Shark Tank<\/em>\u00a0is a TV show where prospective entrepreneurs (fish) pitch their business ideas to industry titans (sharks).\u00a0 After one of these pitches, Kevin (the grumpy Simon type billionaire on the show) asked, \u201cWhich is more important: The idea or the execution?\u201d<\/p>\n Thinking for a minute, the entrepreneur nervously answered \u201cExecution.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRight answer,\u201d said Kevin.\u00a0 And he proceeded to invest in the idea.<\/p>\n I had a solid idea, but I wasn\u2019t so sure about how to\u00a0execute<\/em>\u00a0it.\u00a0 If I want to allow the player true choice, I have to address the cost of choice head on.\u00a0 I found the answer in two places: another TV show . . . and the early \u201890s.<\/p>\n Cost of Player Choice<\/strong><\/p>\n There is one reason why the same characters die at the same time both in\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0playthrough and\u00a0your<\/em>playthrough of\u00a0Watch Dogs<\/em>: cost.\u00a0 Video game budgets now eclipse movies by a considerable margin\u2014leading to less relevant choices.<\/p>\n Two aspects of cost affect choice:<\/p>\n 1) The industry has painted itself into a corner; everything must be a 3D model and fill a 1080p (and soon 4K) framebuffer. For your character to have a dragon mount, someone has to model, rig, and animate it. If your character speaks to you, someone has to record a voice actor acting the lines.\u00a0 What if the designer wanted to add a Pegasus?\u00a0 A griffon? A wyvern?\u00a0 Four mount choices is\u00a0four times the cost<\/span>. So the narrower the player\u2019s choices, the lower the cost.<\/p>\n 2) Branching paths lead to unplayed segments of the game. Let\u2019s say it costs $1 million to create one hour of game content. Let\u2019s also say we want to offer the player a 10-hour experience.\u00a0 Imagine that our inspired game designer wants to have three totally different branches of the game based solely on player choice. \u00a0This means $30 million in cost, but the player only sees $10 million of it.\u00a0 From a player\u2019s perspective, the other $20 million might as well not be there.\u00a0 That hurts when you\u2019re footing the bill and don\u2019t even know how many units you will be able to sell. Contrast this with a movie: Every dollar spent is experienced by the audience\u2014a 1:1 ratio. This isn\u2019t so with games: The higher the ratio of \u201cexperience vs spend,\u201d the better the producer feels about the whole thing.<\/p>\n So the only way I see to offer players\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0choice is to\u00a0greatly reduce the cost of choice in the first place.<\/span>\u00a0 Reduce it down so low that (from a cost perspective) it doesn\u2019t really matter what they choose.<\/p>\n But would reducing this cost somehow lose the magic found in role-playing?\u00a0 Fortunately, watching TV gave me the answer.<\/p>\n Community<\/strong><\/p>\n If you don\u2019t know Abed, you should.<\/em><\/p>\n Community<\/em>\u00a0is a comedy TV show about community college.\u00a0 Outcasts decide to form a study group, and hilarity ensues. In\u00a0one of the later episodes<\/a>\u00a0Abed (a super geek) runs a\u00a0D&D<\/em>\u00a0game for the group to cheer up a fellow student.\u00a0 Whether you have played\u00a0D&D<\/em>\u00a0or not, the episode is ridiculously funny. They managed to write something both my wife and I enjoyed, yet for entirely different reasons.\u00a0 Beyond this, it is also a brilliant showcase of role-playing at its finest.<\/p>\n Abed is the Dungeon Master (or GM).\u00a0 He simply tells the context of what is happening, and asks the characters what they want to do.\u00a0 There are a few dice rolls, but it is mostly just the characters making simple choices from the options Abed gives them.\u00a0 Sid Meier said it so clearly: \u201cGames are a series of interesting choices.\u201d\u00a0 It is so simple . . . yet incredibly easy to forget.\u00a0 Something inside us seeks a morecomplicated<\/em>\u00a0solution.<\/p>\n Much of what I see in role-playing tabletop (be it the miniatures with grid map or rule books galore) and role-playing computer games (simply moving from A to B, FedEx quests, forever rearranging my inventory) is minutia, which gets in the way of the really interesting choices. \u00a0\u00a0But what if a game is\u00a0solely<\/em>focused on interesting choices?<\/p>\n Community<\/em>\u00a0helped me see role-playing in its simplest, purest form.\u00a0 I had to be reminded of what role-playing once was back in the late \u201880s and early \u201890s\u2014when developers weren\u2019t tempted to throw in the proverbial kitchen sink.