The focused generalist

Welcome back to my online text adventure series. Let’s discuss what is the game about and what makes it interesting for me. First, let’s ponder on why, while the new generation of gaming is upon us, I want to build a text-adventure game. Well, it’s an easy question to answer. I want to build an entire game by myself and I want to see my vision come to fruition quickly. 

Building a 3D or even a 2D game requires a lot of effort and I don’t have the background for that quite yet. I want to learn how to walk before I start hitting the ground running, as a way to speak. By selecting such a project, I get the chance to work on front-end and back-end development. Those are skills in which I want to continue to grow this year. This feels like a perfect fit for me.

The challenges of a text-adventure

Although a text-based game doesn’t have the challenges of a 2D/3D game, it does have its own set of challenges. One big challenge in the modern day is to keep a person’s focus. Usually, games can do so through nice graphics and an amazing soundtrack. In the case of a text-adventure, your main tool is the text. It is your only means to interact with the player. If the text isn’t engaging or too long to read to get in the heart of the action, players won’t play the game.

This is a nice opportunity for me to focus on both my communication and story-telling skills. Throughout the years I’ve had my blog, I’ve had the chance to work on my communication skills. I get the chance to share my experiences and discoveries with the world. But I do not want to stop there. I always look for new ways and challenges to improve myself. This game poses the right level of challenge to learn more about ways to engage others in what I have to share. 

The story-line of BlazingRPG 

BlazingRPG reveals the tragic story of the land of Kaleas and the scourge of dragons. Long ago, the SpellSword magical knighthood protected the realm from the foul creatures. Legends said that they owned the strength of a thousand men each. They were able to combine magical prowess with their superior strength to keep forces of evil at bay. Albeit with all their might and will, it was never enough to overcome them.

Through time, the SpellSwords did their best to get rid of the foul beasts such as goblins and griffons. There were always more monsters than there were SpellSwords. It took time to train a single unit and not everyone could master the magical arts. The order of the SpellSwords disappeared and there seemed to be no one else to train a new generation.

And that’s when it happened. 

The village of the hero was burnt to the ground. He wakes up in chains and en route towards a prison. Their only hope for survival is to kill the jailer and seek protection in the secluded realm of elves.

The hero awakens in a chaotic and shattered world. The village was up in smoke. His loved ones died, some quicker than others. As they were leaving the county, the air was still heavy with the smell of blood and ashes. It made it hard to breathe and try to find some inner peace amid everything. The horrors of the previous night were still fresh in their memory.

“The dragons will pay for this. That I swear on my blood and the blood of my village!” the hero thought.

That was the only thing that could keep the hero going. Taking revenge on those who brought this misery on him. To avenge the village, it is necessary to find a legendary elf warlock that could train them as a SpellSword. Only a legendary SpellSword could have a chance with those beasts.

Concluding remarks 

The picture I have in my mind for the game is becoming clearer and clearer every day. I’ll set out on starting sprints of 2 weeks to build both the game server and the client for the text-adventure.

The most important thing during my sprints is to commit and complete my scope. It needs to be small enough that I can manage it and experiment as I go. I have found a tester for my project. It’s important to find someone you trust that can provide meaningful input on your project(s). 

In the last post, I mentioned that the next post would have been on game design and mechanics for the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen as I thought. I thought it’d be better to understand what the game is trying to show you, as the player, before we move to how it’s going to do it. Now, we’re finally ready for that.

 Until next time,

Kevin A.