How to make my textgame more interesting
Some ideas that just flooded my head :)
I am not sure if everything fits into your design, but I will just write them down - you know your game, and should know if this fits into your game or not.
Generally I think you should keep the game "simple". Just extend and polish the working features. It may be fun if you can find 500 different swords, but it may be confusing if you have 500 different types of weapons and -skills.
..the ideas:
- Gambler-Merchant (random item for gold) (I loved this in Diablo)
- Some special monsters with special drops.
- Unique-Items
- Basic crafting (has to be a very simple imo)
- "I killed *** zombies" counter :)
- Simple title-system: found 1000items -> "Collector" / killed 5000 skeletons -> "Dr.Bone"
- Implement a fishing skill (every game needs this ;) )
I am not sure if everything fits into your design, but I will just write them down - you know your game, and should know if this fits into your game or not.
Generally I think you should keep the game "simple". Just extend and polish the working features. It may be fun if you can find 500 different swords, but it may be confusing if you have 500 different types of weapons and -skills.
..the ideas:
- Gambler-Merchant (random item for gold) (I loved this in Diablo)
- Some special monsters with special drops.
- Unique-Items
- Basic crafting (has to be a very simple imo)
- "I killed *** zombies" counter :)
- Simple title-system: found 1000items -> "Collector" / killed 5000 skeletons -> "Dr.Bone"
- Implement a fishing skill (every game needs this ;) )
A friend of mine once tried to write a 'classic' MUD and I helped him for a while so I hope I can post something interesting on this.
I still somewhat like having 'generic' actions like this. After all, users will soon discover and script the optimal path. If proper tools are given (refine path, mark point, go to point...) I believe this could be interesting. I still find permadeath could be somewhat dangerous in this context. Could you please elaborate how the player would approach (by example) a potential death hazard and avoid it?
EDIT: as I have the feeling the game is not even ironed out, I have some doubts that throwing more concepts in the mix would make it easier to design (this comes mostly from my experience in trying to design a few boardgames).
Quote:Original post by ZambakuAre you sure those two things go well together? After all, most MUDs do have some way of warning the user of an approaching danger.
The goal of the game is to get to the bottom floor and kill the boss. This is not an easy task since the game features permadeath >=)
...
Dungeon:
You don't really control your character here, you have a menu where you select your actions:
Explore>Walk around untill something happens, either a random encounter, a trap activates, finding a door or stairs.
I still somewhat like having 'generic' actions like this. After all, users will soon discover and script the optimal path. If proper tools are given (refine path, mark point, go to point...) I believe this could be interesting. I still find permadeath could be somewhat dangerous in this context. Could you please elaborate how the player would approach (by example) a potential death hazard and avoid it?
Quote:Original post by ZambakuI assume you're going to script many differences here. In some MUDs I've played monsters clearly had different behaviour - although the medium doesn't allow much variety to start with. Could you elaborate (by example) how the monsters would be different from each other besides strings/hp/dmg/etc? For a simple textgame it's probably a good idea to just have different strings and stats.
Items:
The items in the game uses a prefix and suffix system so there are alot of stuff for you to find =)
Monsters:
Tons and tons of monsters. Variety is fun. Everything from Giant Flies to Pillow Golems to Girlscouts.
EDIT: as I have the feeling the game is not even ironed out, I have some doubts that throwing more concepts in the mix would make it easier to design (this comes mostly from my experience in trying to design a few boardgames).
I've been trying to design text-based games for a long time. I've thought a lot about making a fantasy game much as you described, and as I see it the major challenges are as follows:
1. Navigation
Without a map in front of you it's a little hard to navigate your way around. It would be easy for players to get lost in anything but the simplest of dungeons. (I'd love to see some examples of good text-based navigation)
You don't really have this problem if your only options are "explore" and "return to town". Is this too much limitation? Well not if you can make the encounters interesting.
