You Descend Down the Dank Channel

I have no idea why I set a date for posting. I questioned doing so at the time, but it's habit of mine. While saying I'll do something at a certain time in the future alleviates the pressure of whether I'll get around to doing it, it creates pressure to then do what I said. And when it comes to deadlines, I tend to spend more time worrying about the deadline than getting anything done.

The topic today is Dungeon Quest, my dungeon crawling, hack and slash RPG. I've only recently, that is today, decided that I needed to change up my plans for a major part of the game. I've done this several times already. My ideas are becoming more refined and focused, which I believe to be a very good thing.

Today for the first time I doubted whether my ideas for a game were good. This is very surprisingly. I normally second-guess myself continually. I admit to feeling frightened and embarrassed at my enthusiasm for what might turn out to be lame. However, I think this doubt is a bad thing. There are self-deprecating reasons I should give for not worrying. Those aren't good either. I think that I should trust myself and my ability. Even if my ideas don't sound great, I know that they are.

Here's the basic concept behind the game. It's based on a tier system. Tiers are determined by character level. After so many levels the character advances to the next tier. Each tier has its own set of dungeons and new equipment. There should be plenty of dungeons for each tier, some solo and others requiring a party of a specific size. Initially dungeons should be very difficult, but as the character gains levels and equipment they should become easier so the focus changes from just surviving to completing the dungeon quickly enough to get to the next tier without tedious grinding. I like the idea of facing different but equal challenges with a character that's at the same level of power as well as facing the same challenges again when the character is stronger. The tier system will also emphasize skill. At some point a player who uses a poor build and doesn't fight strategically will simply be unable to progress to the next tier.

The dungeons themselves will be simple. They won't have any puzzles or mazes or traps. They will have set encounters with semi-random monsters and branches to give the player some control over which monsters he'll fight. At the end there will be a boss with a treasure. The treasure will be equipment. Why not have puzzles and mazes and traps? They would be completely superfluous. My goal isn't to create a great puzzle adventure game, but a great strategical hack and slash game.

Fights will be turn-based similar to the Final Fantasy ATB battles (I probably should have said that earlier). Fights should be suitably long for balance purposes but also to create room for them to be completed more quickly. They shouldn't take hours or even half of an hour. One problem with multiplayer turn-based battles is that they pause when someone gets a turn. My idea is that the game shouldn't pause while a player selects an action and that the player should be able to select an action before it's his turn. A key aspect of fighting will be techniques. Techniques will require charges, gained by defending, or combo points, gained by basic attacks. So far battles seem like a modified version of the Colosseum, which I described in an earlier entry. The difference will be in the underlying formulas and mechanics, but more noticeably in the effects of techniques. I hope for techniques to have involved and unique effects that are different from most of the stuff that's been done in RPGs.

There'll also be PvP. I haven't put much thought into how I'll implement it, but this system should work great with PvP.

That's all that I feel confident to say for now. I'm keeping the details to myself because they will likely be changed at some point. Also, as I stated earlier, I'm completely revising a large part so I don't even have the details for it.

I know I didn't say much and what I did say probably sounds boring, but I'm very excited. I don't know when I'll get to any updates on Dungeon Quest (I have to come up with a better name). I'll try to update the blog regularly with something, though. (Damn, more obligations)