Job Creator
Arcane
It's obviously not going at all, this seemed pretty clear since the beginning
-
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The Conception (Working Title)
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ran88dom99
Novice
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Look up indie db 's engine list and you woth have to do any coding at all. Proto in Game Maker maybe.
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Ah, I haven't peeked at this topic in a long time. Never expected to get more posts.
Anyways, it's going well but slowly. I've set coding and such aside in favor of ironing out the writing first. I'd rather not spoil much at the moment, but the setting is going to be something akin to dark ages post-apocalyptic. If such a thing exists.
Anyways, it's going well but slowly. I've set coding and such aside in favor of ironing out the writing first. I'd rather not spoil much at the moment, but the setting is going to be something akin to dark ages post-apocalyptic. If such a thing exists.
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Thanks for the advice, ran88. However, I would rather develop an engine myself from the ground up, as A) I'm a control freak and B) pretty much all commercially available engines are designed for 2d and 3d games, and this is a text-based adventure.
Teepo, I may take you up on that once I turn my attention to developing music.
Job Creator, thanks for the vote of confidence.
Teepo, I may take you up on that once I turn my attention to developing music.
Job Creator, thanks for the vote of confidence.
ran88dom99
Novice
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No im sure i saw a OS text engine.
Azrael the cat
Arcane
You might want to rethink the title. Every time I see it, terms like 'anal sex: EPIC FAIL' and 'condom strikes for 98 chance againt conception' comes to mind.
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So, recently I've been thinking about combat. Now, a lot of RPGs have pretty limp-dicked combat. It's just not entertaining. There's nothing to it beyond clicking the attack button constantly or casting spells and so on. The idea behind that is that combat is abstracted in the interest of making the game easier to play and more fun.
But it also means that it is impossible to use real tactics in those kinds of situations. HP is one of the largest offenders as far as that goes. Health is almost always abstracted in order to simplify the game's mechanics.
But what if it wasn't?
Humans are extremely fragile creatures, and a single solid strike with any effective weapon is almost a guaranteed kill.
That doesn't sound like it would make for fun combat. It's too fast-paced and unforgiving. It would mean that if a single ordinary peasant got lucky just once, they could kill the player right then and there. That seems scary. Hellish, even. If that's possible then what happens to difficulty? It would skyrocket, of course. Because if even the lowliest enemies can kill you, regardless of how far you progress into the game, then... it's realistic in a bad way, isn't it? It's not conductive to fun. It's not fun. It's really not.
Well, fuck that. Fun or not, if you want to see actual tactics come into play, on both the player and the enemy's sides, then you'd better get over how easy it is to die in the real world. For every party involved in a fight. It goes both ways, of course.
So I've more or less decided to eschew the use of an abstracted health system, and instead use a very down-to-earth one instead. Here's a rough approximation of how I think it should work:
Wounds and injuries will be ranked by how threatening they are to one's life.
Flesh wounds will have very little effect on your abilities. They will have very little odds of being infected without proper care, and the worst they can do is temporarily, slightly reduce your physical stamina in a fight. There is no risk of dangerous blood loss from one. They'll heal quickly, of course. Cuts, scrapes, bruises, etc. would all fall under this category.
Injuries will have a significant but not world-ending effect on your abilities. They will rarely become infected, but they will definitely make one far less capable of accomplishing tasks or fighting. A sprained ankle would make it hard to move in a fight, or hard to climb up something or swim or really do anything physical. They can usually be recovered from without any long term effects if given proper treatment and not caused to worsen through too much activity. Things like pulled muscles, sprained muscles, dislocated limbs, cracked bones, and mild concussions would fall under this category.
Serious wounds will have a big effect on your abilities. Depending on the type of wound or injury, it could have wildly different effects. A broken arm would not risk harmful blood loss but it would cause a massive decrease in all abilities due to pain and losing the use of an arm. A deep gash in your gut would risk both deadly blood loss and deadly infection if not treated properly in a timely manner, on top of the risk of it damaging an internal organ. All serious wounds would dramatically reduce one's physical stamina in a fight, which would in turn make one more or less incapable of fighting effectively, and have many potential long term complications. Most untrained and inexperienced human enemies who receive a serious wound will immediately reconsider fighting and probably surrender if there's any hope for survival. Wild animals will flee if at all possible. And if they do not give up, their fighting ability would be so impaired that even an untrained soldier could easily put them down. To put it simply, to receive a serious wound in a battle is enough to end it, unless one has the strength and motivation to continue fighting, which would be quite rare amongst humans. And all of these would have serious long-term ramifications on a person. Broken bones, gashes, heavy concussions, etc. would all fall under this category.
