Doesn't Feel Right Without It: The Important Design Aspects of a Role Playing Game

Role playing games require a variety of different design aspects and mechanics to be properly created, tested, and rolled into a finished product that will be enjoyable to as wide an audience as possible.  The graphics must fit the game, the sound has to roll with the action, the story has to be engaging, the characters must be believable, the combat needs to be exciting, the loot has to be rewarding, the controls need to be tight, the locales need to be fresh, the menus should be non-intrusive, the inventory system should be manageable, and the ending had better be satisfying.  With everything that goes into an RPG, it is truly spectacular when one comes out that gets everything right and provides the player with a memorable experience that they will come back to time and time again.

As a general guideline for creating an RPG, a developer should focus on the character, setting, and story design, the combat, and the controls.  The character, setting, and story need to be interesting enough to engage the player so that they want to spend time with the game.  The story needs to move the game forward at an even pace, allowing the player to feel as if they are actually part of an ongoing tale.  The characters have to be designed in such a way to make the player like them, identify with them, or want to destroy them; this is an important aspect of keeping a player engaged with the game.  The setting needs to fit the story and the characters.  It needs to be interesting, well designed, and believable.  The smallest details, like flowers in a meadow or squirrels in the trees of a forest, can lend believability to a setting and make it more interesting to play inside of.

Combat is normally a central mechanic to any role playing game.  If the player is going to be engaging in any activity repeatedly, it needs to be entertaining.  This can be achieved through visually interesting combat animation, well designed set piece battles, challenging AI, new abilities and equipment, and different enemy types.  Combat should never feel like a chore that simply connects the dots between story points.

Finally, we come to controls.  If the controls for a game are cumbersome or unintuitive it does not matter if the story or the combat is good.  Control schemes should always have the option to be remapped by the player.  No button on the keyboard should be hardwired to any given command.  The number of regularly entered commands should never exceed what a normal player can press or hold at any one time.

These are more general design elements that are necessary to make an RPG enjoyable or accessible to the greatest number of people. However, some of the design aspects of an RPG really depend on the type of player.  If you’re a player who enjoys a story driven, dialogue heavy role playing experience then you’ll probably want a developer to focus on the plot, the locales, the character design, voice acting, and interaction.  Story driven players will want enemies that are smart and powerful, puzzles that require some thought, music that fits each scene superbly, and menus that don’t disturb the story immersion.

More action-oriented players will probably want a developer to focus on the graphic experience, loud and gratifying sounds (explosions, metal on metal, crunching bones, etc), the inventory system, and loot drops.  They won’t mind spending a long time examining their items in a menu as long as they get detailed descriptions and statistics.  Action-oriented players will want their character to vanquish hordes of monsters at a time with only mildly engaging puzzles, and music that is at least different with every area.