<\/p>\n SSI Goldbox (1988-1993)<\/strong><\/p>\n In four-ish years, SSI released a total of 14 AAA (for the time) role-playing games.\u00a0 Many people fell in love with\u00a0Pools of Radiance<\/em>\u00a0(the first game)\u2014but for me, it began with the\u00a0Dragonlance<\/em>\u00a0themedChampions of Krynn<\/em>\u00a0trilogy.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 They play similarly due to sharing almost identical game design and engine.<\/p>\n The SSI games had to do a lot with little computing power and even less memory.\u00a0 Some of them ran on the Commodore 64\u2014which for reference, only had 64 kilobytes of memory.\u00a0 An impressive feat when you consider that there are dozens of types of enemies, equipment, treasure, settings, weapons, and spells.\u00a0 Character creation alone has 9 races and 7 class types\u201463 possible combinations before you even get into multi-classing.<\/p>\n How could they pull this off?\u00a0 Short answer: Text and imagination.<\/p>\n They used basic graphics to set the mood, then used text to feed the player\u2019s imagination.\u00a0 Did it work? You bet!\u00a0 I and many others have extremely fond memories from that era.<\/p>\n Here are three examples of how these games played:<\/p>\n This is the overworld map in\u00a0Champions of Krynn<\/em>.\u00a0 You are the square. The circles are locations you know of.\u00a0 You can get from your starting location to a quest location using the cursor keys in about 12 seconds.\u00a0 Contrast this with all the running around in\u00a0Final Fantasy<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Skyrim.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Once you know where you want to go, decide to go, it takes tons of time to get there.\u00a0 I believe deciding where to go\u00a0next<\/em>\u00a0is an interesting decision.\u00a0 Actually\u00a0travelling<\/em>\u00a0there is not.<\/p>\n This is an interaction with an NPC.\u00a0 There is an image of the character you\u2019re talking with (for context), and then text describing what they say or what is happening.\u00a0 As an aside, I like how they made it even more minimalist by telling you to go to the included physical game journal to read the rest of the text.<\/p>\n And finally, here is navigating a town. You decide the stores\/locations you wish to visit by selecting the name below, and bam!\u2014you are there and can start buying\/selling.\u00a0 Now contrast this with\u00a0Skyrim\u2019s<\/em>Whiterun where I have to run from my house to the general store, to the castle wizard, back again to the center of town for the other vendors.\u00a0 It\u2019s just so much running around to execute a decision I already made minutes ago!\u00a0 Ironically,\u00a0Skyrim\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0creators recognized this and put in a fast travel system.\u00a0 Well, what I\u2019m talking about is an RPG that\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0has fast travel with zero wild goose chases and absolutely no running around.<\/p>\n Pictures suppress imagination<\/strong><\/p>\n When we start life, we cannot read. So what do our children\u2019s storybooks have?\u00a0 Big pictures and little-to-no text.\u00a0 Later in life, we can read\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u00a0(which is all text and a few maps)–but as our comprehension and imagination mature, books decrease what is\u00a0shown<\/em>\u00a0and increase what you shouldimagine<\/em>.\u00a0 Yet AAA games have gone the other way; they spend millions to try to\u00a0replace<\/em>\u00a0imagination.<\/p>\n Chris Crawford makes this point in his 2003 book,\u00a0Chris Crawford on Game Design<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>He states that chasing reality with graphics is a fool\u2019s errand.\u00a0 If the game world is super-realistic, the character models will break the suspension of disbelief.\u00a0 If the character models are super-realistic, then the animation will break it.\u00a0 If the animation is super-realistic, then the player choices will break it.\u00a0 We will never replicate reality in a video game, so why are we trying so hard to get to a destination that\u2019s impossible to reach?<\/p>\n \u201cGood artists copy, but great artists steal.\u201d – Picasso<\/strong><\/p>\n If you thought I was only stealing from the \u201890s, you would be wrong.\u00a0 Having acquired a taste for creative theft, I am plundering the following modern era games as well:<\/p>\n Wolf Among Us<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0<\/em>Walking Dead<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Branching storylines based on character choice.\u00a0 Telltale\u2019s games are well-made and have significant cost to their choices. Therefore, there are limited actual branches. I will be offering more choice than their current titles.