Dev: Do You Need Ideas?

I know roleplaying is mostly about creativity, and I am sure the way the game is built, it attracts players with great imagination. However I don't take ideas for content creation, it's my something very... "personal" for me. Balance, rules, usability, it's all open to debate and players have helped me out a lot, but not content.

I have a huge queue of ideas, for instance I had known everything I'd put in the Ark and Icemist for 3 years already, and I know what I want to put in every area not yet implemented in Varannar. One could say I have too many ideas, and too little time.

On the other hand, maybe I can allow content creation to players, so you can make your own adventures. It's very hard to implement for mobile, but it can be a feature in the PC version. No promises, what gets implemented will largely depend on how well it sells on desktop. What I can promise however is that my second game *will* implement a creation toolset.

I'm hoping we can customize in the character creation of the next game

@ David,

I always wondered why you were going to start on another game (not the desktop version) before this one was finished. As it isnt about lack of ideas to use within the lore youve already made, would you mind sharing some of the reasons?

I'm genuiney interested in the challenges faced by independant developers, and i can only come up with the thought that new stuff sells better and no matter how good a game is, the money money earned decreases. If so have you considered other forms of funding, such as patreon?

RougeRogue":10f1rgzl said:

@ David,

I always wondered why you were going to start on another game (not the desktop version) before this one was finished. As it isnt about lack of ideas to use within the lore youve already made, would you mind sharing some of the reasons?

I'm genuiney interested in the challenges faced by independant developers, and i can only come up with the thought that new stuff sells better and no matter how good a game is, the money money earned decreases. If so have you considered other forms of funding, such as patreon?

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There are several reasons. The main one is I need to work on something new after 4 intense years if I want to remain sane. I want to do new things, start from scratch all over. Build over what I learned in terms of design, programming and writing. And learn new things.

Yes, I have ideas for everything in Varannar, but I have a million awesome ideas for the next games. Stories, characters, mechanics, I need to get it all out of my head or it'll explode . I love creating stuff for Exiled Kingdoms, I think the last update reflects I still care about the game and love it, and I plan to keep adding things in the years to come. But I need to move on to new things as well.

The second important reason is the game is already complete. Sure, I can add more stuff to it, and I will, but I don't think there are many recent RPGs with the amount of content this game has. Nothing important for the story is missing. Some people complain on "loose ends" and of course there are some, but many of them really aren't; I deliberately make mention of many things simply to make the world larger in the player's imagination, not because I plan to implement absolutely everything that has been mentioned in-game. Do you remember all the things they randomly mentioned in Star Wars episode 4? It made the world bigger for you, and it actually becomes worse when they start "implementing" them in a miriad new prequels that make their universe smaller... Sometimes questions are more important than answers.

Finally, of course, there's the funding. I certainly don't like much the Patreon model as a way to sustain my business. I want to make games and sell them to people that enjoy them. And being realistic, any development I have done past the 0.9 update has likely brought me a very small extra income, I need to have another game complete by the time EK sales are declining. Which is inevitable, just as nobody is purchasing old games anymore. Translations seem to be improving local sales, but I am certain I can't live off EK forever, and you know, if money runs out and I have no other game selling, then I'd be seeking a job and then it will be over, as I doubt I can go again through the effort of developing a game while I work full time. Ironically, what can ensure I keep working on EK in the years to come is that I start working on something else right now.

That's interesting and I can't believe you had everything for Ark/Icemist 99.99% planned 3 years ago, but I guess having a solid concept is necessary for developing a big and good game.

toopa":60ky7eqh said:

That's interesting and I can't believe you had everything for Ark/Icemist 99.99% planned 3 years ago, but I guess having a solid concept is necessary for developing a big and good game.

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Of course it was not 99.99%, but the important stuff was there, and figuring out the rest is the most satisfactory part of this job for me