Basic RPG character system

Snebjorn

Hi all,

I'm planning a short game jam project which might benefit from having some basic RPG elements like character classes, levels, an XP system and some simple character stats (strength, stamina, hit points et cetera) which could be accessed from action lists.

My current plan is to implement this as an extra component on AC characters along with a set of custom actions to work with character stats, so you could e.g have interactions that are only available to characters of a specific class or require a certain character level and so on.

An example: There's a "Push stone" interaction on a hotspot, but if you try it with a character strength of less than 10, you are informed that "It's too heavy" (or it might be completely disabled), otherwise it can be pushed out of the way to gain access to a new section of the scene. If you don't have the required strength, there'll be a different way to gain access to that new area.

Mixing this with a classic point'n'click game style is probably a bit risky from a game design perspective, as most players with an adventure game background will probably just go and hunt for the right inventory item to use on the stone, while they should really be using a different approach to solving the puzzle, depending on their character stats.

This may in fact be just a huge can of game design worms waiting to blow up in my face, but I still want to investigate it in a short game jam project to see if it works in practice

If anyone else has done something like this, I'd love to hear their input on the matter.

Thought about posting this in the "Extending the editor" category as it will obviously require a fair bit of custom scripting, but it's probably more related to game design ...

Alverik

Dunno, I'm in the same boat, I've been working on a system I can use to create Entities with stats (separated into base stats, skills and condition stats, this last one a la Sims, like hunger), though my focus has been on being able to create any character with any set of stats or skills I need when I start a game (So I can create stat templates, then create "characters", I then assign characters stats, skills and condition stats from the available templates). I haven't really properly tested it in action yet though, since I'm focusing on a VR project right now. I did had the code for processing increase/decrease of points and level up done, but untested. But I'm basically approaching a stat similar to how AC deals with AC variables. A base stat class which has stuff like name, value, max value, display value (int and float, for text or bars), level, exp, etc. Last but not least I needed to assign a "character" to an NPC, but, since I have a few custom stuff (like an emoticon system, or a reaction when touched, etc), I already have my own custom character script I just put on them and assign a character from there. Though, I am trying to acomodate for sporadic/temporal characters created on the fly if needed, like you'd want some enemies to have some skills a bit more random, so the precreated "Characters" would be for like companions or other established characters.

Then, besides the annoying and long task of making the custom inspector. The one thing I'm still milling over is how to best display the data, in a dynamic way, maybe use a single UI I can popup and then add or remove labels on the fly. Also the increase of stats when the Player levels up, I haven't found any good explanation of how they deal with determinig what to increase (in case the stat increase is randomized but has to fit to a "character build"), though I do have tried to preapare my stat data adding a Leveling Factor variable... Also, stuff like deciding how stats affect combat and other things. I guess the hardest part at the end of the day is deciding how stats are going to behave in a game, lol. And like you I also need to make or improve custom actions so stats can be properly integrated into AC workflow.

I'd also like it if you share your ideas about the issue. Though, headsup, my logic is good, but my math is terrible, lol (been like 15 years since I finished school, and then I've only been studying things that have nothing to do with it, lol). For now I'm basically using a character leveling equation I found on the net (the one for Disgaea 1). Talking about Disgaea, I'm also very interested in allowing leveling past 99, and even deleveling, like in one of the Wild Arms games (5, I think?)  where there's a special shop where you can buy special items by spending your energy (aka: your levels). That greatly increases the game's life, since players have to go get back the levels they spent.

hightreason

Your idea is basically like what the Quest for Glory series does right? A lot of people, including myself, liked that series a lot. Someone liked it so much, he made an homage game to it called Quest for Infamy a couple years ago. So your hybrid Adventure/RPG would be in good company.

Personally, I love adventure games that reach beyond their traditional bounds and include elements not typically associated with adventure games.