Mortal wounds are wounds so terrible that they instantly kill a normal person. The effects are all the same: inevitable death, either immediately or quite soon. Having your ribs crushed into and puncturing your lungs is one example. Having your spine broken is another good example. Or getting cleaved in half. Or losing an arm or a leg. Or just being hit in the head hard enough will do it. Direct heart damage. Disembowelment. All of them involve critical, irreparable damage to a vital system of the human body. The odds of survival are zilch unless you have immediate and advanced treatment. There is a high risk of virtually every complication that can happen to an injury. If losing your foot doesn't kill you, the gangrene will, later. No matter how tough or willful someone is, a mortal wound will kill them. The only difference is how long it takes. For someone to continue fighting while mortally wounded, they would have to be a true hero or... not human at all.
You can accumulate wounds through combat or from accidents during strenuous physical activities, like climbing or lifting things. You could also get them from falling from a high place. Regardless of where they come from, unless they're just flesh wounds, they will have serious effects on your character and also your adventure. One's capability of surviving and healing from wounds will obviously be a function of their endurance stat.
How does a non-abstracted health system encourage advanced tactics in fights? It means that, in order to not die like a bitch from that punk kid with a knife who just stabbed you to steal your cheese, you have to think. And approach combat situations rationally and cleverly. And more importantly, avoid combat at all costs, due to how risky it is.
Rather than charging into the dungeon full of orcs and goblins and their evil wizard master, when a single bad wound can kill you or otherwise fully incapacitate you, you'd better fucking think about how you're going to do it with minimal risk to your own health.
All of a sudden, charisma stops being everyone's dump stat and starts being essential to survival. Funny how that works.
But it also means that it is impossible to use real tactics in those kinds of situations. HP is one of the largest offenders as far as that goes. Health is almost always abstracted in order to simplify the game's mechanics.
But what if it wasn't?
Humans are extremely fragile creatures, and a single solid strike with any effective weapon is almost a guaranteed kill.
That doesn't sound like it would make for fun combat. It's too fast-paced and unforgiving. It would mean that if a single ordinary peasant got lucky just once, they could kill the player right then and there. That seems scary. Hellish, even. If that's possible then what happens to difficulty? It would skyrocket, of course. Because if even the lowliest enemies can kill you, regardless of how far you progress into the game, then... it's realistic in a bad way, isn't it? It's not conductive to fun. It's not fun. It's really not.
Well, fuck that. Fun or not, if you want to see actual tactics come into play, on both the player and the enemy's sides, then you'd better get over how easy it is to die in the real world. For every party involved in a fight. It goes both ways, of course.
So I've more or less decided to eschew the use of an abstracted health system, and instead use a very down-to-earth one instead. Here's a rough approximation of how I think it should work:
Wounds and injuries will be ranked by how threatening they are to one's life.
Flesh wounds will have very little effect on your abilities. They will have very little odds of being infected without proper care, and the worst they can do is temporarily, slightly reduce your physical stamina in a fight. There is no risk of dangerous blood loss from one. They'll heal quickly, of course. Cuts, scrapes, bruises, etc. would all fall under this category.
Injuries will have a significant but not world-ending effect on your abilities. They will rarely become infected, but they will definitely make one far less capable of accomplishing tasks or fighting. A sprained ankle would make it hard to move in a fight, or hard to climb up something or swim or really do anything physical. They can usually be recovered from without any long term effects if given proper treatment and not caused to worsen through too much activity. Things like pulled muscles, sprained muscles, dislocated limbs, cracked bones, and mild concussions would fall under this category.
Serious wounds will have a big effect on your abilities. Depending on the type of wound or injury, it could have wildly different effects. A broken arm would not risk harmful blood loss but it would cause a massive decrease in all abilities due to pain and losing the use of an arm. A deep gash in your gut would risk both deadly blood loss and deadly infection if not treated properly in a timely manner, on top of the risk of it damaging an internal organ. All serious wounds would dramatically reduce one's physical stamina in a fight, which would in turn make one more or less incapable of fighting effectively, and have many potential long term complications. Most untrained and inexperienced human enemies who receive a serious wound will immediately reconsider fighting and probably surrender if there's any hope for survival. Wild animals will flee if at all possible. And if they do not give up, their fighting ability would be so impaired that even an untrained soldier could easily put them down. To put it simply, to receive a serious wound in a battle is enough to end it, unless one has the strength and motivation to continue fighting, which would be quite rare amongst humans. And all of these would have serious long-term ramifications on a person. Broken bones, gashes, heavy concussions, etc. would all fall under this category.
