Market Research

For my re-imagining of 'Feud' I am treading a busy road in the sense that my game, is in a style similar to a lot of current games on the market. Middle ages/fantasy has always been popular and often used. 'Elder Scrolls', 'Fable', 'World of Warcraft' - even the newly released 'Dark Souls' has a similar aesthetic quality linking it to the middle ages and fantasy. Often these games are RPG's (Role Playing Game) and I know the feeling when I first played an RPG. It was very daunting because it's a massive world, and an overwhelming amount of options and stats to take into consideration. They are also very time consuming, and not everyone has the time to invest into a game. Some people want to just pick up from when they left quite easily, but that's not always as easy with RPG's.

Three people? Not a very good turn out

The first RPG i played was Fable. It took me a while to get into the game but when i did, it was brilliant. A fantastic game. I then went on to play the second...but I soon lost attention and stopped playing it. Similarly, I played Elder Scrolls for a while but when I got turned into a vampire (not knowing how to become human again) I gave up. A lot of people don't of course. But the question is, why did I thoroughly complete Fable, but not the second? For me the first Fable had that perfect blend of an open world RPG but also great level design and upgrading system. I never felt too overwhelmed, the story was interesting and the characters were engaging. With the sequel I felt like it lost those aspects. As a gamer, I like to have a more structured path - which usually means the level design has much more focus. In big RPG's like Fable and Elder Scrolls it seemed like that was lost - and i would get bored quickly.

Not so much linear because there are choices where you can go - just more controlled

What about the games that are considered the 'middle man' so to speak? The games that are between RPG and linear, focused titles. Games like Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime seem to have an almost open world quality but still keep that sense of each area being unique and interesting - as well as having an upgrading system. Zelda has an open world for you to explore, but has a limit on how much you can upgrade and where and what you can explore. For me, Zelda has the perfect balance - making it more accessible. It's this balance I want to have with my game. You don't have to start the game of with 10 classes to choose from, does link have the ability to instead be a massive warrior wielding an axe? Players are often just happy with what they are given and will go with that. Having a strong main hero significantly helps this, which is why my hero would be unique and the player would be able to empathise with his predicament.

Zelda may be open world, but the dungeons break this up and almost feel like levels in themselves

I will still have RPG elements, but it would be much closer to Zelda than say, Elder Scrolls. Because I want escaping to be quite important in 'Feud' I was considering having a separate control system once you hold down the right trigger on the Xbox 360 controller. I was even considering the left trigger to have a separate control system - in which the camera zooms in slightly and the other buttons are attacking/defending option. This would be rather complicated however - since i'm trying to access and audience that doesn't necessarily focus on RPG games. It will take more thought, but I will elaborate on the controls in the next post.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/gamecube/metroid-prime-2-echoes/screenshots/gameShotId,90896/
accessed 09/10/2011

http://fableboy.weebly.com/fable.html

accessed 09/10/11
http://www.swotti.com/videogames/the-legend-of-zelda%3A-twilight-princess_32927_controls.htm
accessed 09/10/11