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Plot into Dungeons
First, let me just say that I'm making this tutorial for fun while waiting for an hour to pass so that I can to meet a friend for lunch. It's a time killer, not a rulebook to anything. That said, I've been a longtime writer AND video game enthusiast, so my observations have some merit. Take what you want, ignore the rest.
How many times have you been playing a game and suddenly thought "Oh, I'm in a dungeon". And how many times have you been playing a particularly grind-tastic RPG and thought "Crap. I have to wade through 50 turn-based battles before the plot can start to matter again." How many times have you turned the game off because of it? If you're like me, quite a bit. Obviously, as developers the goal is to keep people playing our games, up until the twisting, epic ending. So how do we avoid players stopping partway through our dungeons before they get to the good stuff?
Frankly, it would be easier to explain why are dungeons are so boring. It's because the more boring the dungeon, the more combat emphasized it is, the easier it is for us to make. It's simple to use the 'create a dungeon' feature, add some enemy types and combat at 30 steps average and be done. But we also all know that those dungeons are INCREDIBLY tedious to play. I'm willing, on average, to sit through one grind fest per game. More than one, and I'm done with it.
Now, there's one obvious solution to this. Spend more time on your dungeons. Add puzzles, spicier self crafted mapping, ect. However, I'm not an event crafter, so that's not what this tutorial is about.
The less obvious solution is to integrate storytelling into the dungeons. A prime example is "Eternal Eden", the first RPG Maker game I ever played. It's purchasable for $10 dollars or something like that, and I figured that I if I wanted to make a game, I should see how someone that was PAID did it. And frankly, the dungeons in the game were a mess. They were way too long, they were frustrating, combat was repetitive, and you were 'encouraged' to kill every enemy in every dungeon, so there was a LOT of it.
However, I kept playing. Why? Because the game was good at integrating plot into the dungeons. How so? Here it as, as I've observed:
1. Plot points were broken up into little plot 'checkpoints':
Every once in a while, as you progressed, the characters would have conversations that would progress the plot, develop characters, or expose various side quests. It made me feel like things were HAPPENING. No longer was the dungeon a massive, gelatinous cube of grind. Now it was a bunch of little gelatinous cubes of grind. But I was more willing to take the smaller bites than I was willing to swallow an hour of game play lengthening tripe up front. Now, in no way am I encouraging gameplay lengthening tactics, but the fact is that the occasional important mid-dungeon dialogue made Eternal Eden a better game overall.
2. Players always had a good reason to be there:
Why did the knight go into the dungeon? Why did the chicken cross the road. To get to the other side. NOTHING is more frustrating than realizing there is ABSOLUTELY no reason for the dungeon in front of you. The occasional 'cave' or 'tunnel' or 'bridge' that acts like a dungeon is simply death. In Eternal Eden you always had an important reason to be there, and an important reason to be there NOW. It made the dungeon feel less like an injustice forced upon the player and more like a valid plot point.
3. Real Rewards at the end:
Players are more willing to work towards a goal if the goal is something physical. For example, who here has played the Paper Mario series? At the end of every chapter you get a new, fun little attack. Eventually you find that you're going through the various challenges of the game to get your new skills just as much as to progress the fun storyline. Granted Paper Mario is an EXCELLENT example of well designed RPG dungeons. They're fun, creative and non-repetative, but even if they weren't the new skills add to the experience because you are no longer simply rewarding the characters for completing the dungeon, you're rewarding the PLAYER for completing it. Dangle a carrot at the end, and if the carrot is juicy enough players won't be thinking about the dungeon, they'll be thinking about the carrot.
4. The illusion of choice:
Everyone who has ever known a 5 year old child knows that people don't like being told what to do. Eventually, you realize that the way to guide children is to offer choice. Do you want to eat oatmeal, or Pancakes? Suddenly they don't care that they're not eating candy for breakfast because they have a say in the ultimate decision. Similarly, nothing is more frustrating for players than being told "this is what you HAVE to do next, you have no choice". Eternal Eden knew this, and as such had an "open" world and "minigames" to partake in. Frankly, they were both complete lies. The game was so linear it was practically a freaking rail-shooter, and the minigame was 'monster hunting', which was essentially more dungeon crawling. However, before I discovered this fact, I was less sullen as I was boomeranged from dungeon to dungeon because I thought 'I can take a break if I want to'. I felt like I HAD A SAY IN WHAT I DID NEXT. Nothing is wrong with linearity, in dungeons or games. Linearity has strengths just like openness does, but ultimately, people just don't like feeling trapped. Always offer an alternative, even if it's a crappy 'turtle catching' game.
Well, there it is, my first tutorial. I have to go, like RIGHT NOW, so I don't have time to check for typos. Sorry! And watch out for "After"! Demo comes out within two weeks (hopefully)!
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Details
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Tutorial:
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Plot into Dungeons |
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Date Listed:
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Tue, 18 May 2010 11:48:22 -0400 |
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Author:
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KD648
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Total Hits:
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1557 |
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