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That's a common theme, story and character development. I'm certainly looking deeper into the story as is to make sure it has depth over length. Needs to be deep and rich with unique choices that fit the situation rather than drones of dialogue with no meaning.

I more meant it in a light hearted sense, like fun enough to want more, but I see where you're coming from. You're right, though, I wouldn't want someone to become genuinely addicted to my game in any unhealthy form. 

Mm, chain of satisfaction! I think that's the perfect way to put it. A good chain of enjoyment where you jump from one thing to the next and it's still keeping your interest is a perfect way to think about it!

To respond to blocky graphics being a thing of the past, I thoroughly enjoy both 3D and 2D games. Graphics, for me, don't amount to much as long as it has a place, but I that's the point you're making as well.

So, I am curious beyond development, but more in playing games: What do you enjoy about RPG style games and does it differ from what you enjoy in games overall?

You're actually so right. I'll risk dying in a game just to get one more enemy in a single blast, especially if there's any bonus for getting a combo at all. Even as small as a little sound effect for getting 6 instead of 5. Something in my brain just says "Risk the run, it'll be worth it."

See, I know someone that would use that kind of item just for the chance of causing problems. The gain is nothing in comparison to the chaos he could cause. Are they the same? This seems like a common thing.

But yes! AOE in the active battle and turn based battle systems will be assured after hearing that. I'm also very excited to add in the ice rain and fire rain spells along with the AOE trap spells like acid pool. I'm sure they'll all need intense balancing, but it's going to be so fun seeing how players use them!!

Everyone has their own opinion. I personally find little addiction in an MMORPG unless it's doing something piques my interest, but it being an MMORPG has little to do with it. Could just be a coop game with those same ideas and I'd be equally interested. Adding 50-100+ players is nice, but rarely effects my experience much at all.

I see an RPG as a game where you are role playing. Grind is kind of an optional thing, I think. Plenty of games are fluid enough to just play through an area without having to farm mobs and still make for great RPGs, in my opinion of course. Though, I like a bit of grind in a game. Not overly so that I'm stuck with a 1% chance of a drop that makes or breaks my being able to progress, however.

I like that analogy! A meal to cook. Not every ingredient is needed and starting with a quality base can make for a great meal without much extra needed. I love pineapple on pizza! Not juicy pineapple, though. It has to dried a little, maybe just pressed for at least half the moisture. The key is having that perfect crust on it without soaking it in juice. I've had it in a few places that did it perfectly, but more often than not I get a soggy pizza. Which, in my opinion, is what makes people hate pineapple on pizza. I'd hate it, too, if it was soggy, but done right it's the perfect sweetness and pairing to the ham and cheese!
Got a little off topic there, I must be hungry :)

Jokes on you I was always looking for why rocket propelled grenades are so addicting! I can't get enough of the explosions! Thanks for a good laugh, but yes, I think you're right about the exploration and such. It ties into the constant variety of things to find, at least for me. Exploring new areas to discover new locations is just as fun as exploring new crafting recipes, or spell combos, or what have you as long as it results in something new!

What if there's a way to combine action RPG with strategy RPG? What is certain enemies, or enemies of a certain level lower than you, were fought with action RPG sense of right out in open, but bosses and enemies within a certain level were fought in strategic combat?? Something like JRPG style with turn based attacks. It sounds crazy, but I'm doing it anyway. The coding dev on this project has said the code is fighting back, but we're making progress.

I never thought about reaching out to devs directly on published games. I just assumed I'm too small to reach that kind of height, thanks for the idea! As for relaxed atmosphere, absolutely agree. Being able to go about at my own pace allows freedom to enjoy things properly as I play. Never played TMW, but it does sound like a game that makes memories, which is what I'm hoping to achieve as well. Unique, memorable, and enjoyable experience.

Speaking of BG3, I mentioned my party model to friends and they said it's similar to BG3 in that each companion alters the experience of the game. So, I think that's a good thing! BG3 devs and I have the same mindset of put energy into everything no matter how small! I love that! 

Oh, choices absolutely matter. There's no time frame on making decisions, but once you do, that's it. Some are mild and will only affect some friendship points, but others can completely remove an NPC from the game entirely! Though, it's not going to be a shocker when you follow that path and commit to it. I'd really hate to just jar someone with a decision they had no way of knowing the outcome of. Cough cough Mass effect 3 conversations cough

True, feature creep is something I've been warned of not only from friends but also in classes for Game Design. I want to make sure this game flows smoothly without a bunch of one off features like some of the Nintendo Wii U games that needed the feature of the Pad for simple things like opening inventory or blacking out the main screen to aim from the pad screen. My features are, hopefully, going to be all together needed for progress without creating an issue just for a single feature to solve it. 

