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[djcityscapes]

Working title for my next game = Steaming Pile of Crap (inspired by poopoogames).

I use Torque Game Builder as my development platform. My most recent game using TGB is Fangorodrim

Here are the lessons I learned in the making of Fangorodrim:
1. Mixing genres is a bad idea because I'm bound to fail everyone's expectations. The RTS fans want more depth in research/development and the Shooter fans want a nimble shooter game that does not require much thought.

2. Flashy artwork is critical to success. Players need a professional presentation to feel like the game is worth their time. In the early versions of Fangorodrim, the artwork and fonts where stock TGB and most players could not get over that. I found a good artist inspired by the gameplay potential and he helped make the artwork one of the highlights of the game so players were motivated to play it through and find other complaints.

3. I can't make everyone happy. I need a concept that is strong enough to stay within scope and not get sidetracked by every beta tester's wish list.

4. Good feedback is critical. Interpreting that feedback is just as critical. If 100 people give me feedback I need to know how to boil that down to the essentials. As my game progressed through it's iterations, I got thousands of my own ideas but didn't know if anyone else would care. Some of these I implemented because they were clearly within scope. Others were in a gray area and would only get confirmed by feedback. If only 1 player out of a hundred complained about some non-bug observation, it would not get the same attention as if 20 people clamored for the same thing. An example of a change that occurred in Fangorodrim due to popular demand was increasing sector size. That sounds easy to implement: Make the sectors bigger, right? I put that off for as long as I could but every time I posted my game on a new board that was the number 1 complaint. It only took me about 20 hours of coding to change that...

Anyway, I'm taking these lessons into the next project, Steaming Pile of Crap, and here's what I'm thinking of:

• Top-down space RPG. This applies lesson #2. I need to use my current artwork (which is nice and flashy) until my current artist or someone else gets motivated to help me out. If the gameplay is good enough I think this will get worked out.
• I envision the player's ship flying through randomized space stations or withing huge asteroids or various planet surfaces.
• Class creation based on 5 basic ship types. TGB makes it easy to attach gear to the ship so it will get customized as the game progresses.
• Focus on skill trees. What kind of skill branches will be fun for this type of game? I'm still working on that.

Well if you have any comments/suggestions for what direction I should take (maybe a better title?), I'm all ears.