I’m currently working on a remake of a role playing game I made when I was younger. It’s set in the ocean, and the players are able to choose from a variety of different marine animals to play as.
What I want to create is a role playing game that people enjoy playing and that doesn’t just become popualr for few days, which is roughly what happened to it a couple of years ago. I would much prefer a small but stable playerbase over a large, but brief playerbase.
I think the main issues are the following:
Lack of character customization, players are only able to pick from a set of finished character models, which limits the personality of the characters.
There might be fewer interesting stories to be made with animals than with humanoid characters in an RP setting.
I am the only person actively working on the game.
It also has a few strong points:
While it certainly wouldn’t be the first of its kind, a roleplaying game based around marine animals as opposed to human/humanoid characters.
The map will be fairly big with many interesting places to visit.
While customizing the animals themselves isn’t possible there will many different animals to choose from.
A few things that I think could help:
Locking highly desired animals behind some sort of progression system could motivate players to spend more time playing the game, it could however lead to frustration for players who aren’t able to play very much.
Some sort of character customization, perhaps different skins.
I could instead try to make use of the models for the game to make a role playing game based around marine exploration, in which players would get to venture into the deep in search of new discoveries and treasures. This would however be beyond my skill level as I currently can’t script on such a level.
I am aware of that, however, I don’t really see any way to implement that in a way that would make sense other than skins, which still wouldn’t add very much. Even the mostly free character customization that many RP games utilize would be pretty limited without things like clothes, hair, faces and accessories.
Maybe in addition to the sea animals, you could add regular humans that could be heavily customized. This would make it easier to add customization to the game, since it would just be regular assets for ROBLOX characters.
Instead of skins for the animals, maybe a character editor that could allow you to change the looks (colours, size, accessories, etc) of the animals.
Having a big map is a great idea! I don’t play many RP games myself, but when I do, I mostly find myself looking around at the map.
Maybe a progression system that was based on things like how much time you spend in the game, how much you interact with players, or how much you explore? I guess this would unlock new accessories and stuff.
Sounds interesting, humans in the form of divers would be a great addition, and are in fact planned to be part of the game, but I hadn’t thought of giving them their own customization options.
I think this would be a pretty good addition, although I’m a little bit worried about the limitations of such a system, as well as the amount of extra work that I’d have to put into each animal. Not to mention the scripting. I don’t really have the funds to recruit a scripter, and I currently lack the skills myself. But it’s probably about time I learn to script anyway.
Thanks, I’m planning to have some sort of open alpha in the near future, which would allow you to explore the parts of the map that are finished at that point.
I had only really thought about time-based progression, but your idea of exploration-based progression sounds even better to me, as it would encourage players to somewhat interact with the world around them as opposed to just being there. Maybe an achievement system could work. Perhaps larger animals could be locked behind certain achievements related to smaller animals for instance.
The game is underwater though, so the only animals that would walk or run would be animals like crabs and lobsters, and I still haven’t made up my mind on whether or not those will be a part of the game.
First off, this idea seems intriguing as to the future it has. With the ocean not being fully explored, there is plenty of space for this to progress and become unique, as if your USP.
• You could possibly have depths and mysterious areas within the map which possess weird breeds of peculiar fish designs unknown to mankind. This way, players will be confused and interested as to what these marine creatures are.
• Some sort of mutations would be nice to see in a marine focused game. This could be done as enderawsome88 suggested:
Maybe a progression system that was based on things like how much time you spend in the game, how much you interact with players, or how much you explore?
As players explore further, they are able to unlock more mutations to their marine creature.
i think it’s a good idea add crabs and lobsters