Mortal wounds are wounds so terrible that they instantly kill a normal person. The effects are all the same: inevitable death, either immediately or quite soon. Having your ribs crushed into and puncturing your lungs is one example. Having your spine broken is another good example. Or getting cleaved in half. Or losing an arm or a leg. Or just being hit in the head hard enough will do it. Direct heart damage. Disembowelment. All of them involve critical, irreparable damage to a vital system of the human body. The odds of survival are zilch unless you have immediate and advanced treatment. There is a high risk of virtually every complication that can happen to an injury. If losing your foot doesn't kill you, the gangrene will, later. No matter how tough or willful someone is, a mortal wound will kill them. The only difference is how long it takes. For someone to continue fighting while mortally wounded, they would have to be a true hero or... not human at all.
You can accumulate wounds through combat or from accidents during strenuous physical activities, like climbing or lifting things. You could also get them from falling from a high place. Regardless of where they come from, unless they're just flesh wounds, they will have serious effects on your character and also your adventure. One's capability of surviving and healing from wounds will obviously be a function of their endurance stat.
How does a non-abstracted health system encourage advanced tactics in fights? It means that, in order to not die like a bitch from that punk kid with a knife who just stabbed you to steal your cheese, you have to think. And approach combat situations rationally and cleverly. And more importantly, avoid combat at all costs, due to how risky it is.
Rather than charging into the dungeon full of orcs and goblins and their evil wizard master, when a single bad wound can kill you or otherwise fully incapacitate you, you'd better fucking think about how you're going to do it with minimal risk to your own health.
All of a sudden, charisma stops being everyone's dump stat and starts being essential to survival. Funny how that works.
SCO
Arcane
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You could make something very different:
Think about a 'party' doing 'quests' but with a army structure. Your leveling would be very low, about 1-6 or so. Max power would be very limited, and people would be dying all the time anyway.
Sorta like XCOM or Cannon Fodder but in the 'realms' as in, not mission based, where you'd have to get back to your 'army' for reinforcements/reports/orders/rewards.
Think about a 'party' doing 'quests' but with a army structure. Your leveling would be very low, about 1-6 or so. Max power would be very limited, and people would be dying all the time anyway.
Sorta like XCOM or Cannon Fodder but in the 'realms' as in, not mission based, where you'd have to get back to your 'army' for reinforcements/reports/orders/rewards.
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Interesting. So basically Fantasy Mercenary Army Simulator 2013? I'll try to keep it in mind as I continue to iron out the mechanics.
Congrats on continuing to plug away at this.
The standard RPG HP abstraction has always bothered me, too. Good luck on coming up with something better that's just as fun.
Thank you for the support, I know I haven't made much obvious progress but I'm not done here by any means. It's just slow going with one guy to do everything...
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Hm. Stage two of making RPG combat nitty-gritty is probably...
Experience and skill and basic stats, and how they relate to combat.
Usually you have experience acting as some kind of magical font of amazing power and abilities that makes commoners into strong, hardy heroes and geeky bespectacled losers into reality-bending archmages.
In reality, all experience does is help you keep calm about a situation, along with increasing your efficiency and effectiveness in combat by way of practice. Experience won't give you new powers or new skills, it's just how well-tested your mettle is in the heat of combat. It also will allow you to sometimes predict what an opponent might do based on their behavior cross-referenced with your prior experiences. It's not the end-all be-all for anyone. But it can help a great deal.
Skill, on the other hand, is something that you have to spend a long time building in order to see the benefits. Training oneself to proficiency with a blade means, when the shitstorm of real combat arrives, you just might instinctively and reflexively perform a feint before you go for the lunge to stab your enemy, which, if properly done, might mean the difference between life and death. It's all about working routines into your muscles, so that you can use them at will later on, when you are a bit too caught up in the stress of the situation to think.
Base physical abilities are the most important aspect of a warrior when the shit hits the fan, usually. Skill and experience can allow you to utilize much more of your physical abilities in a fight, but you can't utilize what's not there in the first place. Usually, it all comes down to who is the stronger dude in a scrap.
So, what does this mean if we apply these concepts to an RPG combat system?
It means that experience should be a slow-building quantity that increases a bit every fight you have, which greatly decreases the risk of panic in combat, as well as slightly boosting every other roll. It won't ever give you a new magic spell or sword technique, but the difference between a grizzled veteran and a green recruit would be plain as day.
