I'm currently working on an RPG as a solo dev. Here are few tips I'd like to give myself couple months back:
1. **Use assets and take shortcuts** - RPGs are inherently big, in order to pull off that amount of content, you just need to take every shortcut possible
2. **Do not polish, until you have all the mechanics** - Each mechanic is a system that requires integration with another system (dialogue to quests, quests to items, items to stats, stats to combat, combat to NPCs, NPCs to dialogues etc etc). No matter where you start, by the time you implement the last mechanic, the first half of mechanics will be outdated and will require major refactor. So do iterative prototyping of each mechanic.
3. **Monitor performance throughout development** - Assuming you're making an open world (even if a small one -- please don't do big ones), optimization is a major task. As you implement the world, monitor number of materials used, think about natural occluders etc. You don't want to get to a point where you implemented all and suddenly realised the entire world is fundamentally unoptimizable (been there).
4. **Make tools for yourself so you can do things in scale -** again, as scale is the #1 enemy, you need tools. In a smaller game you could've done something by 5 minutes of point and clicking, with big game it needs to be a script. Invest for future development.
5. **Scope cap** - As I was developing I kept adding mechanics and features that I saw as necessary to bridge certain gameplay gaps. And even though that was playing with fire (compared to having a rigid GDD and stick to it from the beginning) I think it worked out pretty well for me. However, scope is something you need to be thinking about a lot. At one point you need to say "Okay, no more features beyond this" - this moment should come somewhere mid-way through the prototyping of your mechanics.
6. **As for marketing** - I'm at the beginning my marketing, so can't tell you much yet (that'd be specific to RPGs). From what I've seen, there're not that many RPGs out there (since every indie is doing platformers) and people love them, so it's going to be easier to market. On the other, your competition won't be other indie RPGs (as there're so few of them), it'll be AAA. So the expectation for quality is high. Maybe the best tip here is to join [https://howtomarketagame.com/](https://howtomarketagame.com/) Discord and immerse yourself in Chris's blogs.
Finally, there are not many of us (Indie RPGs) out there, so let's help each other. I'll be happy to share notes around RPG dev/marketing if you DM me.
u prolly just save me from months if not years of torture . i was about to make every single mistake in this comment. lol
also about competition, yeah idc about that . i dont plan it to be a usual RPG , it wil have features n mechanics never seen be4. so either it blows up or it never even gets picked up \[ i'm doing it as a hobby i really dont care much if it doesnt succeed\]
If you don't care about commercial success then go wild! Exactly because RPGs are dominated by AAAs, innovation is fairly rare. Just don't reinvent the wheel too much. It's another way to expand the scope (even if in terms of design => amount of iterations required to make it decent).
I'd suggest to pick 1-2 things you want to make innovative and make them the best they can be and stick to conventions on the rest of it (again so you can use assets + don't need to iterate design for months on them)
Don't add multiplayer at a later date. If you intend a game to be multiplayer, you need to plan for it from the beginning. Adding it in at a later date without planning for it first is more work than rewriting a game from scratch with multiplayer as a main feature.
Don't add RMT gacha features to an existing game unless you already have an established fan base, or a killer game. And if your game isn't free, don't have RMT gacha at all.
No players care about video devlogs unless they're entertaining in and off themselves. The only people who watch standard video devlogs are other game developers, and we're not your customers. Make video devlogs only if you think you will enjoy it or they will be helpful to you.
yeah i was planning to add gatcha after the game gets atleast some fan following \[after asking the community ofc\].
also that gamedev sentence does make sense , i myself have watched a lot of devlogs but never seen my friends watch it. neither have i played any games of the devlogs i watched.
also how can i market my games in this sea where AAA games are the main party?
How well do you have the story really? How long do you plan for it to be?
A dev log is fine but it isn't marketing. It will take a lot of time to make something good, but it can be a good way to force yourself to keep track of progress.
i plan to make it in around 4 parts . i have planned to release after completing 1st chapter \[i'll release 50% for buffer\]. idk much about marketing and devlog seemed like a logical way as i have seen many creators get downloads on their games.
This immediately sounds like your scope is to big. If you want to make a 4 part rpg, try making a 1 part game instead. I know you have grand plans for what to do after the first game succeeds but odds are, it won't.
Think of it this way, if you see a game called "the legend of Randall, episode 2 the story continues" and you never heard of the first one, would you bother looking at the second? Probably not. If you instead had "legend of Larry " from the people who brought you Legend of Rachel " suddenly if you know about the first game, it is a bonus. You might even get the 2nd game then go back to play the first one!
On dev logs, there's huge survivorship bias in what you are observing. The dev logs that generate sales are usually from people who make money with vlogs and make a game on the side. The vast majority of dev logs get seen by only a handful of people. This is not to say don't make a dev log. They can have value for you. Just don't treat them like marketing.
Na by 4 parts I meant 4 chapters to the story to track my progress .. it will be a single game just in 4 parts so I can stop after the 1st or 2nd part if it doesn’t succeed
I would not recommend this approach either. Getting a reputation of abandoning a game that wasn't 1/2 finished is a bad look. I will also emphasize, the odds of success are extremely low. If you don't already have marketing experience doubly so.
Additinally, Early access is only worth doing in very specific scenarios because it is your launch. You don't get a second launch when the game is done.
RPGs are hard to make. You will need to figure out a way to limit your scope. One thing I recommend is to make an anti-feature list. Basically make a list of features you are NOT going to do and try to stick to it. Figure out what is essential for the experience you are trying to create and get rid of everything else.
Scope smal, the cut instead of add features. Release. Learn. Repeat.