2. Combat System
Your hack and slash combat must be as fun and engaging as possible. Lots of people like to level up, so grinding away will be some kind of reward in itself, but chasing the next level and some fancy items won't be enough to keep people going forever.
Trust me, if you make the combat easy to learn, but tough to master, it will make finding those Iron Boots of Slaying all the more rewarding.
3. Quests
The straightforward fetch quests you mentioned might be enough for some players.
But if you want to make some interesting quests then you should try something like TyrianFin mentioned.
The key to make quests engaging is not to throw lots of text at the player, but to have constantly shifting objectives and situations depending on the players actions.
1. Navigation
Without a map in front of you it's a little hard to navigate your way around. It would be easy for players to get lost in anything but the simplest of dungeons. (I'd love to see some examples of good text-based navigation)
You don't really have this problem if your only options are "explore" and "return to town". Is this too much limitation? Well not if you can make the encounters interesting.
2. Combat System
Your hack and slash combat must be as fun and engaging as possible. Lots of people like to level up, so grinding away will be some kind of reward in itself, but chasing the next level and some fancy items won't be enough to keep people going forever.
Trust me, if you make the combat easy to learn, but tough to master, it will make finding those Iron Boots of Slaying all the more rewarding.
3. Quests
The straightforward fetch quests you mentioned might be enough for some players.
But if you want to make some interesting quests then you should try something like TyrianFin mentioned.
The key to make quests engaging is not to throw lots of text at the player, but to have constantly shifting objectives and situations depending on the players actions.
What about adventure events? Each level or every so many levels could have a randomly assigned adventure. While exploring there is a chance you encounter an one of the events associated with that adventure each adventure consisting of a number of events and task.
For instance one adventure might be the 3 thief brothers. As you explore you can come across one of the three dead brothers. One carries a map, the other a strange message, and the last a book called “The Dance Dance secret of perfect rhythm.” Once you find the map you get a new option in dungeon menu to follow the map. Doing so brings you to a suspiciously ordinary wall, where you can try a number of different but only saying the strange phrase will cause the wall to open revealing a passage. At the end of the passage after facing a couple of traps is the room of impossibly high number of spinning blades, flying spears, spike traps, and pit falls. Only some who could move perfectly to the beat would make through there alive. At which point you have two options “Umm.. I’ll just back away slowly.” And the other if you found the book “Dance like your life depended on it, which it does” at the end of the adventure you get rewarded with some treasure and notice a maintenance door that takes you back out past all the traps.
Other adventures might be a statue if 5 pieces finding all 5 lets you rebuild the statue at which point in thanks it lifts up a corner of the dungeon revealing a short cut past the next level.
You could also add an auto mapper feature. Each time you explore a level your level map increases by some percent. When it reaches 100% you have fully explored that level and can’t explore anymore forcing the player to move to the next level. Completed maps could also be traded in town for special items.
For instance one adventure might be the 3 thief brothers. As you explore you can come across one of the three dead brothers. One carries a map, the other a strange message, and the last a book called “The Dance Dance secret of perfect rhythm.” Once you find the map you get a new option in dungeon menu to follow the map. Doing so brings you to a suspiciously ordinary wall, where you can try a number of different but only saying the strange phrase will cause the wall to open revealing a passage. At the end of the passage after facing a couple of traps is the room of impossibly high number of spinning blades, flying spears, spike traps, and pit falls. Only some who could move perfectly to the beat would make through there alive. At which point you have two options “Umm.. I’ll just back away slowly.” And the other if you found the book “Dance like your life depended on it, which it does” at the end of the adventure you get rewarded with some treasure and notice a maintenance door that takes you back out past all the traps.
Other adventures might be a statue if 5 pieces finding all 5 lets you rebuild the statue at which point in thanks it lifts up a corner of the dungeon revealing a short cut past the next level.
You could also add an auto mapper feature. Each time you explore a level your level map increases by some percent. When it reaches 100% you have fully explored that level and can’t explore anymore forcing the player to move to the next level. Completed maps could also be traded in town for special items.
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