Skill should be a quantity that does not increase in combat, but through dedicated practice and training over a long period of time. Skill should govern the kinds of moves and techniques you know, like if you know how to apply a chokehold and asphyxiate someone without killing them or if you know how to wield a sword by the blade as a makeshift bludgeoning weapon. Skill would determine how easy it is to get past someone's guard, or how easy it is to disarm someone. The difference between a master swordsman and a young squire would be plain as day.
Physical abilities should act as the raw material that skill and experience multiply. I'm not totally sure what kind of algorithm should be used for the relationship yet, but I think some kind of percentage for skill and experience would work fine.
All of this means, of course, that there would be no such thing as levels, for better or for worse. Again, I realize that this is the opposite of fun, trying to be too realistic is just boring.
Experience and skill and basic stats, and how they relate to combat.
Usually you have experience acting as some kind of magical font of amazing power and abilities that makes commoners into strong, hardy heroes and geeky bespectacled losers into reality-bending archmages.
In reality, all experience does is help you keep calm about a situation, along with increasing your efficiency and effectiveness in combat by way of practice. Experience won't give you new powers or new skills, it's just how well-tested your mettle is in the heat of combat. It also will allow you to sometimes predict what an opponent might do based on their behavior cross-referenced with your prior experiences. It's not the end-all be-all for anyone. But it can help a great deal.
Skill, on the other hand, is something that you have to spend a long time building in order to see the benefits. Training oneself to proficiency with a blade means, when the shitstorm of real combat arrives, you just might instinctively and reflexively perform a feint before you go for the lunge to stab your enemy, which, if properly done, might mean the difference between life and death. It's all about working routines into your muscles, so that you can use them at will later on, when you are a bit too caught up in the stress of the situation to think.
Base physical abilities are the most important aspect of a warrior when the shit hits the fan, usually. Skill and experience can allow you to utilize much more of your physical abilities in a fight, but you can't utilize what's not there in the first place. Usually, it all comes down to who is the stronger dude in a scrap.
So, what does this mean if we apply these concepts to an RPG combat system?
It means that experience should be a slow-building quantity that increases a bit every fight you have, which greatly decreases the risk of panic in combat, as well as slightly boosting every other roll. It won't ever give you a new magic spell or sword technique, but the difference between a grizzled veteran and a green recruit would be plain as day.
Skill should be a quantity that does not increase in combat, but through dedicated practice and training over a long period of time. Skill should govern the kinds of moves and techniques you know, like if you know how to apply a chokehold and asphyxiate someone without killing them or if you know how to wield a sword by the blade as a makeshift bludgeoning weapon. Skill would determine how easy it is to get past someone's guard, or how easy it is to disarm someone. The difference between a master swordsman and a young squire would be plain as day.
Physical abilities should act as the raw material that skill and experience multiply. I'm not totally sure what kind of algorithm should be used for the relationship yet, but I think some kind of percentage for skill and experience would work fine.
All of this means, of course, that there would be no such thing as levels, for better or for worse. Again, I realize that this is the opposite of fun, trying to be too realistic is just boring.
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Only when it's dark, of course.
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On the topic of weaponry:
Swords are, perhaps, the absolute most symbolic single item in all of fantasy. Everyone who's anyone uses a sword, usually enchanted, bar none. Swords are almost synonymous with heroism. Weapons like spears and axes are relegated to weapons that only side-characters and faceless nobodies and big bad enemies use, even though spears are by far the most common and widely used weapon throughout history.
The reality of things? Swords are decent weapons in most of their incarnations, but they just aren't great at any one thing. They are sidearms and symbols of authority amongst nobles, not primary arms. Shields are much more valuable in a fight than a sword, because a shield will save your life. Spears are much more valuable in a fight than a sword, because they have much greater reach (which will save your life). Axes are better at chopping things (but not necessarily better weapons overall, unless they are poleaxes). Bows and arrows are even better, because you can shoot a guy from a distance without risking your neck in a brawl. Crossbows are even better than bows, because they have much more power and can pierce all but the best full plate armor. All of these better weapons? They keep your ass safe, directly or indirectly. Swords don't do that. You can use one to defend against some fools while you're on a horse and wearing plate armor that their pitiful shitty weapons can't pierce, but you'd only bother with that if your lance is broken.
Swords are fine weapons, but depending on the situation you are in, many other weapons are vastly superior.
