I’ve created this blog largely as a way to drum up awareness of my latest project. I thought it would be helpful to talk about some of the ideas behind it in a public forum where I could hopefully get some feedback. So this post, and the next couple posts will be largely about that.
First lets talk about some of the ideas that motivated the development of the game. RPGs are awesome, I love how they give you the opportunity to step into an imaginary character’s shoes and live out a life in another world. The only problem is that typically most of your character choices boil down to how you’re going to kill people. Are you going to play a sneaky character that stabs people in the back, or are you an agile character that kills from a distance, or a brute that kills up close and personal? It’s all about killing, which can be fun, honestly.
But I often find that I want to do more than just kill things. This is more or less glaring depending on the game. A game like System Shock 2, I hardly notice the lack of social interaction, because there aren’t any people to interact with and the setting perfectly explains why. Where I really notice it is in Bethesda’s RPGs, Fallout, Oblivion, Morrowind. You’re running around in this incredibly immersing environment, with tons of stuff to do. But after forty hours or so of dungeon exploring, I begin to realize that all of my interactions with humans are either killing or getting instructions on who to kill next. I find that after visiting a merchant for the hundredth time, I wish he would acknowledge it, or when I walk into town in black armor festooned with skulls, I wish people would notice. It begins to feel that the only way you can really interact with the world is with a weapon.
So, what do you do about it? This really isn’t an insignificant challenge, emulating proper reactions for NPCs to player activities is hard. Giving additional ways for the player to interact with NPCs is hard. Providing different non-violent approaches to solving problems is hard. Making it as interesting as combat is hard. Typically any non-violent approaches to problems have to be scripted, which is more expensive and less open than the organic resolution of combat simulation.
So, my hope is to create a game wrapped around a system that allows for non-violent approaches to solving problems, specifically conversational approaches. Next post I’ll talk about the high level overview of the game, and start getting into how I hope to accomplish my lofty goal.