Game Development Giant

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This time the pause was short, just a few seconds. ,

Jester began to write on the paper again: Actually, I think that the inability to play s\\l games is the guarantee for the success of this game. Only by allowing players to make choices at every step You have to think carefully before making a decision, and then make a decision without regrets. Only in this way can players become addicted to repeated games...

There is not much written in this paragraph. Jester simply wrote about his experience of trying out this game.

Then I started to write about the third characteristic of Berlin’s definition.

Actually, the third feature is closely related to the second feature mentioned before. It can even be said that this is an extension of the second feature to a certain extent - the irreversibility of the game cannot be reloaded through Ways to redeem your choices, characters, or everything else.

In most roguelike games, each character has only one life. The death of a character means that the player will lose that character forever. Whether you are the protagonist, an enemy, an item or a scene. Even in the eyes of many roguelike players, the greatest charm of roguelike is One of them is to experience every different death and failure, and try your best to be yourself at the moment.

In fact, this is also an interpretation of what Jester just wrote about his personal thoughts on the second defining characteristic of Berlin.

The fourth feature is that the game is non-linear.

Strict yet flexible game rules give roguelike a high degree of freedom. In the game, players can use their imagination and use various means to achieve whatever they want to do, whether it is common sense or incredible, The purpose is just to solve the problems they have in the game.

After writing this feature, Jester did not pause, because he felt that he had no supplementary point of view on this feature. This feature has been explained very clearly, nonlinearity, in another word, is the degree of freedom, and Degree of freedom is also a development direction for all games in the future.

Of course, it is not ruled out that some game companies do not like plots with too much freedom.

Because they always want to be in control of everything.

Can't say who is right or wrong. However, it can be seen from the global sales of GTA5 of nearly 50 million across all platforms that future players will love games with a real high degree of freedom that other types of games cannot match.

The fifth characteristic is the simplicity of the picture.

Rogue, the originator of roguelike games, is generally considered to be one of the first adventure games with a graphical interface. Although this 'graphical interface' is too abstract. However, many roguelike games will directly use ASCII characters out of tribute to rogue. To represent the game screen, it has led to the fact that the protagonists of many games have the same name——.

Of course. I won't do that, but it's unrealistic to make the graphics gorgeous now, and the original game graphics of Runestone Guardian are the style of pixel games of this era. Both in terms of style and gameplay The above, in this era, does not seem too advanced, nor is it too difficult to accept. In other words, it is difficult to complete.

Then there is the last characteristic among the six characteristics defined by Berlin.

It is also the most important feature that determines the success of this game. To be precise, it must be to a certain extent. Make flexible changes to this feature.

“One of the defining characteristics of Berlin at the end is the complexity of the system.”

Because this type of game was born from tabletop adventure games, it can even be said that they are the ancestors of dndpc games. Therefore, the complexity of setting the rules and systems is a huge obstacle to this type of game. Play a little, this is not a shortcoming for those players who really like this type of game, but there are too few such players, compared to the vast majority of players, who can accept such a complex system For players, these people can basically be ignored.

Many people always say that complexity allows more people to immerse themselves and play.

Actually, this is complete nonsense.

Whether it's DND's high-level games, such as Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment, these games have really high ratings and really good reputations. All those who can continue to play them will praise them. These games are masterpieces, but how many people have played them?

Another example is Magic: The Gathering. In the end, if we want to promote the card game, shouldn't we rely on the brainless Hearthstone that these Magic players talk about?

Just like what Nintendo thinks when designing games, the first important thing about a game is that it is simple, interesting and fun, the second important thing is that it is simple, interesting and fun, and the third important thing is that it is simple, interesting and fun. As for whether it has depth, that is the current Let’s face what comes after completing the three most important things. If you can do it in depth, do it in depth. If you can’t do it in depth, don’t do it.”

Jester felt that there was a lot more to say, but it was obviously inappropriate to write it all on such a piece of wisdom about how to design Runestone Guardian, so he stopped writing and continued to explain what Berlin had just defined. The last point continues above.

The rogue itself is far more complex than any other game of the same period.

Roguelike games may include an immeasurable number of elements in one game, such as geology, climate and biological distribution, as well as a combat system as detailed as skin, muscles, blood, bones and fat. Even after the battle damage is healed, Leaving scars and sequelae. In some games, it may include hundreds of causes of death, thousands of creatures, and tens of thousands of items. It can be said that except for roguelike games, there is no traditional game that can be owned regardless of cost. So many elements.”

After listing all these six points, Jester put them aside. This was a reference when he redesigned, but it was not a guideline that must be achieved.

He pulled out another piece of paper. \u003ce project was initiated with the initial goal of creating a game for moderate gamers. It mixes old-school roguelike with simple operations, and puts resource management and coordinated combat at the core of the game. And combine other things to make a game that is as simple and clear as possible, rich in content, easy to get started and explore the internal mechanics of the game.

In fact, there are many old-school designs in the game. For example, there are many special trap dungeons in the game. They referred to the level feel function in angband. They used the surrounding environment and art resources to remind players that this level of dungeon is very Specially, there are 4 stores outside that are similar to angband at first; others include some short stories mixed with DND flavor, as well as monsters and monsters' matching affix attributes, skill names, etc. Many old gamers are familiar with it.

And it's not just that.

In order to take care of new and old players, it provides a story mode that is easy for modern players to accept, and also provides two endless modes and abyss modes for challenge and core orientation.

In Jester's view, both the endless mode and the abyss mode came from the ladder construction idea proposed by Blizzard in the Diablo series, especially after the emergence of Battle.net, in order to allow players to repeat the game. Of course, a certain degree of understanding and modification is also inevitable.

resource.

Jester changed another piece of paper, at the beginning of this paper. I wrote these two words.

A game, especially an RPG game, even though it has been transformed into an RPG game, is still an RPG game. In this type of game, the most indispensable thing is resources.

What about resources in the game?

simplest. Bi Rui said that money can be used to purchase supplies, medicines or equipment.

However, the role of resources in the game is not just that.

And what are the resources in the game Runestone Guardian? Jester carefully wrote on the paper based on his memory.

The resources included in the Runestone Guardian include soul, experience and magic, as well as an equipment system and a god belief system. These resources all revolve around a core: exploration. Exploration can obtain souls, find props and monsters, and also There are some auxiliary mechanisms on the ground, and most of the player's magic comes from the magic-carrying monsters on the map. This design is not particularly common.

But because the core of the rune stones is as mentioned above, it is quite successful when combined in this way. If the player needs to use props, then most of the soul comes from exploring, and a small part comes from killing monsters. Killing monsters can provide enough More experience allows players to level up. When leveling up, all the player's statuses are restored, which is a very important gameplay.

In conjunction with the Heart of Life discovered through exploration, and the setting that the upper limit of the Heart of Life will be increased when the Heart of Life is full, players will have more fun when making decisions. Props with different effects can be used in combination according to different situations in the dungeon. It is also to improve players’ fun and efficiency in the game.”

At this point, Jester stopped writing. He felt that he had almost finished writing.

In fact, when designing the game Rune Stone Guardian, there is no need to waste so much effort, because it is just a small game anyway.

The reason Jester did this.

It's because this random setting is closely related to the birth of a game he said before.

This game is Diablo. (A great pie-in-the-sky event, a cool mobile phone is waiting for you! Follow it~ Click on the official account (add friends on WeChat - add official account - enter dd) and participate now! Everyone will win a prize, follow dd WeChat now Public account!) (To be continued...)