So, how does one replicate the varied usefulness of different weapons in different situations?
Well, spears are great because they have greater reach than swords and are quite easy to make, cheap to purchase, and very reliable. Any half-skilled spear user would be able to play keep away with a sword or axe user quite easily, by jabbing at their opponents from time to time while backing away to keep the distance even.
How do you represent that in an RPG? Other than simply having an arbitrarily higher defense value for people who use spears (stupid and gay).
Simple. First, you give spears a higher number of arbitrary units of distance of reach than swords have (easy). Then you make it so that "keep away" is a technique that a spear wielder can use against single opponents, which prevents that opponent from moving any closer to you during their turn if they fail an agility/weapon skill check based on how skilled you are with the spear. And if they fail their evasion check for avoiding the defensive jabs as they close in, they get a spearhead to their groin, too. Now, is this fair to people who wield shorter weapons? Hell no. Is it fair in real life? Not at all! Pretty strong argument for using a spear, eh?
Of course, a competent sword or axe user might be able to do something like grab the spear that's being jabbed at them if the enemy is really fucking incompetent or, more likely, use a shield to deflect the spear away and close in for the kill. Not to mention, if there is no room for the spear user to maneuver, then they are going to have a much harder time adjusting for every inch the enemy gains on them. Or the enemy might have a spear, too. Or the enemy might be on a horse, with a lance. Or the enemy might have a bow or a crossbow, in which case your range advantage vanishes. So it's not a perfect defense, and it's not a foolproof strategy. There are a lot of ways to beat it, as with any strategy.
Hence, tactics. You fight a tribal spear user one on one in a deserted town in the middle of the desert, and all you have is a sword and a canteen. How do you close in on them to kill them, without risking the direct approach?
That's the kind of question that I want players to be constantly asking themselves. Not "how many hitpoints will I lose when this guy hits me" or "meh, I'll just mash attack until this loser goes down".
So approximating the real use and strategies behind weapons is mother-fucking-vital to getting the player into that kind of mindset.
Swords are, perhaps, the absolute most symbolic single item in all of fantasy. Everyone who's anyone uses a sword, usually enchanted, bar none. Swords are almost synonymous with heroism. Weapons like spears and axes are relegated to weapons that only side-characters and faceless nobodies and big bad enemies use, even though spears are by far the most common and widely used weapon throughout history.
The reality of things? Swords are decent weapons in most of their incarnations, but they just aren't great at any one thing. They are sidearms and symbols of authority amongst nobles, not primary arms. Shields are much more valuable in a fight than a sword, because a shield will save your life. Spears are much more valuable in a fight than a sword, because they have much greater reach (which will save your life). Axes are better at chopping things (but not necessarily better weapons overall, unless they are poleaxes). Bows and arrows are even better, because you can shoot a guy from a distance without risking your neck in a brawl. Crossbows are even better than bows, because they have much more power and can pierce all but the best full plate armor. All of these better weapons? They keep your ass safe, directly or indirectly. Swords don't do that. You can use one to defend against some fools while you're on a horse and wearing plate armor that their pitiful shitty weapons can't pierce, but you'd only bother with that if your lance is broken.
Swords are fine weapons, but depending on the situation you are in, many other weapons are vastly superior.
So, how does one replicate the varied usefulness of different weapons in different situations?
Well, spears are great because they have greater reach than swords and are quite easy to make, cheap to purchase, and very reliable. Any half-skilled spear user would be able to play keep away with a sword or axe user quite easily, by jabbing at their opponents from time to time while backing away to keep the distance even.
How do you represent that in an RPG? Other than simply having an arbitrarily higher defense value for people who use spears (stupid and gay).
Simple. First, you give spears a higher number of arbitrary units of distance of reach than swords have (easy). Then you make it so that "keep away" is a technique that a spear wielder can use against single opponents, which prevents that opponent from moving any closer to you during their turn if they fail an agility/weapon skill check based on how skilled you are with the spear. And if they fail their evasion check for avoiding the defensive jabs as they close in, they get a spearhead to their groin, too. Now, is this fair to people who wield shorter weapons? Hell no. Is it fair in real life? Not at all! Pretty strong argument for using a spear, eh?
Of course, a competent sword or axe user might be able to do something like grab the spear that's being jabbed at them if the enemy is really fucking incompetent or, more likely, use a shield to deflect the spear away and close in for the kill. Not to mention, if there is no room for the spear user to maneuver, then they are going to have a much harder time adjusting for every inch the enemy gains on them. Or the enemy might have a spear, too. Or the enemy might be on a horse, with a lance. Or the enemy might have a bow or a crossbow, in which case your range advantage vanishes. So it's not a perfect defense, and it's not a foolproof strategy. There are a lot of ways to beat it, as with any strategy.
