To be RPG, or not to be RPG
Using the label “MMO” (massively multiplayer online game, in case you didn’t already know) tends to give a lot of people preconceived expectations about Lila Dreams. Some of them are accurate: you will be online with a bunch of other fine folks, exploring, battling, and socializing in a persistent game world. But is Lila Dreams much of a role-playing game?
“RPG” (role-playing game) is another label that has a lot of expectations attached to it, and many people seem to have different ideas about what it actually means. I have never called the game an MMORPG, because to me it’s not exactly a role-playing game. There’s no linear, deep storyline for players to follow (there is some story, however). There are not gobs of stats to twiddle (there are a few, though). And there aren’t hundreds of quests to perform (but there will be plenty to do).
Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but let’s take a look at one area of the game that is kind of RPG-ish: the items.
You are what you equip
Without a level grind as a means to measure your character’s progress, I still want a way to give characters unique distinctions and different amounts of power and some sense of progression. One vehicle for that is equipment. There are a ton of properties that an item can increase, reduce, add, remove or apply conditionally. And all these various options are what will make the gameplay really deep.
If you are like me, you enjoy making tough decisions between two or more really great choices. It’s really compelling! I played this game called Iron Dukes, and in it you can outfit your ship’s crew with various items that give them various stat boosts. It turns out that this is really fun. In Lila Dreams, your options will be much more numerous and have many more possible effects. I still aim to keep simplicity in mind, but this is really the heart of character evolution, and it needs to be fairly rich. (Plus, I really enjoy complexity–my game designer Achilles Heel, perhaps?)
Each character will have some basic attributes (there are six). But once you determine them, they will not often change. Although, they can be modified by items, so they won’t often change permanently, but they can temporarily change from equipment modifiers.
These attributes and items will be applicable to all aspects of the game, not just combat. For instance, your attributes and equipment will affect gardening. I hope to spread the fun of the RPG elements across all the various activities in which a player can take part.
Now, this description of the game could lead into a very long discourse on the various equipment and options, which would segue into the combat mechanics and then veer back around to gardening mechanics where it would end with a heartfelt apology–but it’s still a bit premature for that. Therefore, I’ll leave you with some concept art and a song instead.
Lippy-lippy-loo,
Lippy-lippy-lee;
Lippy-doodle-doo,
Lippy-doodle-dee.
14 comments ↓
Wow, first comment. How lame am I too actually care. Six, isn’t that the same number as the emotional allignment? Coincidence?
EDIT: Never, mind, I double-checked, and I’m wrong… great, I feel foolish.
Hmm.. Are the items equipped for the character has a some sort of duration rate (where you’ll need to re-equip again sometime?) Or more permanent?, needing only to find the relevant items once or twice, filling up the collection?
Hi Jason, nice to hear from you again.
So since you brought up the topic of items, I am going to have to ask my question from neo’s post again. Here it is:
“I have a question about the whole crafting/growing thing though. Will the growing start from scratch in the garden or will it be more along the line of kill things, take their drops back to the garden, make things with those?
Also, how prominent of a marketplace concept will there be? Will we be able to trade our grown items and if they exist, our monster pieces?
Also one more thing haha. Is growing the only way to get items at this point?”
Thanks for your answers to our veritable plague of questions but we are all so excited with the direction this game is going.
By the way excellent song ^.^ I’m sure my friends will love me singing it non-stop as there is only one verse
Hello Jason,
Thanks for the great update! The image posted in this entry, is this a preview of some of the ingame interfaces? If it is, I’m certainly loving the look! I’m assuming it’s still in development, of course? How likely is it to change?
Looking forward to hearing more!
I love the little scarecrow guy in the concept art…and the rock formations/geodes/glass crystals.
Oh how I wish I could borrow the “artistic lobe” of Greg’s brain just for a day!
FluffFluff, we are going to try out a couple of things regarding durability of items. That would mostly apply to weapons, defenses, and tools since those are the types of things you “use” and which logically would “wear out,” but they will never be completely destroyed by use. There’s probably going to be a minor need to keep them “repaired.”
The reason you would want multiple items of the same kind, though, is because you will have a lot of control over customization of their capabilities. So you might want two or three of the same kind of item with differently balanced capabilities for various situations.
