If you could make a video game...
 

What would it include? What would make it unique from other games?

I've always wanted to see an RPG where the villain's path to world domination (or whatever he's trying to do) is on a timer. The player can't see the timer, but they can tell how close the villain is getting from changes in the environment and different NPC dialogues. The player has three options:

1) try to end the game early by anticipating where the villain will be at a given point and heading there to defeat them--although most likely, this will end in their own defeat if their team isn't powerful enough!

2) set the villain's timer back by heading to places she or he is currently attacking and preventing his or her victory; this course would make the game more like a typical RPG. If you manage to set the villain back far enough, you'll have ample time for sidequests.

3) forget the villain, do the sidequests, and bask in the glory of the world ending. No, really. Video games need more glorified "game overs".

I think it'd also be great for the players besides the main character to be able to make their own decisions. For example, if your team learns that an ally's clan is under attack, and you don't go to the rescue, he'll leave in a huff and try to help his family (and possibly get killed).

I have no clue how you would write code for a game like this, but I think it would add some realism to RPGs and be lots of fun.

When you said "glorified game overs" I thought of Koudelka. You had the option for one of two endings, and that game over...hehe. I wonder how many people bought that game, never got Koudelka's pendant, and thought that was the game's true ending? Back when the game first came out, I mean, and there were no guides.

As for the timer idea, I do like that idea.

I also like the idea of villians being less godlike and super. Or rather, the team isn't fighting one great big evil, but perhaps smaller disasters, or even fighting themselves. Any game that uses the psyche as part of the storyline seems kind of cool.

Doesn't help that I've played a game where the antagonist and protagonist are the same person (in a very twisted way to the point that he never realized it). That was something amazing to see in a video game, something I'd never seen before (and if it has been done before, then I haven't seen it, and it likely wouldn't be in the same way).

I'd also like to see more mature games that aren't just obviously M because they can be. Most M-rated games that aren't in your face mature are horror. ^^; I'd like to see a little more sexuality in my characters without them being stereotypes. :P Something that shows that my characters aren't eunichs!

Unless, you know, they want to be. x_X

I could say so much more on this topic, but I've said a lot already and I'd have to think on it more. Those are just finer points of what I'd like to see. I don't mind one major villian and save the world themes, but I'd also like other options.

If I ever made a game, it'd probably do a lot of things that people see often in games. Some factors people may even groan about, but for my personal tastes, and it being my game...I'll do what I want.

Oh, and character affection. As complex as this would be to add, I'd want my characters to interact with each other frequently. Many people hate this addition, but I would like to see a character up and leave the party after having a disagreement with another member...and not because it's part of the story. Simply because of built up tension over the course of time, and the risk is run with all party members...

That way, you could filter out characters you dislike, and gain party members you do. I would love to have had that option with Magna Carta: Tears of Blood. I never liked Justina or Haren, characters I might have liked if they didn't fall into stereotypes, if I could have know them better. XD

Yeah, I've always found heroes with split personalities fascinating. I'm not sure why that is.

Koudelka's ending is what made me coin the phrase "glorified game over". I know there are a few other games where you can see unique scenes for game overs, but Koudelka was the first one I saw it used in--and I loved that ending. It was like "hahahaha, that's probably how it would end in reality, too."

Character affection--yes! That was part of the idea of having each character have their own will. The characters would all have default relationships with each other, but the player could act one way towards a character, affecting their behavior, and affecting that character's relationships with the rest of the party.

Or, in other words: if you're repeatedly butting heads with a strong-minded character, they might decide that you suck and they should be leader. All of the sudden you get into battles and you're finding that while most of your characters still listen to you, the characters who have high affection to that character are now listening to him instead.

Have fun managing that party--if you've been a big enough jerk, you might find out that the other allies are totally out of hand and you'll have to suck up to get back on their good side. XD

That's true, I haven't played many multi-players, but it's always more charged when you have two or more players. Everyone's excitement builds on each others'.

I'm one of those people who probably would have managed Koudelka's Game Over ending if not for glancing at a walkthrough during disc 2 of the game and noting I had to get the pendant.

