Mr. Y begins his explanation of round and flat RPGs and what they consist of.
Hasn't it been awhile since I wrote a gamemaking article? If you don't remember back to when I did write gamemaking articles, then let me tell you that yes, it has. However, as I am on a fun new article kick, why not get serious for once instead of writing some humor, right? Well now, I have begun a new storywriting, plotwriting, and gamemaking article series, simply titled "Making a Round RPG". See, this is called MaRR #1- I won't cheat you and make a MaRR #0 later if I forget something, either, unlike a certain PlayStation game series that made the jump to the Game Cube (*cough*). Anyways, no more Resi... I mean, no more jokes bashing ANY commercial game series. Let's get onto the ball, right?
What is the definition of a "round RPG"? What is a round anything, altogether? Well, games are typically not explained in "roundness" when players describe how good they are. Things like gameplay, design, storyline, characters, music, graphics, replay, and others are discussed and compared instead. So, maybe I am coining up a new word? Not really, I am just adapting a common word from one trend to another.
In dramas, novels, and other forms of fiction and entertainment, characters are often labeled as being either "flat" or "round". Flat characters often are limited to very few character traits, display few emotions, and tend to strongly portray one or a couple traits in particular. These flat characters are more often placed in storylines to either moderate and stem the tide of the plot so that it flows into the author's desired direction, though flat characters are also quite popular in comedies to bring humorous situations about with funny behavior (For an immediate example of that, you can play nearly any comedy games here at GW and notice it almost immediately). Round characters are far more human than flat characters, often displaying far more traits and emotions and helping the readers or viewers better relate to the story. Stories that use strictly round characters are few and far between, and tend to let the characters push and carry the storyline rather than the author's motives do that. Most storylines and dramas written farther in the past use both round and flat characters, except they retitle them to become the "main" and the "supporting" characters, respectively. However, it is becoming more and more popular nowadays to use realistic, round characters in novels, movies, and plays today, and although that sort of realism has yet to be perfected by the majority of writers, it is becoming more of a staple of good literature and writing now than it ever was. To apply the ideas of round and flat characters towards our RPGs, however, we will just define them the following ways. A "flat" whatever specializes specifically in a few key areas and does particularly well with them, but falls short on other areas, and a "round" whatever excels moderately the same amount in all areas, and generally does very well in all categories.
How do the concepts of roundness and flatness apply to video games then? Let me start to explain by explaining what a flat game consists of. Most RPGs (Especially on the amateur non-commercial scene) are considered flat, because although they are generally pretty good games that specialize in one or a few ways (Storyline, plotting, graphics, mini-games, and music, to name a few), they fall in other areas. These sorts of games are usually summarized by sentences like "Don't get me wrong, it's a nice game, but it needs to be improved on _____ and _____ ," and they get ratings of about 7-8.5. They are just
okay, but ultimately they prove to be forgettable in a few months. On the other hand, round games do very well in all categories and ways, receive the
excellent and
awesome reviews, get ratings of about 9-10, and prove to be quite memorable for half-dozens of months (Around 6-12 months) at the amateur gamemaking scene, or at least until another new game takes the title of Newest Epic Video Game.
Epic Video Game..? Does this mean that I am really creating a synonym for the adjective "epic", by establishing roundness as a quality? Somewhat, but not completely. Although all round games are epics, not all epics are round. The biggest difference between an Epic Game and a Round Game is that all Epic Games excel either in a few important areas (Thus being flat), or excel in all areas (Roundness).
Roundness also describes another sort of trait of the well-rounded RPGs- the sort of complete and thorough satisfaction that comes from the makers for making them and the players for playing them. This sort of pleasure is hard to explain for those that have never experienced it (Like an orgasm?), but I know of an excellent way of describing it. Can you imagine an RPG with all the perfect qualities we would want? A game with an absolutely amazing storyline with superb plotting and characters, an extremely fun and challenging battle system, lots of great systems and mini-games, lots of hours of gameplay, a beautiful souindtrack, gorgeous graphics, the whole kit and caboodle. Now, imagine all those categories in slightly less godlike prowess, and whala, you've pretty much a complete idea of a round game. Round games are not perfect, but they are darn close to it.
The near-perfectness attribute only applies to round
commercial games. What about all the amateur games floating about and in development at all the gamemaking communities? Well, the standards have never really been set here at GW for a round game, as most people haven't even heard of the term. I believe I have quite a bit of experience on current amateur RPGs and their quality, as well as the general goods and bads of them. So, here is my definition of what would be a round amateur RPG made with the current leader of gamemakers, RPGMaker 2003. Please note that these descriptions are pretty brief because I plan to cover them all in future MaRR articles.