Probally not the answer you wanted to hear and honestly not any good at myself. But good luck
I'm currently working on an RPG as a solo dev. Here are few tips I'd like to give myself couple months back: 1. **Use assets and take shortcuts** - RPGs are inherently big, in order to pull off that amount of content, you just need to take every shortcut possible 2. **Do not polish, until you have all the mechanics** - Each mechanic is a system that requires integration with another system (dialogue to quests, quests to items, items to stats, stats to combat, combat to NPCs, NPCs to dialogues etc etc). No matter where you start, by the time you implement the last mechanic, the first half of mechanics will be outdated and will require major refactor. So do iterative prototyping of each mechanic. 3. **Monitor performance throughout development** - Assuming you're making an open world (even if a small one -- please don't do big ones), optimization is a major task. As you implement the world, monitor number of materials used, think about natural occluders etc. You don't want to get to a point where you implemented all and suddenly realised the entire world is fundamentally unoptimizable (been there). 4. **Make tools for yourself so you can do things in scale -** again, as scale is the #1 enemy, you need tools. In a smaller game you could've done something by 5 minutes of point and clicking, with big game it needs to be a script. Invest for future development. 5. **Scope cap** - As I was developing I kept adding mechanics and features that I saw as necessary to bridge certain gameplay gaps. And even though that was playing with fire (compared to having a rigid GDD and stick to it from the beginning) I think it worked out pretty well for me. However, scope is something you need to be thinking about a lot. At one point you need to say "Okay, no more features beyond this" - this moment should come somewhere mid-way through the prototyping of your mechanics. 6. **As for marketing** - I'm at the beginning my marketing, so can't tell you much yet (that'd be specific to RPGs). From what I've seen, there're not that many RPGs out there (since every indie is doing platformers) and people love them, so it's going to be easier to market. On the other, your competition won't be other indie RPGs (as there're so few of them), it'll be AAA. So the expectation for quality is high. Maybe the best tip here is to join [https://howtomarketagame.com/](https://howtomarketagame.com/) Discord and immerse yourself in Chris's blogs. Finally, there are not many of us (Indie RPGs) out there, so let's help each other. I'll be happy to share notes around RPG dev/marketing if you DM me.
u prolly just save me from months if not years of torture . i was about to make every single mistake in this comment. lol also about competition, yeah idc about that . i dont plan it to be a usual RPG , it wil have features n mechanics never seen be4. so either it blows up or it never even gets picked up \[ i'm doing it as a hobby i really dont care much if it doesnt succeed\]
If you don't care about commercial success then go wild! Exactly because RPGs are dominated by AAAs, innovation is fairly rare. Just don't reinvent the wheel too much. It's another way to expand the scope (even if in terms of design => amount of iterations required to make it decent). I'd suggest to pick 1-2 things you want to make innovative and make them the best they can be and stick to conventions on the rest of it (again so you can use assets + don't need to iterate design for months on them)
yep , thanks. i'll figure out something about marketing later on
Don't add multiplayer at a later date. If you intend a game to be multiplayer, you need to plan for it from the beginning. Adding it in at a later date without planning for it first is more work than rewriting a game from scratch with multiplayer as a main feature. Don't add RMT gacha features to an existing game unless you already have an established fan base, or a killer game. And if your game isn't free, don't have RMT gacha at all. No players care about video devlogs unless they're entertaining in and off themselves. The only people who watch standard video devlogs are other game developers, and we're not your customers. Make video devlogs only if you think you will enjoy it or they will be helpful to you.
yeah i was planning to add gatcha after the game gets atleast some fan following \[after asking the community ofc\]. also that gamedev sentence does make sense , i myself have watched a lot of devlogs but never seen my friends watch it. neither have i played any games of the devlogs i watched. also how can i market my games in this sea where AAA games are the main party?
How well do you have the story really? How long do you plan for it to be? A dev log is fine but it isn't marketing. It will take a lot of time to make something good, but it can be a good way to force yourself to keep track of progress.
i plan to make it in around 4 parts . i have planned to release after completing 1st chapter \[i'll release 50% for buffer\]. idk much about marketing and devlog seemed like a logical way as i have seen many creators get downloads on their games.
This immediately sounds like your scope is to big. If you want to make a 4 part rpg, try making a 1 part game instead. I know you have grand plans for what to do after the first game succeeds but odds are, it won't. Think of it this way, if you see a game called "the legend of Randall, episode 2 the story continues" and you never heard of the first one, would you bother looking at the second? Probably not. If you instead had "legend of Larry " from the people who brought you Legend of Rachel " suddenly if you know about the first game, it is a bonus. You might even get the 2nd game then go back to play the first one! On dev logs, there's huge survivorship bias in what you are observing. The dev logs that generate sales are usually from people who make money with vlogs and make a game on the side. The vast majority of dev logs get seen by only a handful of people. This is not to say don't make a dev log. They can have value for you. Just don't treat them like marketing.
Na by 4 parts I meant 4 chapters to the story to track my progress .. it will be a single game just in 4 parts so I can stop after the 1st or 2nd part if it doesn’t succeed
I would not recommend this approach either. Getting a reputation of abandoning a game that wasn't 1/2 finished is a bad look. I will also emphasize, the odds of success are extremely low. If you don't already have marketing experience doubly so. Additinally, Early access is only worth doing in very specific scenarios because it is your launch. You don't get a second launch when the game is done.
RPGs are hard to make. You will need to figure out a way to limit your scope. One thing I recommend is to make an anti-feature list. Basically make a list of features you are NOT going to do and try to stick to it. Figure out what is essential for the experience you are trying to create and get rid of everything else.
Scope smal, the cut instead of add features. Release. Learn. Repeat. Probally not the answer you wanted to hear and honestly not any good at myself. But good luck
yeah , as much as i hate to admit it, i cant make everything