Oh, and about the split personalities...that's not why the main character was both the good and the bad guy. XD It took the use of a certain object and his own memories. o.O;

Character affection is a big deal for me. I've seen it in a lot of games but overall, I don't see it done well, or it's not quite the way I want to see it. I'm happy when it's introduced for the most part, though my personal opinion is that it made Magna Carta: Tears of Blood far too hard. Maybe my experience with that put character affection in a bad light, as when you said something to one character, it might make them like you but another character hate you, and they might hate your gifts to them and get pissed off...which would make sense, EXCEPT that it if they didn't have perfect LOVE and WORSHIP of your main character, your leadership gauge went down, and therefore you had less turns in battle.

The battles in MC: ToB were hard enough without that. D: Enemies rarely respawn, so you can't stick to an area and level up either. So you can't just balance it out with the power of one character. T_T

.hack//GU and many Tales of games seem to do it well, and I don't really notice it in Star Ocean either.

If I made my own game, I think I'd be undecided about a battle system. I'm not sure what kind of battle system I would want to use, but I'm more of an action person. However, I know that I'd want respawning enemies, and characters may not cooperate but at least it wouldn't affect how often the entire party gets to have turns. Of course, I'm not really into turns anyway, so I doubt that would make a big difference.

Mind you, I love turn based games, I'm not bashing them. But if I made my own game, I highly doubt I'd used a turn based battle system.

I purposely threw away my pendant (without saving, of course) when I saw the note about the game over on an internet walkthrough; I was too curious to pass it up.

I know the EXP system I want, but I'm not so sure about the battle system. Like, I want the character's actions to be directly related to what they gain experience in: use magic a lot, you get lots of experience for magic, run from battles and you'll go up in speed (although your allies might start thinking you're a pansy). That way, you get to choose what your character becomes good at.

On the other hand, it is true that some people are simply made to do certain things and not others. So maybe that bulky brawler takes less EXP to increase his power, but a ton to increase his speed. You can still turn him into a sprinter if you're determined to. But it'll be a challenge.

Ooh! I remember you did mention the use of an object in Magna Carta. I'm just not really sure how it worked. I was also thinking of Yuri from Shadow Hearts and Fei from Xenogears--their "other halves" aren't the main villain, but definitely one of the big bads.

I don't really like the affection system in Star Ocean, actually. It just doesn't seem...really important. Dunno.

I only noticed the affection system to get the Fayt x Albel ending for my game...which I'm not sure if I've actually suceeded. XD

I really like that idea - that a character's body type might handle something more and they improve in time with things that take more phsyical effort or whatever, and that certain actions lead to more experience in a certain attribute.

It'd be complicated to create in a game, but...we're always changing the way games are, so I think eventually it'll be possible to accomplish. :)

Just very...time consuming and high-budget.

Yeah; I'm trying to think of a plot that's flexible enough to let the characters do what they want, have an extremely flexible experience system, and yet not require years on years on years just to make the game.

What I'm thinking is you'd probably have to pare down the number of allies: it might be a 5-character party, tops. And the plot would have to be somewhat simple--that is, a first-time player, if they're intelligent and dedicated enough, might be able to figure out where the villain is going and what he's doing in an hour, and have him beaten within three. Complications and a longer game would arise from the player anticipating wrongly or handling allies incorrectly. But I'm not sure how that would work as a game...hm.

Well short games with the options to make them longer aren't necessarily a bad thing. You could make a lot of sidequests that make the game longer, but...you'd want it where they do affect what the boss is doing?

I don't know. D:

I personally love really lengthy games, provided that the length is due to my loving it enough to put time and effort into the story, the battles (level grinding), and sidequests. I like that balance. I mean, I usually play a game for at least a hundred hours, if not more, most of the time. Some games don't demand that, and that's fine with me, but I do like a game that makes me want to participate in it a lot.

I like complex games, with decent character development. I'd also like to see less of the "watch the hero mature from an jerk to this sweet person who values his friends!" I want to see more jerks that stay jerks, honestly, or have the option to be jerks. XD

I like games that I can beat within roughly 40 hours if I want to--and if I want to play for longer, they can stretch out for another 20 or 30 hours with sidequests.

