http://rampantgames.com/blog/2010/01/so-what-does-old-school-rpg-style-mean.html
For me, some canonically different "old school" RPGs, spanning different styles, would be:
- "The Bard's Tale".
- Most Ultima games; for me "Ultima IV" was the height.
- "Pool of Radiance", the first of the Gold Box games.
Some features that all these games shared:
- None of them tried to present a "real world" immersive view of the world, instead having various map modes, combat modes, dungeon modes, etc, that you would move in and out of in the various phases of the game.
- All required (typically pencil and paper) bookeeping, whether it was drawing a map on graph paper (hello Bard's Tale!), keeping extensive notes (Ultima IV, that's you!) or whatever.
- All turn-based.
- No multi-player.
- Interestingly, all were multi-platform, from the era before Microsoft dominated the PC market.
- All party-based.
Note some features that vary widely (sometimes quoted as features of old school games):
- Difficulty. Bard's Tale was punishing at the beginning, then not so hard. Ultima IV was pretty easy if you stuck with it.
- Storytelling. Bard's Tale is straight hack-n-slash. Ultima IV mostly lets you control the story. Pool of Radiance guides you through a pretty fixed storyline.
For me, the "new school" started with the Windows 95 games, like:
- "Baldur's Gate".
- "Diablo".
- "Ultima Online".
This first generation "new school" all shared things like:
- Real-time (maybe with pause).
- "Realistic" view, with no separate combat modes etc. (Though Baldur's Gate does have a map mode).
- Multiplayer supported.
Note that "new school" games are now sometimes single-character, instead of party based, a change from most "old school" games.
Also note that 1st person/3rd person view exists across both schools; I don't see that as a differentiator. Although, interestingly, all the "first generation new school" games I listed were 3rd person. Later games certainly started to move to a 1st person view; I wonder if this is a possible different "line in the sand" between "old school"/"new school"? I guess someone younger than me will have to tackle that line.
The only series that I can think of that thrived across both schools is the Elder Scrolls of Bethesda; Daggerfall was clearly old school, Morrowind new school. The Ultima series tried one new school game (the ill-fated Ultima 9), and then withered. Same for Might and Magic and Wizardry.
With my SENG project I'm not really trying to relive "old school" gameplay. I'm more interested in modernizing the party-based, 3rd person view, single player, hard-code RPG experience. Real 3D graphics, proper support for modern OSes, and so forth. But, there is definite inspiration from the old school games; after all, that's what I grew up playing.
More Links. Coyote's post above was spurred by another set of posts about annoyances of old-school games, and new school games:
http://rampantgames.com/blog/2009/12/seven-things-about-old-school-crpgs.html
http://rampantgames.com/blog/2009/12/seven-things-that-annoy-me-about-modern.html
Jordan Mechner of "Prince of Persia" fame has a post full of gems; tips for game designers:
http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2009/12/tips-for-game-designers/
And last, Edmund McMillen has "Indie Game Design Do-s and Don't-s: A Manifesto":
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/01/opinion_indie_game_dos_and_don.php
Happy New Year to all!
