Author: Mark Vanderploeg

Having been sick and afflicted by allergies, I am reminded of the time when I tried to work on Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War when I was sick. It didn’t end well. When I went back over the work I had done during testing, it was riddled with mistakes. There were various typos and quite a few bugs that would never have existed if I wasn’t trying to get everything done as soon as possible, despite my illness.

So if a developer works sick or over-tired, the quality of the work goes down, and then the QA department is stuck with more work. The short term gains of “getting the tasks done” do not out-weigh the long term problems they create either for yourself or others working on the project. And it’s a elementary school concept, but don’t go into the workplace sick, as you can infect others, and then they’ll get behind on work.

In short, (and this doesn’t apply only to game development) working sick doesn’t help and causes more problems, so don’t do it. Now I’ll take my advice and stop writing this and go rest.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

This time, I have one important thing to say about game engines. I have worked with two: RPG Maker MV and Unreal Engine 4, and they have one critical thing in common that is crucial. They do not spell check your work. As you should, you are able to type anything you want to appear in your game, but doing so directly into the engine begets unintentionally spelling and grammar errors.

When I made Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War I was cocky and thought, “I’m experienced at typing, and I know how to spell things. I can just read it back and there won’t be any mistakes.” That was very wrong. My text was riddled with mistakes, which I had to spend way too much time to go back to fix. I have found that when I was proofreading my own work, my mind auto-corrects words in a way, and reads them as the correct spelling, despite being wrong. I assume that this happens to other people too.

So, what is the main takeaway of this little warning? Type everything for your game in a separate word processor first, with a spell checker. Then, copy and paste it into the engine. It may seem like an annoying extra step, but it will save a ton of time later.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

When creating a game, the amount of labor that needs to be done can quickly become overwhelming, especially when it is just one person working on it. Therefore, it is important to have a well-defined schedule to make sure both physical and mental energies are not wasted and scattered all over the project. When I first began creating Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, my work was scattered, and progress was slow while creating the Prologue and Chapter 1. After getting more of a mastery of the game’s engine, I decided that I needed to sit down and plan out how to create more chapters effectively. Then, I remembered Day[9]’s DayKnights 30 Day Projects, and created my schedule based on those principles. You can find a full description of that format here:

https://dk30.day9.tv/about?t=1582666010748

Although my project wasn’t a 30 day project, I applied the same principles to break down the production schedule of the content of my game. Each chapter alone came to be about a 3 week project. Here’s approximately how each chapter broke down:

Week 1 – Area Design

Monday and Tuesday – Create world areas, villages, and cities

Wednesday – Create the area for side quest 1

Thursday – Create the area for side quest 2

Friday – Create the area for the chapter’s main quest

Week 2 – Content Design

Monday – Design enemies and skills for those enemies

Tuesday – Create bosses, boss encounters, and put enemies in troops

Wednesday – Design side quest 1

Thursday – Design side quest 2

Friday – Design the chapter’s main quest

Week 3 – Populating and Quality Assurance

Monday – Add treasure chests to the world and NPCs to the population centers

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday – Testing, fixing, and testing again, then more fixing

Friday – Create equipment and items for the next week’s chapter

Of course, many of these steps like “design the chapter’s main quest” is broken down into more specific steps, but those steps differed depending on the chapter.

As you can see, this schedule seems much more doable than just saying, “I’m going to create a chapter of my game in 3 weeks.” This method will ensure that you have everything you need when you need it, and it keeps you on track. If you have a long, daunting project to do, I highly suggest applying the principles of the DayKnight 30 day project, even if it’s not precisely one month. After all, the content of Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War is a collection of several 3 week projects.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.

War Sorceress:

In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the raw magic damage dealing class is Lyrra’s “War Sorceress” option. The in-game description of the War Sorceress is as follows:

Selecting this option will change Lyrra to the “War Sorceress” class. She will focus on obliterating her enemies with powerful fire, lightning, water, and fusion spells. She will also gain the ability to use heavy armor, shields, and off-hand weapons. As a War Sorceress, Lyrra’s combat options become exceptionally versatile. Due to her [character background], Lyrra is capable of being anything from a spellcasting tank to a high damage magic archer. In fact, due to her mastery of fusion magic, the War Sorceress has the highest single-target damage potential of all the advanced classes. However, compared to the Songstress, the War Sorceress falls behind in terms of healing and TP generation, but can still output viable support.

Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

The War Sorceress is meant to feel like a master of magic in all forms. She can use her magic despite wearing heavy armor, use it to empower weapon attacks, fuse raw magical elements together with ease, and still cast support magic. Normally in fantasy settings, mages are restricted by mechanical restrictions, such as heavy armor hampering the motions to cast spells. However, the War Sorceress, casts away those restrictions, and with her exceptional magical skill, takes the concept of a weapon-wielding spellcaster further beyond, gaining access to powerful weapon-based spells and raw magic spells. To elaborate on how the War Sorceress works in this manner, I would like to describe some of its skills in more detail.

Heritage Blade – Muster your power and enchant your blade with an unknown element. After the caster strikes, she is filled with courage and gains the “mocking” effect. (Must have a sword or dagger equipped.)

Bard’s Arrows – Conjure arrows of an unknown element. When the arrows hit the target, they burst into soothing magic that applies the “inspired” effect to all allies for this turn only. (Must have a bow or crossbow equipped.)

Flaming, Lightning, and Water Arrows/Blades Level III -Enchants the weapon attack to deal magic damage of the respective element. Level III elemental arrows buff the user’s luck stat temporarily, while level III elemental blades buff the user’s endurance stat temporarily.

All of these skills demonstrate how the weapon choice of the War Sorceress matters. If the player chooses a blade, then the War Sorceress gains some tank-like abilities and damage reduction, but if the player chooses a bow or crossbow, then the War Sorceress takes a more traditional role for a mage, sticking to support-like spells and the magic element mechanics in the game via increased luck.

Fusion Magic – Fusion magic combines multiple elements into a single spell. Fusion spells can apply “fusion primer,” increasing the damage of following fusion spells by 25%.

The War Sorceress gains an assortment of fusion spells that combine the fire, lightning, and water elements, and they cost MP to cast, meaning that they are able to be used frequently. Fusion magic is especially powerful as it allows the player to create some devastating spell combinations.

Elemental Control Aria – An aria that forces any single-target magic attacks to be redirected to the caster. Also, it grants the caster fire, lightning, and water absorption.

Not only is the War Sorceress a master of her own magic, but she is skilled enough to draw in the concentrated magic of other spellcasters. Whether she is specialized to be a tank role or a damage dealer, the War Sorceress is able to support the party by mitigating incoming magic attacks.

With all of these things considered, the War Sorceress is a versatile class that can be specialized even further based on the player’s choice of weapon. With magic, anything is possible, and that’s just how the War Sorceress operates. The War Sorceress’ tool kit is designed in such a way that it is meant to make the the player feel that this class is the master of many advanced types of magic, and can shift between them with ease.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.

SONGSTRESS:

In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the magic-based healer/support class is Lyrra’s “Songstress” option. The in-game description of the Songstress is as follows:

Selecting this option will change Lyrra to the “Songstress” class. She will focus on singing to support her allies and attacking with psychic magic. Songstress spells are more TP efficient than most, allowing more frequent use of them. She will also passively reduce psychic damage that she takes. The Songstress excels at helping her fellow party members shine and can fit into any composition easily. Compared to the War Sorceress, the Songstress falls behind in damage potential, but can still output viable damage.

Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

The Songstress is very much primarily a support class, but to keep things interesting, there are tweaks within the class to the TP generation. As in, TP generation is notably higher for the Songstress, even when using just single-target and support spells. Advances skills learned by the Songstress either generate more TP or refund some TP on use, which makes the TP requirement to cast higher, but lowers the effective casting cost. Additionally, as the class is based on being an advanced bard of sorts, most of the spells are songs and are animated as such in order to give the player the impression that it is the Songstress’ voice that is willing the magic into being, and it is her natural rhythm that generates her Tempo (TP) faster. To elaborate on how the Songstress  works in this manner, I would like to describe some of its skills in more detail.

Discordant Dirge I-III – Perform a funerary song that rakes the target’s mind with personal doubts, worries, and anxieties.

(Level I – 30 TP cost, 0 refund, net 30 cost)

(Level II – 40 TP cost, 5 refund, net 35 cost)

(Level III – 50 TP cost, 10 refund, net 40 cost)

As seen here, adding a simple refund of resources can let the initial cost be higher, but cost less in a practical sense. Applying this mechanic in Songstress makes it seem that she is using her songs and rhythms to be more efficient in combat.

Healing Melody III -A soothing tune that heals one ally. This spell generates 5 extra TP. (Only usable in combat.)

A level III heal is only available to the Songstress, which asserts her superiority in healing and support, and having it generate 5 extra TP not only allows her to cast more frequent mass support spells via TP (as most support spells shift from single-target to a party wide buff when TP is spent), but also reaffirms the point made above about her rhythm helping her in the flow of combat.

