Clashing System designs #1 - Various Daylife

 Source - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIB51vojeU

The idea and source of the game's systems isn't entirely bad, the idea being of the core mechanic of working and chaining things together, having it where your character's personal life affects your ability to fight and work with your teammates. However; the execution is off with many elements being wrong.

Lack of telling the player

Other systems are able to be implied because they're known as staple mechanics but even those get told to the player while here the game designers don't realize you need to tell the players the common core mechanics and the staple mechanics so they can understand what to do.

The more complex/ messy the systems, the more leg work you need to do as the designer to tell the players what the hell is going on, this is why I make my game systems optional to learn for more complex/ messy systems so the player doesn't have to learn them but if you are going to have a complex game loop then you need to ensure nothing goes wrong and have things working in tip top order for the gameplay and systems to keep the player engaged, otherwise you will fail and falter.

Core systems need to mesh

The menu-ing in the game isn't fun for most players, a party management system works for Hero Guilds and all that or Cookie Clicker for menu-ing because it's not an RPG game, it's a game where you try to figure out how to make numbers go up faster and better. Here it's different sure because it has RPG elements but said people who like this genre like having actions and acts being able to be taken place for what they can do.

No one wants to play a game where they're going from menu to menu for the core gameplay system, have it be a mini-game, have it where the player is encouraged/ rewarded for experimenting and combining certain understandings of new job learnings better, just something to encourage/ get the player on board with your game.

No player desires to learn or understand a system with little to no depth but a ton of complexity expect for a small niche player base. People want systems they can sink their teeth into, the less they can do that the more likely the player is to not engage or want to engage with said systems. On top of that you're introducing actively having to engage with the system kind of gameplay, this isn't Fortnite where you have two conflicting game loops.

Depth, you need it

The combat has depth! In the area of combat the game designers seem to understand what they need to do! However here with the job system part, lack luster, no real understanding of the depth and complexity of said systems that need to take place.

I am even going to make a separate post for a number of ideas/ fixes I would do to this game.

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