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Old 10-13-2010, 10:21 PM   #18
silvarilon
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Join Date: Dec 2009
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Re: Are MUDs still popular?

Before you think about your systems, I advise you to think about your game types and themes.

What sort of game do you want to make? Don't tell me "A mud" or "A H&S"
Tell me "A political game about social struggle" or "a steampunk game of mystery and invention" or "a combat game about barbarians fighting against a savage environment"

Then design your systems accordingly. Keep going back to your "core concept" and reconsidering whether it adds or removes. Do you want a food system that requires regular eating? Maybe in that barbarian game you do, since it helps emphasis the difficulty of surviving in the harsh environment. Maybe in the political game you don't want it, as it doesn't help the political gameplay, and might distract if someone runs off to get dinner in the middle of things. Or maybe you do want the food system, because you plan to make food supply a political issue (with actions that players can take to cut off food supply to the city, or to restrict food based on social classes, or character allegiance.) Maybe an intricate crafting system would be wanted for the steampunk game, that requires specific knowledge to make various items, and that knowledge is found through exploration and discovery.

That's not to say the barbarian game can't have an intricate crafting system. Just that you should stop and think about whether the system adds to the game. If not, think about whether the system distracts from the game. Maybe it's not going to make much difference, but you think it'd be fun to add anyway. Great, that's fine.

Once you have a mission statement, decisions like how to handle character leveling become much clearer. Heck, do you even need classes and levels at all? What does that add? What does that take away?

It'll also help when you have other staff, you'll be able to give them more freedom to make their own decisions about game design, knowing that you'll both put in systems that lead to the same end goal.
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