Hence, tactics. You fight a tribal spear user one on one in a deserted town in the middle of the desert, and all you have is a sword and a canteen. How do you close in on them to kill them, without risking the direct approach?
That's the kind of question that I want players to be constantly asking themselves. Not "how many hitpoints will I lose when this guy hits me" or "meh, I'll just mash attack until this loser goes down".
So approximating the real use and strategies behind weapons is mother-fucking-vital to getting the player into that kind of mindset.
http://inform7.com/
If you want to go text only, this is p. good. It also allows for implementation of graphics and sound.
If you want to go text only, this is p. good. It also allows for implementation of graphics and sound.
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Fuck, fuck fuck! There's so many engines and systems for text-based adventures!
But none of them have the capability to support in-depth combat mechanics!
Ask around in the forums: http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=c85188f3ada564052979f554e7505cf0
The community is quite helpful, and there are some extensions freely available that add functionalities other writers have created. A simple combat system extension already exists, and it should be possible to expand it and make it more complex.
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Welp, I'm balls deep in an .inform file now and things are progressing smoothly except for the fact that THIS SHIT BE WHACK YO, HOLY SHIT THIS IS WORSE THAN LEARNING A NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE!
Nah, it's not that bad. It's just a little infuriating when you get errors that you just plain don't understand, errors that you could easily avoid in other languages. It almost makes you want to MURDERKILLSHITCUNTS.
Anyways, I've decided that I'm going to make a little short text adventure/interactive fiction title before I commit to a long-term project like I envision. This will allow me to explore Inform7, and also test my own capabilities - if I can create something that y'all like, then I know I can move on to bigger and better things and devote more time to it.
I'd like to create some original music to include in this little side project, but even Reason Essentials is waaaaaaaaaay out of my price range. $130!
I wish Garage Band was available on Windows comps. I don't need much, just a music editor that comes with a decent selection of instruments.
This is starting to feel like a blog. So I'll wrap it up by saying FUCKING DOORS HOW DO THEY WORK
Nah, it's not that bad. It's just a little infuriating when you get errors that you just plain don't understand, errors that you could easily avoid in other languages. It almost makes you want to MURDERKILLSHITCUNTS.
Anyways, I've decided that I'm going to make a little short text adventure/interactive fiction title before I commit to a long-term project like I envision. This will allow me to explore Inform7, and also test my own capabilities - if I can create something that y'all like, then I know I can move on to bigger and better things and devote more time to it.
I'd like to create some original music to include in this little side project, but even Reason Essentials is waaaaaaaaaay out of my price range. $130!
I wish Garage Band was available on Windows comps. I don't need much, just a music editor that comes with a decent selection of instruments.
This is starting to feel like a blog. So I'll wrap it up by saying FUCKING DOORS HOW DO THEY WORK
DakaSha
Arcane
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It's still starting small as far as my grandiose visions for all sorts of video games go. But fuck, if I can't make a decent text-based adventure/interactive fiction then good fucking luck getting anything bigger done, right?
DakaSha
Arcane
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It's still starting small as far as my grandiose visions for all sorts of video games go. But fuck, if I can't make a decent text-based adventure/interactive fiction then good fucking luck getting anything bigger done, right?
Well honestly I'm all for jumping into the deep end. That's how i started (not that ill ever finish anything but i technically have the ability to).
I was just loling about turn based rpgs being considered as starting small. That just shows a lack of knowledge.
Text based adventures are something else I would think (never tried it), and i know thats what you are talking about in the OP. I still didnt want to refrain from using one of the best smilies on the dex for the turn based rpg comment.
If you are talking about a text based turn based rpg then it just depends on how complex you want to make it. Not having to pay attention to art assets is GREAT but don't underestimate the difficulty in creating a (fun) turn based rpg, no matter how minimal you are going in the graphics department
good luck in any case. Programming game sis fun even if they do go vaporware
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2008
- Messages
- 2,812
Thanks. This actually is pretty fun.
Making text-based adventures is actually pretty easy if you use the right platform, like Inform. It has a decent manual and a strong community and everything. It's just that, as someone with lots of experience in English and a little experience in programming, I actually can't stand how Inform works because I know how other languages work. Inform is probably a lot more optimized than making an .exe from scratch, though.
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