<\/p>\n Mass Effect 1<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0<\/em>Dragon Age Origins<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 I found the ability to choose your allies and befriend certain NPCs compelling.\u00a0 There is also some story branching.\u00a0 I plan to take this further.<\/p>\n Skyrim<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 The most open world AAA game I have played.\u00a0 I like that the player can decide to simply kill a random NPC\u2014and the guards react.\u00a0 And even if you get away, people still remember what you did.\u00a0 I am stealing this core concept of openness with consequences and taking it further.<\/p>\n Dwarf Fortress<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 A hardcore indie game where you try to found a dwarven settlement in a procedurally-generated world.\u00a0 Extremely challenging to figure out how to play, but worth it.\u00a0 I have spent the last few months developing my own procedural world generation with\u00a0Dwarf Fortress<\/em>\u00a0as a conceptual guide.<\/p>\n Red Shirts<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 An indie game about relationship management. It\u2019s billed as \u201cfacebooking in space.\u201d\u00a0 This game showed me how complex NPC interactions can be achieved in a simple and fun manner.\u00a0 Also as an aside, this is a great example of what a female game designer can bring to the table: totally new ideas where we all benefit.\u00a0 I cannot imagine a man designing this type of game.<\/p>\n The way forward<\/strong><\/p>\n I am taking the elements I think are worthwhile (the gold) from \u201890s era RPGs and bringing it to a modern context.\u00a0 By making the game in 2D\u2014aided by the strategic sprinkling of amazing art, betting on a well-written script, and engaging the player\u2019s imagination at all times\u2014I believe I have effectively\u00a0reduced the cost of choice<\/em>.\u00a0 Therefore, I can greatly\u00a0increase<\/em>\u00a0player choice and the world\u2019s reaction to it.<\/p>\n Not only this, the game plays faster.\u00a0 A boon to those of us with only a few hours a week to game because of\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0responsibilities \u2013 like kids \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I get that requiring players to read and utilize their imaginations will limit the size of the game\u2019s total player base.\u00a0 I\u2019m OK with this.\u00a0 I toughed it out and figured out how to play\u00a0Dwarf Fortress<\/em>.\u00a0 I left that game with some great memories.\u00a0 Last year\u2019s big budget\u00a0SimCity<\/em>\u00a0did\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0reach the same heights\u2014to put it mildly.<\/p>\n You may be wondering: If these ideas are so good, has anyone done something like this before?\u00a0 And if so, were they successful?<\/p>\n Well I\u2019m happy to say that I\u2019m not the first or only person thinking this way.\u00a0 There is another indie game that implemented many of these concepts in 2012.\u00a0 Maybe you heard of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0FTL<\/em>.<\/p>\n FTL<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>is a sci-fi game where you guide your ship and crew from one edge of the galaxy to another in a certain time period.\u00a0 At each jump along the way, the game presents you with choices.\u00a0 It implements many of the ideas I\u2019m talking about here for\u00a0Archmage Rises<\/em>:<\/p>\n Conceptually, I suppose you can say that\u00a0Archmage Rises<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0FTL<\/em>\u00a0with mages in a fantasy world.\u00a0 This probably gives you the best idea of what\u00a0Archmage Rises<\/em>\u00a0plays like.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t already done so, let me encourage you to sign up for the\u00a0Archmage Rises<\/em>\u00a0newsletter<\/a>.\u00a0 I am making a video tour of the current build; newsletter subscribers will be the first to see it!<\/p>\n Thanks for the emails, tweets, and posts.\u00a0 Your enthusiasm for\u00a0Archmage Rises\u00a0<\/em>will get this game made. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n SGD<\/p>\n Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Any questions on the game can be posted on the\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>.\u00a0 I answer questions almost every day.<\/p>\n Archmage Rises<\/em>\u00a0Website:\u00a0archmagerises.com<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.hngn.com\/data\/images\/full\/24727\/watch-dogs.jpg?w=600\")
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