- Gameplay- Above all, the game needs to be fun to play and not just to read through. Gameplay is very critical to amateur RPGs nowadays, and as newer and newer methods of improving gameplay are invented constantly, there are still some tried-and-true formulas you can stick to if you can't think of anything really ingenious to lift your game here. Importance rating: 100 pts
- Storyline- Second only to the gameplay in importance, this is actually the most important attribute of RPGs to many of the more diehard RPG addicts. Storyline can be described as either the general scheme of events, plotting, and characters of an RPG, but it is usually used to describe the order of events and how world events and plot twists in the present part of the game, whereas plotting is more of what has occurred in the past, how characters came out as they are in the present, and the hidden schemes and plot twists of the present. In some games storyline is harder to differentiate from plotting however, such as Chrono Trigger. Importance rating- 90 pts.
- Plotting- As described in the above paragraph, plotting is basically defined as being what has occurred in the past, how characters came out as they are in the present, and the hidden schemes and hidden plot twists of the present. Although plotting is not really as important as the storyline because of its place in the past, plotting can easily become one of the greatest attributes of any RPG if a story writer works hard on it. Importance rating- 85 pts.
- Characters- Although characters are typically just defined as being another part of the storyline, in many of the most epic RPGs the characters help to push the envelope and really develop the game into something superb. Round characters with deep history/plotting and heavy connections to the storyline are usually the most appreciated. Importance rating- 75 pts.
- Mini-games and Puzzles- Although mini-games weren't really required for the greater RPGs of the early commercial video game era, they were gradually used more and more until they rose high in importance. Mini-games and puzzles really throw up and vary the gameplay experience, helping to diversify sections of the game and keep it exciting. Importance rating- 60 pts.
- Sidequests- Sidequests are nearly always present in RPGs both epic and average, and why is that? That is so, because many of the RPG devouts often like to "completely beat" RPGs they play, playing as much of it as possible and taking in as much of the game as they can (Often with the aid of their Strategy Guides, too). Sidequests ultimately contribute much to the overall replay of RPGs. Importance rating- 50 pts.
- Battle System- I don't care how awesome a game's plotting and storyline may be- if a game's battle system is plain, dull, and mediocre or less than good, it will really hurt the rest of the game. Many of the less-enthused RPG fans that occasionally play prefer complex and fun battle systems over exceptionally deep storylines, but at GW they are the minority. Importance rating- 70 pts.
- Features- Players like intuitive and unique menu systems, and exciting mini-games and puzzles that are unique to the game and seem hard to program. You can either approach your game's coding with simple menu layouts and design or all the complexity in the world, but ultimately the number of features wins out over layout. Importance rating- 50 pts.
- Graphics- Just how pretty does this game look? Although there are some RPG devouts that would swear on their mothers' gravestones that graphics do not affect their decisions when choosing games, in a hypothetical situation I think it would! Generally for the amateur game scene, however, average-pretty original graphics are all that are needed for a round game, though beautiful screenshots wouldn't hurt you at all. Importance rating- 65 pts.
- Cinemas- How well-structured are dialogue sequences between characters? Are the dialogues typically "empty"- having little of interest, little play on the future of the story, and being unappealing- or full of juicy information and action? One major but difficult way to boost your game's cinemas is to actually make 3D movies or cartoons to show important conversations or cinemas. Importance rating- 40 pts.
- Music- Definitely here at least, the beautiful songs win over the boring or distorted pieces with little or inappropriate action. Also, it tends to be more attracting at gamemaking communities for the songs to be original and average than beautiful and Final Fantasy. If you want your game to be a well-rounded epic RPG, you're safer making all your music than just gathering all unrecognizable music Importance rating- 55 pts.
- Sound Effects- Although sound effects really are not important, they can really boost a game. Try to make original sound effects if you can, though it can be really difficult if you don't have ideas on how to make them. It is usually easier and still acceptable to just gather your sound effects from less-known games, like platform and racing games. Importance rating- 25 pts.
- Length- Although you shouldn't push for a 100 hour game just because the idea sounds neat, you definitely want quite a few hours under your game's belt for a good game feeling. However, you should not make the controlled main game's story too long- boost the length of the game through sidequests and mini-games.
- Replay- This is pretty difficult for RPGs in particular to do well at, especially if they have long lengths. All I can recommend is to make a healthy balance between the length and the replay, not doing too much of either. Also, mini-games, puzzles, and sidequests help the replay of any RPG a lot.
Those are all the basics to round RPGs and their qualities. If this article is successful I will continue it; if it isn't, I will drive into town and buy a sno-cone. I hope you've taken interest in expanding your own projects into round games.