I’ve been reminded to focus more on the story aspect of the game. 
So the story is essentially what drives the game forward, so this means that I have to design the entire gameplay experience wrapped around the story, So based on what the story is going to be like and what players will be able to experience as they travel and journey through the campaign experience.
That’s the most important part of the gameplay actually.
So instead, rather I’ve decided that I’m taking the “show more approach” instead of the “tell less” approach!
Show More Approach = Player experiences the story more! by playing through the main missions of the game > The Gameplay compensates for that aspect of the experience by “Showing More” which is ‘doing more’ through the gameplay, which adds purpose to the story, and the story told gives direction to the player.
Tell Less Approach = The Player is blasted with words and Summarized scripts of what the story is and the playstyle is so disconnected from the actual story and experience of the game, this leaves players with idk questions that frustrate them
example: what the heck I am doing , what do I have to do? why am i doing this? why do i have to go there? WTF is the story of this game? players have no sense of purpose because there is no direction implemented in to the gameplay experience.
an example of “Tell Less” is this:
load some random battlefield with ai bots no progression just kill and shoot as many AI as possible until the round is over… things like that make players tired and want to quit a game made on an already dated engine its a waste of time, if i chose to just write a bland brief script about a mode that people can play in many modern games out there … tell less approach doesn’t give the game value it makes it trash and sh*t on an already dated game engine.
Where as The “Show More” approach takes the initiative to explain to the player why you are doing what you are doing, Example: so ‘A’ needs to be freed because of B, and ‘B’ is depending on A in the game story wise, so there’s a proper flow chain of operations in the game world.
so a basic example of mision objectives would be outlined as:
- take out the villains who are present here at this point and then you will free ‘A’ and A will be able to help B, and the story cutscenes will show you how B gets helped through your actions through the gameplay and C can then benefit from you mission progression, then the villains (Story) or Enemy AI (In game world) can cause another problem somewhere in the game world as part of the progression of the narrative or they try to now attack your secured point location.
Focusing on the Little details:
- its things like that that will make players say wooowww, I’m already impressed and intrigued that a game like this is able to tell an immersive diverse story with a relevant purposeful meaningful gameplay playstyle. (They wont feel betrayed by the Tech or the Engine being used or the Graphics but the experience and playstyle through the story direction will make it a worthwhile experience, those who fall in love with the story will keep playing the game because they like it and there’s nothing else like it out there making it a truly unique and special game.)
Things like boss fights will be more meaningful … more challenging, for example if you didn’t upgrade then the AI Boss will easily defeat you in the mission, some bosses are literally undefeatable unless you upgraded or you finished certain parts of the previous missions before you got to the actual boss level fight scene.
Everything is connected: boss fights are all connected to the story and your campaigns progression, allowing you to progress in ways according to how the story is being told.
The Show More Approach - basically is, “doing everything” basically going the extra mile to show more, through the actual plot of the game, but extending that through its gameplay experience…
but its scope tied & limited to the storytelling aspect of the main plot of the game, not some mindless empty huge vast game with no purpose…
It’s all tied down to the scope of the story, if the story is ambitious the gameplay will reflect those elements things like Ground to space and much much more!
so with what I’m doing now replanning this entire project im getting the plan up and ready for a successful development cycle, that will allow me to atleast showcase the 1st part of the story in the official demo which is basically the beta demo.
beta demo has been a planned release from the start.
but every integrated feature and mechanic or aspect of the game will be fitted in to the core of the narrative experience.
so here’s an example: (Story Tied Gameplay Style - For the player Experience!)
if the game starts with a space battle it will allow players to choose whether they want to board enemy capial ships and defeat the target or capture a point its all going to be integrated with how the narrative goes not just free roam with no direction!
Every Implemented feature is part of the story and the story allows the player to experience this in their playstyle without breaking immersion and involvement in the main narrative of the game.
for example: ground to space or space to ground the missions allow players to fly from space to ground in the mission to their target point with out them having to break the story … but there is always a sheer amount of freedom added lets say the player decides to explore the map and cut out of the mission structure they will pause the mission and wherever they fly too on the map whether its going back in to space while the mission requires them to go in the planet to the base and secure a capture point as part of the main narrative they are free to fly where they want to go to but they cant travel to another map there are limits that reset players if they happen to go out of reach!
so yeah, every feature and aspect of the game, primarily in the 1st mission of the campaign; train the player to stick to the mission design structure and path but later on the missions allow for some diversity as to how they want to play and in what way. (giving them freedom of choice)
so the game mainly has this ambitious scope, that explores the possibilities of what UPBGE can do! what the engine handles best and greatly and plays stably well and is brilliantly executed at runtime, as I narrow the scope up a bit regarding performance.
All will be documented and what can’t be done or executed well in the engine, will be listed and a workaround can be adopted!
but yeah that’s the whole point of this game, ‘to tell a story and to immerse the players in that story with all the features that have been added’ everything has been tailored to tell a good star wars story from a fans enthusiastic mind and impression about star wars really.
all at while pushing an old aged dated game engine to its MAX in to areas where no other developers were capable of doing so or solo dev’s have ever tried to attempt before.