Good SirWamsly, creatures you kill will only ever drop one kind of thing, a form of currency called “Pieces of Mind” (poms, for short). But you can peacefully “harvest” other stuff from creatures and plants out in the wild. So, gardening materials will be scattered throughout the explorable areas. Gardening starts from scratch in the garden, with a seed.
My current plan is that there will be no economy between players at all. This could change (depending on how testing goes), but for now that is the plan. But there will be a market where you can buy/sell with NPC salespeople.
Growing is the only way to get items, unless you purchase them with micro-transactions as a convenience. Growing will take some time, unlike other crafting systems.
Keep the questions coming! It let’s me know that there’s still interest in the game.
r.Okamo, that’s actually a screenshot from the game Iron Dukes.
Sounds like a great way of giving players a sense of achievement while avoiding levels. Avoiding levels avoids the need for level grind. Perfect. Plus, with all the amazing concept art I’ve been seeing, I have no doubt the numerous pieces of equipment that are available will look great.
Even if there’s no economy between players, will there still be a way to trade? If there was no way to trade it would cut a large swathe out of the multiplayer aspect of the game as well as reducing the number of ways players can co-operate.
“(Plus, I really enjoy complexity–my game designer Achilles Heel, perhaps?)”
It certainly can be. “Easy to learn yet hard to master” is a mantra that is easy to say and hard to do. Even harder, oft times, is making things simple enough that players can actually understand them or that they can be explained easily and yet the combination of these simple elements leads to deeper play. Perhaps my achillie’s heel is always trying to simplify but accessibility is a real part of the success of a game.
“If you are like me, you enjoy making tough decisions between two or more really great choices.”
Players tend to agonize over these choices. They can indeed be an exit point from the game if the player can’t remedy a choice or if the choice is bound to a buyer’s remorse. Remember that the grass is always greener on the other side. players might like to walk in both fields to be sure which one in which they really want to frolic.
No market?
That’s a bad move, in my opinion. If there’s no way to trade directly between players, this could frustrate many people.
I agree with Fyorl, if no market, at least trade between players. One game I played, Fiesta, each person could set up a tiny mushroom house/store on the road, and sell their items from a personal store. I found it a good way to exchange items, and it’s not exactly a market.
I will admit that I don’t like any MMOs but have been following this game with great anticipation. I personally do not think a ‘market’ is needed. Maybe as something down the line but it should be put on the back burner while other big details are ironed out.
I also like the idea of growing an item or buying it thru microtransactions. Concept art is phenomenal as always
Keep up the good work and don’t loose sight of your inspiring vision
This has nothing to do with this post, but I would like to ask greg the art-man a question.
I want to blow up an image of the concept art into a poster, becuase it’s just amazing, and think it could help me with my art. But there are two things I have to clear first.
One, is this okay with you, Greg?
And two, it’s copywrighted, and Kinko’s won’t allow me to blow it up without consent from you.
So, any help here?
It’s a fairly original approach - we see it in Iron Dukes & Gunbound.
Take note of the situation we see in Gunbound though. I remember playing a year or so ago, and there were ’stat on’ and ’stat off’ servers - in the stat on servers, everyone had a pirate coat, mecha tail, warrior headdress… everyone. Those that didn’t couldn’t compete.
Now, we know Lila Dreams isn’t necessarily a competitive game, but a lot of people won’t get this into their heads. They’ll think of it as the fastest way to kill monsters, get places, take objectives or get more loot. If there is ‘top tier’ equipment, people will aim for it… it’s just the way some people play.
One option is to have equipment balanced against itself. Say, there’s common, uncommon & rare equip. If you’re wearing a Baseball Cap (c), the stat bonuses it offers are on par with every other common hat. Same for all uncommon gear & rare gear.
Another option is to prepare the game to balance itself. So you set it so that if there’s a piece of equipment that 25% of the game is wearing, then they get -25% to their earnings of PoM & drops. Make it automatic to take the strain away from the devs & leave it up to the players.
Conformity is bad… or maybe it’s one of the challenges our girl Lila has to face in real life.
Konig, in theory, we will avoid the situation of everyone wanting particular items because the capabilities of all items are highly customizable. So you might have two baseball caps with very different capabilities, depending on what properties the owners chose to “fuse” into them (works a lot like gem sockets in other games).
Interesting idea using a kind of economic model to balance the power of items based on supply.
Thanks for the in-depth thoughts. I’m always happy to read well-constructed viewpoints.
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