Do you like to write deep character stories and wold developments?
YEs, that's a major focus. Story for the game overall and then each NPC needs their own reason for being!

Do you want to create a challenging tactical combat system?
Yes! The turn based system is almost functioning properly and the active battle system is working perfectly!

Do you want to develop a wide array of party customization?
Sort of? I think having some depth to the party system will give players more opportunity to connect while in a large server. Such as being able to limit if others can join freely, or access all chests or doors, etc. Not enough to overwhelm, but enough to feel fine inviting someone into a party for a fight and not stressing getting them out before they raid your house.

Do you want to build a online community game?
Absolutely! With servers holding 48 members each, this is MADE for RP and multiplayer enjoyment ( Though, you can use NPCs instead or go solo and the enemies will scale to that )

Do you want your project to be open source so other developers can join you?
Not at the moment, the dev I'm working with is a close friend and he seems comfortable coding out what needs to be done as a software engineer. I do the art! Though, he has said some time after the game releases, he's going to drop a dev kit for it so modders can just go wild as soon as possible.

Do you like survival elements and resource management (often found in post-apocalyptic)?
There may be some of that, but mostly just resource gathering from mining, monster taming, trades with other player shops and all that. So, nothing from a god view looking down on the village. Not in this game at least, but I do love those games!

What theme do you like? Medieval fantasy? Futuristic? Western? Comedy?
This game is mostly Medieval Fantasy. Magic is prominent, weapons are swords, axes, bows, and bombs. Many different races exist and each one has their own quirks. A Forest Tail's overall feel is more realistic? It doesn't try to be funny, though there are funny characters. It has a down to earth feel where decisions have impacts and it's not a quirky little story, but a world that you're defining as a being that wasn't expected to exist in it to begin with.

When I think of metroidvania, I think of side scrollers. This game is what I think is bird's eye? Zelda/Stardew/Harvest moon-like. 

That's true, 1000 wolves would be far too grindy in a process of taming a single wolf is a full task to complete. Though. Taming 1000 in a game where you can just do an AOE on 100+ at a time would ruin the joy of getting a tamed wolf, I think. Mm, must be a balance. Maybe each wolf takes a few minutes to successfully tame, so taming 10-30 gets a perk. Not too much time to get to, but also not something the average person is doing just for the hell of it. 

Like catching 100+ Pokemon to start seeing a shiny popup. 

Want to know what it is about RPG games in general that makes them addictive. It's both a topic of conversation and a question that will lead me to putting more ideas in my own game. As for if they are or not, to each is own in opinion. I personally enjoy casual aspects of an RPG over an MMO's grind. 

Though I do agree immersion is a great factor in a great game. Feeling like you have a part in what's going on, to be specific. Some are immersed by the audio or such other things, but for me, I'm immersed when I feel like my own decisions, good or bad, have changed the world in some way as I play. I also agree that minigames to keep one entertained also very much help them stay interested.

I've done this, so I can't judge. I get into that "Yes yes, that's great, lemme playyy" kind of mood. So what if the story is one of those you just get in there and find out? No hand holding about the fate of the world and it's woes and the wars and all that, just you and your ideas. The rest comes along as you talk to NPCs or do quests. I guess that's more lore based story telling, but I still appreciate it when it's done right.

Abilities and skills has come up a LOT, and I agree... Giving me 5% woodcutting after I cut 1mil trees feels terrible. Now, the ability to summon a tree lord would be just fine, or even to fire off a wooden stake as an ability learned from so much woodcutting, that could go places. Though, the worst is when a game doesn't show what's ahead and then drops low end bonuses for massive accomplishments. At least tell me that I'm wasting my time... 

Oh! Crafting!! Yes!! What about crafting different pieces of a weapon and having to discover ores to make combinations of weapons and tools for different things!? A pickaxed with a head that smelts ore, the handle has a chance of doubling drops and the binder is made from a material that lowers stamina needed per swing, but all of those things are from discovery or rare shop finds!? I'm excited just thinking about that...

Leveling for sure! Being able to grow stronger, especially when it expands the world you can reach, makes me want to keep going. The beautiful cycle that always needs skills or something to keep me around. The numbers are nice, but getting a new ability at a certain level is something I always look forward to.

Agreed! Story with little pieces missing is the best kind. I get so bored just following the line. I'm very piece-of-candy, so I love when there's little mysteries to figure out, especially when they impact the ending, or even better, the current world as is. Though, it's easy to tell when a game's just giving you fetch quests to extend playtime. 

So unlocking skills/spells is always enjoyable, especially when it's linked to levels, BUT... What if you unlocked special hidden spells and skills by doing certain things? Like taming 1000 wolves unlocks a special spell to transform into a wolf or summon a greater version??

I'm interested in ANY more ideas you have! 