There’s s much untapped potential with UPBGE and even in todays world, with todays standards everything is relevant, who knows maybe some pure die hard fan could come to me one day and want a remake of this game in unreal engine, As log as they put up a cohesive team and are willing to work and remake this masterpiece of an UPBGE Game the possibilities remain infinite & endless, All that matters is its perfect execution.
My simple Advise to all people who are interested in Solo Game Dev:
Don’t chase game engines and graphics! “chase a proper and cohesive vision” even if you are building something on an old dated engine, that is rated as sh*t by todays standards its not the engine that Determines how great the game is.
What Makes a Great Perfect Game is How it is Made Executed How it plays and How it holds up on its own as its own unique perfect masterpiece of a game that executes a great vision and expands on it through all its gameplay Elements!
at the end of the day those are just peoples opinions, people can talk but can they make something like this ? can the fulfil the impossible? you see there buddy… that’s how it is!
so to answer your question
Blockquote
yeah, it’s good choice to scale down and focus on something. An enjoyable open world is just too much work before the game is more than traveling around with no purposes. What aspect on your game u want to focus on ? Spaceship battles , Rts, Rpg ?
So to answer your question here buddy, I wont narrow the game to just space battles, I will undertake everything but as and how the story goes so the story leads the gameplay structure if mission 1 was fighting on capital ships then by the end of the mission you would have been boarded or you will be led to even fly to the surface of the planet seamlessly and engage ground targets or capture points for the sake of the story and plots direction the same thing with the character as well.
(The campaign gives you a character to play with and each character you play as contributes to the overall narrative of the plot.)
mission 2 can be on a new map with new places new mission structure designs whether its light saber fights or exploring tombs or vast lands or another battle somewhere on another planet the mission progresses the gameplay experience that way it doesn’t just keep 1 play style it uses multiple playstyles and the few chars that it gives you to play with.
so there’s no narrow playstyle its a diverse playstyle on 5 to 10 different worlds all part of 1 great narrative.
the emphasis here is on cutscenes and storytelling that’s the biggest part of making the game doing it all in game is a real challenge.
so at this point my focus is on how do i nail the story down 1st get the story perfectly written so that when i make and execute i just blend and adapt the gameplay to the parts of the narrative allowing the player to experience parts of the story in different ways the narrative directs them to experience without cutting out the immersion aspect.
its almost like a star wars simulator except its not just crayZ and wild on the gameplay its linear story drives the heart of the player experience.
I figured that by narrowing down the gameplay to the story will allow this game to be completed and made with a purpose so that it doesn’t end up as an empty game with no story but vast nothing ness to travel and explore nothing and lifeless worlds where as the story gives purpose for players to utilize every mechanic and feature implemented in tot he game.
things like ground to space, space ship battles, light saber combat, ground exploration I can even expand the game to create mini puzzled gameplay or combat battle zones I can add speederbike racing and all that kinds of stuff or fetch quest runs etc the possibilities are endless even adding infiltration missions in the city centers and district.
on paper it sounds like alot but with a complete plan and a well told story it can all be achieved because the scope is tied to the story and not just mindless brainless random events that are daunting to make with no purpose.
About the Power of UPBGE:
I figured at this point the BGE or UPBGE is not like unity or unreal engine that are commonly used game engines today where you can make an RTS or MMO or battle royale styled or a battlefield multiplayer shooter game that players can play and replay randomly daily all the time.
its an engine that can allow for a good story to be told and experienced the way it was meant to be played because large ambitious scales the engine cannot handle those well due to some bugs and how the engine lacks on many points but a decent game with a decent story with a limited playstyle scope can be
Because you see you gotta understand the reality in today’s age players aren’t goina spend countless hours on a game that was made in an engine like UPBGE or BGE for days playing an fps game or just a space ship game. they would rather invest some hours in playing a game where a decent story was made with a gameplay that’s been wrapped around it nicely giving them the immersion in the story experience that I believe would appeal more to players and if they want to come back for more every time they play this game they can hop into arcade mode and play on these maps and have a decent playthrough experience that’s for those who fall in love with the game.
so it may not be for graphics or a repetitive playstyle like an online shooter or a your common games today it has to be a special cohesive unique experience that the player can be wowed by and say how TF did they make a game like this on a dated engine. the manner in which the story and the gameplay are welded together should make players intrigued and invested and interested but the greatest challenge with UPBGE is performance and stability. the 0.2.0 is the most stable version of UPBGE ever built and abit of 0.2.5
where as 0.2.3 and 0.2.4 were the most buggiest builds of UPBGE.
A great game, with a good decent story can be made and the experience is worthwhile playing as an UPBGE Game; as opposed to creating a modern game with modern playstyle elements that everyone is used in modern game engines with their peak graphics that has a repetitive game loop or a grind that’s boring that many countess games already have out there.
Fred/K.S
@BluePrintRandom long time no see bud! you should PM me on discord Lets Talk!
