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[djcityscapes]

Working title for my next game = TSILB (This Space Intentionally Left Blank)

I use Torque Game Builder as my development platform. My most recent game using TGB is Fangorodrim

Here are the lessons I learned in the making of Fangorodrim:
1. Mixing genres is a bad idea because I'm bound to fail everyone's expectations. The RTS fans want more depth in research/development and the Shooter fans want a nimble shooter game that does not require much thought.

2. Flashy artwork is critical to success. Players need a professional presentation to feel like the game is worth their time. In the early versions of Fangorodrim, the artwork and fonts where stock TGB and most players could not get over that. I found a good artist and he helped make the artwork one of the highlights of the game so players were motivated to play it through.

3. I can't make everyone happy. I need a concept that is strong enough to stay within scope and not get sidetracked by every beta tester's wish list.

4. Good feedback is critical. Interpreting that feedback is just as critical. If 100 people give me feedback I need to know how to boil that down to the essentials. As my game progressed through it's iterations, I got thousands of my own ideas but didn't know if anyone else would care. Some of these I implemented because they were clearly within scope. Others were in a gray area and would only get confirmed by feedback. If only 1 player out of a hundred complained about some non-bug observation, it would not get the same attention as if 20 people clamored for the same thing. An example of a change that occurred in Fangorodrim due to popular demand was increasing sector size. That sounds easy to implement: Make the sectors bigger, right? I put that off for as long as I could but every time I posted my game on a new board that was the number 1 complaint. It only took me about 20 hours of coding to change that...

Anyway, I'm taking these lessons into the next project, TSILB, and here's what I'm thinking of:

• Top-down space RPG. This applies lesson #2. I need to use my current artwork (which is nice and flashy).
• I envision the player's ship flying through randomized space stations or within huge asteroids or various planet surfaces.
• Class creation based on 5 basic ship types. TGB makes it easy to attach gear to the ship so it will get customized as the game progresses.
• Focus on skill trees. What kind of skill branches will be fun for this type of game? I'm still working on that.

Well if you have any comments/suggestions for what direction I should take (maybe a better title?), I'm all ears.   

[Lap]

Have you ever played any games in the Escape Velocity series?

[djcityscapes]

No, is that similar to my RPG concept?

[Fishbreath]

Vaguely. It's a game in the classic space trader genre, without much of the RPG-style progression you're describing. It also has quite a good set of plots for the genre, and a decent amount of stuff to do even after you've finished them.

The resemblance in proposed style is what brought EV to mind, I expect: for example.

[djcityscapes]

Interesting. For the RPG-style progression I've been able to come up with 4 distinct classes. All classes will have shields and cannon. The ship distinctions breakdown like this (these names are just placeholders for now):

"fighter": Missile launcher and Bombs
"Wizard": summon and EMP
"Archer": Stealth and Laser
"Cleric": Healing and conversion

These are the templates. I might offer a 5th choice where the player can pick any 2 abilities from the full list. Each ability (e.g. Bombs) will have an extensive skill tree in which to spend skill points. In addition, there will be a list of "bonus feats" that that player can choose 1 extra:
+Speed
+Fire Rate
+Turn rate
+Health
+Far sight

These will also have a skill tree / point system. This way (at least at first) the player will have 3 abilities to manage and customize his ship to make something unique. Obviously, leveling will grant skill points for the player to spend however they want.

[Blacken]

1. Mixing genres is a bad idea because I'm bound to fail everyone's expectations. The RTS fans want more depth in research/development and the Shooter fans want a nimble shooter game that does not require much thought.

Yes. Making a game that encompasses two genres is four times harder than making two games that each encompass one genre.

2. Flashy artwork is critical to success. Players need a professional presentation to feel like the game is worth their time. In the early versions of Fangorodrim, the artwork and fonts where stock TGB and most players could not get over that. I found a good artist and he helped make the artwork one of the highlights of the game so players were motivated to play it through.

Not necessarily. You're conflating "flashy" with "professional." A game can have completely and totally understated graphics and still be appealing and professional. Go look at Braid--nothing particularly flashy at all about Braid's graphics, but they're polished and professional.

3. I can't make everyone happy. I need a concept that is strong enough to stay within scope and not get sidetracked by every beta tester's wish list.

Yes.

4. Good feedback is critical. Interpreting that feedback is just as critical. If 100 people give me feedback I need to know how to boil that down to the essentials. As my game progressed through it's iterations, I got thousands of my own ideas but didn't know if anyone else would care. Some of these I implemented because they were clearly within scope. Others were in a gray area and would only get confirmed by feedback. If only 1 player out of a hundred complained about some non-bug observation, it would not get the same attention as if 20 people clamored for the same thing. An example of a change that occurred in Fangorodrim due to popular demand was increasing sector size. That sounds easy to implement: Make the sectors bigger, right? I put that off for as long as I could but every time I posted my game on a new board that was the number 1 complaint. It only took me about 20 hours of coding to change that...

Bug triage is important, yes. More important is to design your game and game engine (although since you're using TGE, you're handcuffing yourself) to support these changes trivially, so you can quickly and iteratively prototype such changes.