPG system a far more interesting, world is larger. And what is more important - you have a lot of options in Daggerfall and small degree of that options in Morrowind...
Now people much more amused by a good story and pretty visual than by freedom of actions, non-linear dialogs or reactivity of the world. All hardcore gamers try to drown their sorrow by playing MMORPGs, that have some illusory freedom, or replay their all-time favorites over and over again.
Sad times have come to the RPG genre...