Honestly, when it gets past that, it's like "what am I doing still playing this game?" I started having that feeling with FF XII, and that was only a little over 80 hours.

I like spending time on a game, but I spend much more of my time with fanfic than the actual game. :lol:

I played Radiata Stories in only about 50 hours, and that's usually a 25-30 hour game. It's really not that difficult to beat, I bet it could be done in only a couple of days or even one if you just...didn't sleep. But in order to recruit decent members, oftentimes you have to recruit others, and so...eventually you spend time on that, unless you're happy with mediocre characters to back you up with. XD

I turned Magna Carta: Tears of Blood into a lengthy game. I'm still unsure how long it actually took me, just that the clock was stopped at 59:59:59 for three days, and since I was unemployed (quit Sutherlands, before I went to LNT), I just played nonstop and took little three-hour naps with the stupid game STILL running while I slept. >>;

I think it probably was about 130 hours of actual gameplay though. Too bad the clock stopped or I could have found out (though I would have turned my PS2 off when I slept to get an accurate play time).

I've done a lot of leveling up and I'm almost 90 hours into FFXII...I don't know how much more I have to go? >>; I think I'm a little over halfway through. I just got out of Draklor Laboratory. ^^; I can't stand putting the time into THAT game though...I don't know why.

I think the biggest issue with FFXII and much of MC was that I didn't have the option for the game to be to much shorter. In order to progress, I have to go forward slowly and level up well along the way, or just walk...jeez. Um, anyway, it wasn't optional and therefore became a pain.

I like the idea that I can finish a game in thirty hours, but with sidequests or something like that, it can be longer. Or, like in Tales of the Abyss, it can be a lengthy game originally, but you can add on hours and hours of other stuff for you to do, some of it small and some of it rather lengthy. :) The Tales of games tend to be rather long, but they go at a satisfactory pace too. A lot of that time is the story...and maybe that makes a difference too.

So taking into account what I like and what I love, I think there are reasonable limits to be made with a story, and then the sidestory, the fun sidequests...putting layers of interesting options that appeal to even people who don't often like to do sidequests would give people more bang for their buck, even those who just play through a game for the story and to get it finished. But for people like me who like to enjoy the sights and spend time in the atmosphere of the game, silly little sidequests would be fun too, and you'll get special treats that at least make that sidequest worth it. :)

Silly little sidequests? Trying to think if I know any sidequest like that...all I can think of right now is the Man Festival. Even though it's kind of long, but it's so...goofy. :lol:

But yeah, developers do have a fine line to walk: make it too long and you'll lose the people who are in it for the plot and accomplishment, make it too short and you'll tick off the people who like just wandering through the world and finding all the little quirks.

Oh man. I think you're nearing the end of FF XII, but still, that's a huge chunk of time. :shock: Good luck finishing that.

I don't know if you've ever tried it, but RPG maker is alot of fun. You cna't do alot with it, but you can make a very simple video game with it. I'm working on one where the story starts with a little girl and her pet cat. they are going shopping for grandma when all of a sudden the girl gets captured by a monster in the forest, and then the cat has to rescue her.

I have tried the rpg makers series, its definitely good for those with out coding knowledge its a good system. theres the rmxp2k which is a free translated version that was translated by hackers (There was never an official version in English released) If thats a problem there is however rpgxp which looks better and allows you to do some scripting using Ruby.

I personally prefer to make games from the ground up because I dislike the limitations, but thats just me :]

I've heard of RPG maker, but since it costs money and I don't think it'll work with my mac, I'm not really interested in getting it.

Also, even when I could use it on my sister's computer, it never really interested me. It just seems kind of limited, forcing you to create a certain kind of video game.

Building your own base sounds interesting. Reminds me of the Suikoden games, where you build your own castle. It'd only make sense if you have a large party (probably 9+ people) or in special circumstances...

Day and night systems would be very interesting if they played a role in the plot.

I haven't played enough Suikoden...in IV you can't do that. T_T

I love day and night systems, as well as the idea of being able to build your own base. Those are great ideas, I hadn't really thought of that. Of course, I'm still thinking on a lot of it, so...there's a lot I haven't covered here that I've thought about in the past.

