i hope DD2 has a system for relations between characters. “The heroes are human.” Hopefully that means that when someone has your back through dozens of tough battles you build rapport with them
I can't believe how good your channel is, there's so very few people who help indies with motivation and advices. Keep the indie content coming please.
I really like Tyler's explanation of keeping it small. Many go too far and say to plan for something tiny which is smart advice on one hand, but bad in terms of making something exciting and marketable; his advice was to focus on a single point that would make your game unique or awesome, even if that point of focus is giving the audience more of an experience that they love from another game just with your own flavor. That was another great talk, Rick. I came across this at just the time when I'm starting to plan my own RPG, and so I want to say thank you!
I've noticed that there aren't many unity RTS style games out there and I love RTS games. So I tried going about making one and Its a lot tougher than all my there projects any advice?
As cheeky as it sounds, my advice is to keep going and not give up! Start with the absolute basic essentials and build from there. Find the specific thing you are stuck on (eg. enemy AI, user interface) and ask specific questions about that to push through the block.
RTS games are incredibly hard to balance and design. Have you considered going with a turn based design as a possible alternative? Turn based games are still difficult to design, but they balance more easily because you don't have to deal with the variables presented by differences in player UI interface proficiency. In other words a big part of an RTS is how proficiently a player can navigate through the various interface elements such as making selections, navigating menus, navigating the map, mastering hot keys, etc. There are huge balance considerations based upon micro and macro controls of units etc. Look at the original Starcraft for instance. Can you imagine how difficult it is to balance two races across all skill levels of play? Imagine an over simplified example where you basically have identical races except for one of the races requires twice as much microing skill because it produces twice as many units that are half as strong. How much of an a mechanical advantage do you have to give to the race that requires twice as much microing in order for the real world in game balance to actually be relatively equitable? In order to try and balance the two races lets say you give the race that produces twice as many half strength units a 20% production bonus. What you would likely find is that even with this huge bonus the race that requires many more actions per minute from the player to manage due to having more units will be consistently weaker at lower skill brackets where players spend much of their time just struggling to navigate the UI efficiently in order to get their units to do what they need them to. Conversely at high level play where players will be much more skilled at efficiently navigating the UI and controlling large numbers of units at once this bonus will be far too powerful since there number of actions per minute required to mobilize even the largest armies properly is far below what these players are capable of. Thus the 20% production bonus can be fully leveraged against the enemy. Now imagine this same scenario in a turn based game. The balance issue doesn't even exist because the number of actions per minute required to navigate the UI efficiently isn't even a consideration. Players can fumble through the menus all they want because there is no time pressure on them.
Spreadsheeting is really the only way of getting the balance right. Even in case of soft counters vs hard counters, you really CAN NOT do things by feeling. I also disagree with companies that allow for very arbitrary things to influence actual game balance, like Blizzard that pushes certain meta-games instead of going for actual real balance. Tyler is of course right that combat shouldn't ever drag on forever, so you do need play testing for that. But with very basic math and a very basic spreadsheet, you should get great balance with ease. And don't ask players what to feel about anything, just make sure the data collection shows 'that' already. Or you will end up balancing things that do not need balancing. Most of the stupid nerfs in videogames come from players complaining, not actual data collection, ie. facts showing something to be OP. I think Darkest Dungeon really largely is as good as it is through being mostly just balanced based on spreadsheets, without much artificial tweaks beyond how things average out. That's very unlike how games like Hearthstone are 'balanced'.
i hope DD2 has a system for relations between characters. “The heroes are human.” Hopefully that means that when someone has your back through dozens of tough battles you build rapport with them
got your wish dude
I can't believe how good your channel is, there's so very few people who help indies with motivation and advices. Keep the indie content coming please.
Thanks for the nice compliment Josef!
I really like Tyler's explanation of keeping it small. Many go too far and say to plan for something tiny which is smart advice on one hand, but bad in terms of making something exciting and marketable; his advice was to focus on a single point that would make your game unique or awesome, even if that point of focus is giving the audience more of an experience that they love from another game just with your own flavor.
