RPGWatch Forums - Frayed Knights

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Frayed Knights - Update

Jay Barnson discusses a suggestion he received for Frayed Knights to remove the towns and focus on the missions as well as giving a general update towards the end. Here's the idea:

Quote:

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Ruber Eaglenest, AKA El Clérigo Urbatain, with a very interesting suggestion. In a nutshell - his suggestion was to get rid of the towns, and any of the other space "between missions." All the narrative could be done with non-interactive cutscenes, and shopping could likewise be handled between missions.
He admitted that the town in the demo was rough, but expressed concern that the town added very little to the gameplay, and instead sucked development resources that could be better put into the dungeon adventuring. He also noted - very rightfully - that the limitations of 3D require a level of sparseness in the town layout, which means a lot of empty, open space. Which is boring. "The town doesn't add anything to the narrative that you could accomplish with traditional approaches. And I, like a player, just want be from mission to mission without so much waste of time in town."

Rather than just email him back with my response, I thought I'd respond here. Because he brings up a very good point. Not that I necessarily agree with him, but I think he's spot on in that the decision to the contrary demands justification.

More information.

Cool some FK news. I might have missed some updates, but it seems like forever since he talked about HIS game :) Ever since his demolike thingie (can't remember what he called it) But ever since then I've been waiting with baited breath for this game. I know it'll be awhile, but I sure would like it if he did more updates on his game and less on others.

I do agree towns take a lot of development time, and really you just can't convey reality into the game unless you have a big budget. But towns are important for (non-action) RPGs. I think there could be a compromise though. For a non AAA RPG (without AAA budget), a good compromise would be a beautiful map of a town or city with 'visitable' locations (originally just the Inn and Shop for example, but as quests go more locations would be clickable). When you click on a location you'd go to its indoors. That way, you can represent a small town or a huge city easily, while still providing the necessary town-related part of the adventuring.

If a game is focused entirely on dungeons, and dungeon-crawling per se, then he ius right. Towns should be left out.

However, it depends on the style of gameplay. There ARE non-dungeon-crawling RPGs out there (welcome to the new Millennium !).

The decision is at the hands of the maker(s).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer (Post 1060942601)

Yes of course, but think about it, even in Wizardry 1 you would go to 'town' between dungeon excursions

Personally, I love towns. For shopping. Mostly. ;) :D :p