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Man, these guys made some great games. > To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. Candy crush with a story it is... O

Man, these guys made some great games. > To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. Candy crush with a story it is... Or less cynically, a totally awesome RPG with procedurally generated storylines so no playthrough is ever the same?

simcop2387 13y ago
I've had a project going on like this for 20 years myself. Finally gotten enough worked out on how to do it that I think I can make it. It won't be perfectly different every time but variations (sometimes small, sometimes large) on 3 main 'stories' that are all potentially happening at the same time, each one from a different perspective. Most of the world is procedurally generated except for a few key things that are either too difficult to work out how to generate or need to be fixed to be able to more easily work out the story there (say towns and specific rooms in buildings).
TheLoneWolfling 13y ago
Cynical agreement. Less cynically, you mean taking the Dwarf Fortress adventure-mode route? Good luck... But even an RPG with multiple interesting endings (where choices you make actually affect things later in non-obvious ways) would fit the distinction of highly replayable.
arrrg 13y ago
I’m really not sure why anyone would be thinking that. That way of thinking makes no sense at all in this instance. During the last years there have been many indie games with a strong narrative focus. His mission statement together with his actions (small team, digital distribution) fits more with that than free to play mobile only games. It seems to me as though Ken Levine saw that he was making very narrative focused games (Bioshock Infinite in particular) with a side dish of shooting for that AAA appeal. Maybe he also saw all the indie developers making games with narrative focus who were not afraid of getting rid of such AAA trappings altogether because with digital distribution everyone can reach their niche and make sustainable amounts of money. Ken Levine is obviously not going all the way, but he is going pretty far with the downscaling (and it’s always worth to talk about whether he has gone the right way). AAA development gets you some nice things (God Only Knows sung by a barbershop quartet, for example) but comes with its own set of restrictions (you have to go for mass appeal) and when you want to make something smaller and more focused that doesn’t appeal to everyone then there’s lots to be said for getting smaller. (During the last few years we have seen the middle fall out from game development, with mid-sized developers and publishers going under. It seems that this gap is now filled from the bottom and the top, with former AAA developers scaling down and successful indie developers – Jonathan Blow with The Witness, Mike Bithell with Volume, … – scaling up.) There is whole diverse and crazy world below AAA titles. Some of those games are awful, but some are awesome. There is lots that can be done. And lots of cool things that are done. Why would you think of Candy Crush first? Especially the mention of the narrative focus makes me think of many excellent (and successful!) recent indie titles that also had a strong narrative focus: Stanley Parable, Gone Home, Kentucky Route Zero, … It seems to me that Ken Levine has something like that in mind plus his own game mechanics twist (the highly repayable part, whatever that means), certainly not some free to play mobile only bullshit.

simcop2387 13y ago

I've had a project going on like this for 20 years myself. Finally gotten enough worked out on how to do it that I think I can make it. It won't be perfectly different every time but variations (sometimes small, sometimes large) on 3 main 'stories' that are all potentially happening at the same time, each one from a different perspective. Most of the world is procedurally generated except for a few key things that are either too difficult to work out how to generate or need to be fixed to be able to more easily work out the story there (say towns and specific rooms in buildings).

TheLoneWolfling 13y ago

Cynical agreement. Less cynically, you mean taking the Dwarf Fortress adventure-mode route? Good luck... But even an RPG with multiple interesting endings (where choices you make actually affect things later in non-obvious ways) would fit the distinction of highly replayable.

arrrg 13y ago

I’m really not sure why anyone would be thinking that. That way of thinking makes no sense at all in this instance. During the last years there have been many indie games with a strong narrative focus. His mission statement together with his actions (small team, digital distribution) fits more with that than free to play mobile only games. It seems to me as though Ken Levine saw that he was making very narrative focused games (Bioshock Infinite in particular) with a side dish of shooting for that AAA appeal. Maybe he also saw all the indie developers making games with narrative focus who were not afraid of getting rid of such AAA trappings altogether because with digital distribution everyone can reach their niche and make sustainable amounts of money. Ken Levine is obviously not going all the way, but he is going pretty far with the downscaling (and it’s always worth to talk about whether he has gone the right way). AAA development gets you some nice things (God Only Knows sung by a barbershop quartet, for example) but comes with its own set of restrictions (you have to go for mass appeal) and when you want to make something smaller and more focused that doesn’t appeal to everyone then there’s lots to be said for getting smaller. (During the last few years we have seen the middle fall out from game development, with mid-sized developers and publishers going under. It seems that this gap is now filled from the bottom and the top, with former AAA developers scaling down and successful indie developers – Jonathan Blow with The Witness, Mike Bithell with Volume, … – scaling up.) There is whole diverse and crazy world below AAA titles. Some of those games are awful, but some are awesome. There is lots that can be done. And lots of cool things that are done. Why would you think of Candy Crush first? Especially the mention of the narrative focus makes me think of many excellent (and successful!) recent indie titles that also had a strong narrative focus: Stanley Parable, Gone Home, Kentucky Route Zero, … It seems to me that Ken Levine has something like that in mind plus his own game mechanics twist (the highly repayable part, whatever that means), certainly not some free to play mobile only bullshit.