That was another great talk, Rick. I came across this at just the time when I'm starting to plan my own RPG, and so I want to say thank you!
8:50 Rick just get an idea?
Love it, as always. I gotta check out the kickstarter.
Ding! :-)
Some great advise. LOVE Darkest Dungeon... Still haven't beaten it though...
Yeah, its a tough game!
Excellent interview! Great hearing about how to balance like a pro.
Subscribed.
Really useful and insightful for RPG development! Great interview
Glad you liked it.
Aw, now, SEE? Your white background looks PERFECT there!
Yep, didn't try to get it 100% white for this video, just left it as a wall.
Really informative video. Thank you.
Yes! More videos like this one :D
M8, you are awesome!
Goddamn I love this channel!!!!
Goddamn I love your comment!!! :-)
I've noticed that there aren't many unity RTS style games out there and I love RTS games. So I tried going about making one and Its a lot tougher than all my there projects any advice?
As cheeky as it sounds, my advice is to keep going and not give up! Start with the absolute basic essentials and build from there. Find the specific thing you are stuck on (eg. enemy AI, user interface) and ask specific questions about that to push through the block.
You might go for player vs player, or a survival type game. Either case will simplify the AI, which is arguably the hardest part of making an RTS.
RTS games are incredibly hard to balance and design. Have you considered going with a turn based design as a possible alternative? Turn based games are still difficult to design, but they balance more easily because you don't have to deal with the variables presented by differences in player UI interface proficiency. In other words a big part of an RTS is how proficiently a player can navigate through the various interface elements such as making selections, navigating menus, navigating the map, mastering hot keys, etc. There are huge balance considerations based upon micro and macro controls of units etc.
Look at the original Starcraft for instance. Can you imagine how difficult it is to balance two races across all skill levels of play? Imagine an over simplified example where you basically have identical races except for one of the races requires twice as much microing skill because it produces twice as many units that are half as strong.
How much of an a mechanical advantage do you have to give to the race that requires twice as much microing in order for the real world in game balance to actually be relatively equitable? In order to try and balance the two races lets say you give the race that produces twice as many half strength units a 20% production bonus.
What you would likely find is that even with this huge bonus the race that requires many more actions per minute from the player to manage due to having more units will be consistently weaker at lower skill brackets where players spend much of their time just struggling to navigate the UI efficiently in order to get their units to do what they need them to. Conversely at high level play where players will be much more skilled at efficiently navigating the UI and controlling large numbers of units at once this bonus will be far too powerful since there number of actions per minute required to mobilize even the largest armies properly is far below what these players are capable of. Thus the 20% production bonus can be fully leveraged against the enemy.
Now imagine this same scenario in a turn based game. The balance issue doesn't even exist because the number of actions per minute required to navigate the UI efficiently isn't even a consideration. Players can fumble through the menus all they want because there is no time pressure on them.
Amazing video.
Risks that may alienate some players must be taken, otherwise you end up with a generic lifeless AAA game.
Spreadsheeting is really the only way of getting the balance right. Even in case of soft counters vs hard counters, you really CAN NOT do things by feeling. I also disagree with companies that allow for very arbitrary things to influence actual game balance, like Blizzard that pushes certain meta-games instead of going for actual real balance. Tyler is of course right that combat shouldn't ever drag on forever, so you do need play testing for that. But with very basic math and a very basic spreadsheet, you should get great balance with ease. And don't ask players what to feel about anything, just make sure the data collection shows 'that' already. Or you will end up balancing things that do not need balancing. Most of the stupid nerfs in videogames come from players complaining, not actual data collection, ie. facts showing something to be OP. I think Darkest Dungeon really largely is as good as it is through being mostly just balanced based on spreadsheets, without much artificial tweaks beyond how things average out. That's very unlike how games like Hearthstone are 'balanced'.
No sound. :(