Kieron Gillen's excellent blog Rock Paper Shotgun has an interview up with the excellent Vince D. Weller, project lead of Age of Decadence.<blockquote>RPS: What’s the problems with the modern RPG? How does Age of Decadence deal with it?
Vince: The problem is simple. Nobody is interested in making dialogue-heavy, turn-based RPGs loaded with meaningful choices and multiple paths. A game like Diablo will always sell more than a game like Planescape: Torment, and games like Torment are much harder to make. So, no publisher is interested in making games like Torment that may or may not sell enough to break even when you can make guaranteed hits like Diablo or Oblivion.
That creates a niche - a market too small for big companies to care about, but big enough for indie developers to play at. Since we can’t match the multi-million budget visuals, we go back to the roots – we focus on gameplay.
(...)
RPS: Okay - the thing which caused that mass-pile in the previous RPS thread was the turn based combat, specifically how it looked. I think there’s a problem in that it becomes more noticeably odd the more graphics effort a developer makes. The videos you’ve been released demonstrating the combat have that sense of distance due to sitting back and watching the attacks bounce between character to character - but if you treat them as immobile pieces (like, say, in a hex based game) it doesn’t phase the gamer. Is this a fair analysis? Or am I full of it? If so, why?
Vince: Have you played Silent Storm? Temple of Elemental Evil? Both games featured excellent turn-based combat and great graphics. Detailed 3D models and animations didn’t create any “odd” feelings but made gameplay more enjoyable, as one would expect.
Your comment implies that you’re looking at TB from the “it doesn’t look real” point of view and that’s where you’re mistaken. RPG combat systems, turn-based or real-time, is no more realistic than hit points (do you really think that someone could recover from a two-handed axe blow and continue fighting like nothing happened?), carrying enough junk to fill a warehouse, spells memorization, rechargeable mana, etc. Frozen in time characters patiently taking blows and waiting for their turns are no more odd or weird than RT’s single characters fighting thousands of enemies and destroying entire armies. These mechanics aren’t about realism, they are about fun.</blockquote>Link: Against RPG Decadence: Vince D. Weller Interview on RPS.
Vince: The problem is simple. Nobody is interested in making dialogue-heavy, turn-based RPGs loaded with meaningful choices and multiple paths. A game like Diablo will always sell more than a game like Planescape: Torment, and games like Torment are much harder to make. So, no publisher is interested in making games like Torment that may or may not sell enough to break even when you can make guaranteed hits like Diablo or Oblivion.
That creates a niche - a market too small for big companies to care about, but big enough for indie developers to play at. Since we can’t match the multi-million budget visuals, we go back to the roots – we focus on gameplay.
(...)
RPS: Okay - the thing which caused that mass-pile in the previous RPS thread was the turn based combat, specifically how it looked. I think there’s a problem in that it becomes more noticeably odd the more graphics effort a developer makes. The videos you’ve been released demonstrating the combat have that sense of distance due to sitting back and watching the attacks bounce between character to character - but if you treat them as immobile pieces (like, say, in a hex based game) it doesn’t phase the gamer. Is this a fair analysis? Or am I full of it? If so, why?
Vince: Have you played Silent Storm? Temple of Elemental Evil? Both games featured excellent turn-based combat and great graphics. Detailed 3D models and animations didn’t create any “odd” feelings but made gameplay more enjoyable, as one would expect.
Your comment implies that you’re looking at TB from the “it doesn’t look real” point of view and that’s where you’re mistaken. RPG combat systems, turn-based or real-time, is no more realistic than hit points (do you really think that someone could recover from a two-handed axe blow and continue fighting like nothing happened?), carrying enough junk to fill a warehouse, spells memorization, rechargeable mana, etc. Frozen in time characters patiently taking blows and waiting for their turns are no more odd or weird than RT’s single characters fighting thousands of enemies and destroying entire armies. These mechanics aren’t about realism, they are about fun.</blockquote>Link: Against RPG Decadence: Vince D. Weller Interview on RPS.
It's so refreshing to hear.
