LogFAQs > #975858563

Yellow posted...

A) most people don't have that skill naturally
B) most developers think about the gameplay first and warp the story around that

C) Most story-driven indie devs just default to visual novel style play or "walking simulator" rather than RPG.

RPG mechanics really don't add to narrative - it's usually just something that exists parallel to the story rather than integrating with it. If you have a story to tell and you view it as the most important part of the game, you're more likely to focus on gameplay mechanics that enable that story more effectively.

A lone dev basically has to prioritize tasks because they don't have a team handling every aspect of games. So an indie game with robust mechanics likely has crap art and terrible story. A game with stronger story probably has weak gameplay mechanics. And so on.



papercup posted...

Honestly if I were to make an RPG, the story would be bare bones and the focus would be the combat. Like, the story wouldn't be very long, maybe like 8-10 hours, but then there would be like 8-10 hours of optional difficult postgame content.

For me the priority would be reversed - I'd probably just make a Choose Your Own Adventure style game with general gamebook mechanics and multiple endings. Using dialogue flags like crazy to alter how NPCs interact with you and whether you've triggered certain events.

I basically built a game like that in HyperCard years ago. I could probably do it with HTML now if I wasn't so lazy. The main discouragement for me would be that I'd want to make more of a 90s style point-and-click adventure game visual style, but I lack the artistic ability to draw or pixel art anything - so all I could really do would be 80s style text-based.

In theory, I could exploit the hell out of AI art now. But I don't know how well that would work if the intention is to make a commercially viable game.