So if we could pour more energy into one section, would you say it's story? Do you think the up front guided story is the best path or an open world where you pick up pieces and start to make sense of it all as you go along? Or maybe even a bit of both?? We have a ton of energy poured into character customization cosmetically, just need to amp up the actual stats and bonuses that each type gives to make them feel more of the ROLE in role playing game. Decorations add so much in an open world game, for me at least. Especially when other people can see and appreciate them.

R.P.G. 

A role playing game, right? We take on the role of some character and live their story, but is it the story that makes it fun? Is it leveling up and wondering what we'll unlock next? Is it seeing how far I can take this skill to do this action faster? Is it being the strongest entity in the world? Is it taming the ultimate legendary monster? Is the endgame really about decoration and cosmetics?

Maybe it's a balance of things. I desperately want to know what excites you about a game to the point of staying up late or looking forward to playing more when you come home. There's no wrong answers, and I'm taking every response seriously, because this is going to help me making MY game. 

https://lalalewds.itch.io/aforesttail

Thank you! It's very early in development, but the coding dev says we're nearly finished laying foundation and will be getting into the gameplay and polish very soon!

Firstly, Love Mob Psycho, great pfp.
Second, are you looking for something RPG or something Visual Novel? Coincidentally, I'm working on a game inspired by Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley called A Forest Tail ( https://lalalewds.itch.io/aforesttail )

It's very early into development, but It isn't strictly farming scoped. it's more Zelda-like with open exploration, NPC schedules, romanceable NPC's of course, leveling, dungeon diving, faming, monster taming, battling and open world combat, and the character creation gives over 4million possible combinations! It's really focused around the idea of being YOUR unique story in the world since your actions will ultimately decide how it plays out! 

It's multiplayer, too, heavily focused for the option of RP!

You've filled me with so much positivity that I need to show you what you inspired. I'm remaking the cover art for the game which will also be the main menu and I'm showing you first. 

You're comment here has made waves in our conversations on what should be in the upcoming update. Can't even begin to thank you enough for writing all of this. It's brought a lot of attention to things we overlooked when testing quickly. 
Thank you, Fire-Dancer!! Promise we're listening and you're feedback, especially about that softlock, is going to be our driving motivation to bring the game up to speed!!

For now, here's a special sneak peak at something I'm working on. I am the art dev of the game, after all! Hope it fills you with confidence in A Forest Tail. ( It's not done yet, but I want to show you as a thank you for helping us so much! )

I feel terrible that I never submitted the response to this, but yes! We are still active. Technically two devs working on this, though I'm just the story writer and art Dev! The latest Demo has a lot of new things to showcase, so I hope you'll give it a try! 

That's from a bit over a year ago so the progress is barely any at all. The recent updates aren't in those versions, but we're putting out a demo in May with all the updates you've seen so far and more on the way!

Ah! Sonzo! Thanks for being patient, I feel so motivated seeing you back again! 

I'm really glad you stuck around. School's been rough, so this really brought my day up! Thank you!!

That's a good point! Thanks for asking <3  It's currently very bare alpha with the Demo's so android may not be possible at the time, but I plan to have this on android later when we get it more fleshed out!

Mm! Been thinking about this since you brought it up. Glad it's making it's way in!!

This is so exciting!!

Perfect! Then 4.1 it will be! Time to move onto the next step of making ever character!!

With the overwhelming response for 4.1, I believe that's what we'll be going with! Though, Foxekai is looking into potentially making a modular UI that can be adjusted in game to the player's liking, so that could fun, too! For now, though, 4.1 checks all the boxes! Thank you!! Pixel art is challenging, but when done right, it's so cute! Now I just need to make the 112+ characters in the game and all their expressions...

After some suggestions about the character size, we came up with this. Does it change your choice? 

Never feel stupid!! Your feedback is golden! If Foxekai can manage that, it would be such a cute option to move the UI elements around to whatever the player likes!

There's most certainly going to be portraits with changes depending on the events going on, so full body will be best. As for the idea you have, is this what you meant?

The test build 0.01 is the most current testable build. Sorry about the black screen on the RPG maker version, maybe something broke in it. It's really just a historic build that won't have any weight to what A Forest Tail is now. We just put that back up at the request of another who wanted to see it. The engine is godot now!

I'm just glad you're still here! Thanks for your support!! <3

The old version was too old since the game's been basically graphically remade, but I'll ask our coding dev for a version to demo for now. It's really barebones, but even then it's more than the previous demo!

Sorry about that! Someone forgot the 's' on "Lalalewds". It's fixed now! Thank you!

My Patreon has been active, maybe you saw the wrong one? Either way, still active! New update is out with big changes!

Just posted a new update!

Thank you!! I wish I had more to show for! It's a slow project since there's just two of us working on it and only one of us knows how to code things. I will at least put out some kind of update once a week! Promise!