The poll has been going really well, but it's been clear from pretty early on what people are most interested in. With that in mind, I've been thinking about Fungeons and Fagons a bit more in depth, trying to sort out mechanics, plot, and other things like that. In doing so I've realized a few potential issues. Nothing that can't be worked through, but the direction I go will largely depend on player (your guys') input. So what about whichever game you picked, did you like? What elements drew you to select that game idea over the others?
Now for some dev talk cause I haven't done that in WAY too long.
First a little back story, Fungeon and Fagons as an idea has come out of a couple of things. Firstly, I've started playing D&D and it's super fun. Secondly I like turn based RPGs, and fantasy. Finally a little game call Knights of Pen and Paper (among a couple of others).
Knights of Pen and Paper is really interesting to me, because it has a really clean, but enjoyable combat mechanic, a really nice pixel art style, and a very charming story, with some cute dialogue to top it off. Before I continue I want to put a warning, I still haven't beaten the game, I've put like 6 hours into the steam version, and I just recently picked up the app so I can 'do research' when I need to take the bus or something. So take some of this with a grain of salt, because some of the mechanics may or may not change in the game as you progress. So yeah, take this with a grain of salt, from what I've seen of the game, I don't imagine too much changes mechanically, but I don't know. The game has surprised me several times already.
So the game basically takes traditional tabletop RPGs, mixes it with video game RPGs, and simplifies and cleans up all the excess stuff, so that it works as a mobile or PC game. The game does a lot of that stuff very well, and they make it really nice to play, but at the same time they remove stuff to the point that the game is almost ONLY combat. Even though the combat is really good, and generally interesting, it gets kind of boring after too long.
I decided to think about this in terms of other RPGs, what is the core difference between them. Looking at one of the I believe universally accepted best turn based RPG, Pokemon. Pokemon has been a beloved franchise for years, even though each game is generally the same thing over and over, game to game, it still has managed to keep people interested, and still remains fun. So when you break down Pokemon, what is it? What do you do, and how do you influence the world? It's ALL combat. The only thing you can do to influence the world, is fight, and capture Pokemon.
So how does Pokemon keep it's combat interesting for hours, where Pen and Paper can become tiring? Pen and Paper has combat occur almost constantly, the way you advance the story, and complete quests, is all through combat. And you're doing all of this from a menu. You select the quest you want, monsters appear, you fight, quest complete, select the next quest, fight, complete, etc. That time between fights is VERY brief. Because you have almost no downtime between combat, it gets very mundane and watered down, especially since a lot of the combat and quest can be pretty grindy.
Then looking at Pokemon, you fight, then you walk for a while, and while you're walking, you look for items, trainers who you're either trying to avoid or encounter, you're talking with NPCs for quests, or clues. Then you're fighting again. From a start to finish, this is your goal, this is the obstacle, beat obstacle to obtain goal, thought process ALL that walking and picking up items that you'll never use is all dead time. It's pointless, just skip that and get to the game play where you have influence. But when you're playing, that doesn't feel pointless, and it breaks up the monotonous combat, with essentially flavor text. You're getting to see what the world looks like, you're finding secrets and getting past puzzles. It feels nice and rewarding to make that kind of progress, to be literally moving forward in whatever world it is.
Pen and Paper doesn't have any mechanic to break up combat. You can do things like shop for items, and travel between points on the map, but that stuff takes seconds of your time before you're back in combat again.
With that said, Knights of Pen and Paper has surprised me, there was a point that I reached a dungeon that I could to explore and move between the rooms, and there were a bunch of ways to get through it. In the caves, there are rocks that for a long time I thought were just decorations, but you can actually click on them to break them and get items. Which was this really rewarding and cool thing to find out. It felt nice, like I'd found a secret. So the game isn't devoid of depth or other mechanics, they're just spread out a little too much for my taste.
In saying all of this I don't think Knights of Pen and Paper is a bad game in anyway. I played it initially as a PC game, which it's not really made for, it works fine technically, but the systems don't work for a you're sitting here to play a game for a few hours, type of environment. It works GREAT for mobile though, because mobile games are generally designed to be played for 15-30 minutes. They're something you can do on a break during work, or on the bus, or when you're waiting for something. It's nice to be able to pick up and beat a quest or two, then put it down. Because the combat system is really nice. It's clean, and simple, but it's engaging and has a lot of variety depending on how you build your characters, and encounters.
What does this have to do with Fungeons and Fagons? Fungeons and Fagons was thought up because I really like Knights of Pen and Paper for it's combat system, and interface. It's really charming and cute, and I wanted to do a game like that. (Plus with me playing D&D I've been geeking out with fantasy stuff, and want to do something with Orcs) But like I mentioned from a long term game play experience, I feel like Knights of Pen and Paper is lacking something. Which is where the camping mechanic was thought up. Something to break up the combat system just a bit, and to give players something else to focus on once in a while.
So what's the problem? Firstly, that mechanic would take a matter of a few seconds to play out, so it's not really doing much to break up combat. It'd be something to think about but it's not like a huge game changing thing. Secondly, I don't think it works mechanically. It's this thing that I shoe horned in because I thought people like flirting and building relationships with NPCs, this could be fun. But that mechanic doesn't reflect the story, or the purpose of the game. If the game is about exploring the land, to stop and evil wizard, what does talking to your party have to do with that?
This basically means that I either need to change the mechanic, or change the story in some way, but that's what planning is for. I've had a couple of different ideas, but before I throw those out, I'd like to hear what you guys think.
For those of you who made it this far. Thank you. XD I hope it was enjoyable reading my burbling. Have a good night