Day and night doesn't have to play a role in the plot for me, I just like a little difference. I think weather changes are good. That is one thing I really like about FFXII - how the weather will make changes and affect what monsters you have to face. Such as rain bringing out elementals, which actually makes me kind of hate the rain because my gambits are set to a lot of cure spells and of course, that sets off the elementals... >>; I've almost died several times. Flee doesn't work when elementals cast sleep on you! D:

I would be too limited by RPGMaker, and I'm guessing charis started this topic with the idea in mind that you would fantasize what you could do if you could make a game through say...tri-Ace, Softmax, Squeenix...

In other words, make your own game to sell.

Oh, I actually only ever played an hour into Suikoden IV so I wasn't aware that you couldn't have a castle in that one. Oops.

You have a castle in all the other games, though. You can't really control it much, though--it just grows as you recruit more members. I guess a more accurate example of developing a base might be the fairie village in Breath of Fire III (I think it was also in IV and V, but I can't remember well enough to say). You can assign fairies where to work based on their talents and develop new stores and activities that way.

It's true that day and night wouldn't necessarily have to play a role, but it just feels pointless to me without it. Which just goes to show that people's tastes are different, I guess. :) The same thing with weather--it was interesting the first time, but I wouldn't have missed it at all if it wasn't there.

Exactly. Imagine you have the budget of a Final Fantasy game and just think of what you'd do with it. :D

You do get a ship, and an army, but you can only name them, you can't build them. I don't know if you can customize much, other than your own room on the ship...

Weather and time of day seems significant because it's a lot more realistic, especially in games like Oblivion and Radiata Stories. Radiata Stories you can't recruit people except by following their daily schedules. Pretty complex for the time it came out, I think. Like you have to meet Elwen specifically at a certain place, at a certain time, and fight her, to actually get her. ^^;

That's more of what I was thinking. But also, it's nice to enjoy nighttime and dusk or dawn. Not just constant daytime. :)

Yeah that's what I thought you meant. :)

i like games where you can fully custimize a charecter,build a house and choose wheter you want to fight or just live a life in a nice little house.
baisicly the sims but with more custimization optins and the abilaty to attack other players with swords/blasts of fire ect.
and it could have clothing from the final fantasy games,theyre cool.

OH!
and you could have a job such as a farmer(with animals.sorta like harvest moon) or you could be able to connect to the internet wirelessly and fight/build/talk with other players from around the globe!!!
and you could own pets

Yay!!!
:D

Yeah, I think games where you can play both separately and with others are fun. I don't really like MMORPGs usually because you're dependent on other players to progress in the game, but it would be fun to have the chance to play with others.

I really like games like Tales of Symphonia where you can hook up with other players at any time to fight on your party, but you can put them on auto when someone else leaves. Not online, but an actual person with you. ^_^

There aren't enough games for multiplayer...at least not RPGs. :D

I play ToS with my mom and brother. :)

I would like that option for a game, but I'm not sure if it would be a separate idea altogether, or the game idea I have in mind right now. ^^;

Huh. I'm curious, how exactly does that work in Tales of Symphonia? Is the battle system really different from other RPGs?

My game would be purely comical.

The main character would start off, waking up on a beach, not remembering who he was. Then some guy would walk up to him, hand him a wallet, and it'd have EVERY detail of his life in it. It'd have his blood type, social security number, life story.. >__>; EVERYTHING!

Then, he'd decide he wanted to be some big hero, so he told the village he'd go slay some beast or something for them. That's when a paladin in shining armor appears, pushes the main character out of the way, slays the beast, then beats the main character until he passes out, and says that he rescued you from dying. >___>;;;

You'd be the villain in this game, after having that stupid paladin always grab your glory, and the villagers of course beleiving him over you.

The game would parody tons of other games, such as a part in the game where you had a big sword, long silver hair (a wig) and .. well you pretty much look like sephiroth; the sword is so big, that you can't hold it right, and in a battle, you swing and miss the paladin, and accidentally stab his girlfriend through the back, who looks oddly like Aeris.. >__>;; XD

There'd be other parts, where you're the master chief, and things like that.. I think if I managed to avoid getting sued over copywrites, my game would be very successful. XD