Combat Rhythm – Sing a song enhancing the rhythm of one ally, spending 25 TP to grant 30 TP to the target.

As the Songstress’ aim is to help her allies, she can transfer the extra TP that she generates to a different party member, reinforcing her role as support. Additionally, it is worth noting that she grants 30 TP at the cost of 25 TP, so she is generating even more TP than what she is spending. In this way, it is clear to the player that the Songstress is suited to helping the rest of the party.

As a whole, the Songstress generates a significantly high amount of TP considering that she has no magic AoEs to bolster it. She has powerful heals and support, but also has a few tools, such as Discordant Dirge, to deal damage or help another party member deal more damage when needed. To give a greater narrative sense for her TP generation, her songs and music tie into her spells. Since TP is a measure of a character’s momentum in combat, the narrative fits well with the mechanics here.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.

ILLUSIONIST ROGUE:

In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the magic-based offensive support class is Jones’ “Illusionist Rogue” option. The in-game description of the Illusionist Rogue is as follows:

Selecting this option will change Jones to the “Illusionist Rogue” class. He will focus on learning spells designed to defend against opposing magic while dealing damage at the same time. He will also passively reduce dark damage that he takes. The Illusionist Rogue further expands his combat options by learning a variety of single-target TP spells and by learning lightning magic.

Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

The Illusionist Rogue is in an unusual spot where it uses offensive magic and magic to offer support to the party, but it does not directly use healing spells. The best analogy would be like how warrior archetypes can reduce enemy physical damage done, and sometimes heal themselves, but not heal others. Illusionist Rogue is like that, but on the magic side of things. While a warrior is the physical shield of the party, the Illusionist Rogue is the magical shield of the party. When used correctly, an Illusionist Rogue can make any situation with enemy magic feel safer. To elaborate on how the Illusionist Rogue works in this manner, I would like to describe some of its skills in more detail.

Shadow Torrent, Blizzard, and Wind Blast LEVEL III – Dark, Cold, and Wind damage AoEs respectively.

While the lower level versions of these spells are learned in the basic “Trickster” class, the Illusionist Rogue upgrades them further not only to be more powerful, but also the level III versions of these skills grant the user a brief magical resistance buff. As the dark and wind spells apply primers to increase the damage of other elements, and the cold spell can reduce the enemies’ physical defense, these spells also provide offensive support to the party.

Dark Detonator Shields– These special dark spells provide the party with temporary resistance to one detonator school and immunity to that school’s persistent effect.

These spells provide a 50% damage reduction to the following elements, with only one active at a time: fire, cold, lightning, psychic. If the player notices that a certain enemy is sticking to one of these elements, then the Illusionist Rogue can throw up one of these shields and make the encounter much safer. These spells, along with the level III offensive spells, give the player the sense that the Illusionist Rogue is throwing up big, sweeping walls of magic to attack and defend.

Seeking Bolts– Attack a target with two accurate bolts of lightning that never miss. This spell ignores spell redirection effects. (Magic “mocking” effects).

Overall, the Illusionist Rogue is designed to feel like the player is throwing up sweeping walls of magic that have both an offensive and defensive function. Additionally, it is meant to feel like it is a thief/rogue type archetype that has learned and applied advanced magic to achieve any advantage possible in combat, whether it be the sweeping walls, or using stealth spells to increase the critical rate of lighting magic.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.

ASSASSIN:

In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the physically focused, multi-hitting, and critical focused damage dealer is Jones’ “Assassin” option. The in-game description of the Assassin is as follows:

Selecting this option will change Jones to the “Assassin” class. He will focus on debilitating enemies with persistent effects and critically hitting them. It will also be less likely that he is targeted by an attack. In addition to looking for critical hits, the Assassin fights by using effective two turn physical combos that are almost guaranteed applications of common persistent effects, and he fights by taking full advantage of off-hand weapons. Although the Assassin may have a hard time finding ways to take advantage of his party members’ set-ups, he is self-sufficient enough to set up many of his own combos and offers a variety of set-ups for his allies, including set-ups for spellcasters.

Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

The Assassin fulfills the rogue/thief archetype that is commonly found in western fantasy. This archetype also often feels like a lone wolf type of class that can operate independently. However, this game’s mechanics is largely based off of the party members working together to set up spell combos for each other. Thus, there was a challenge to incorporate it into the game. The solution for the assassin was to give it it’s two-turn combos the other party members cannot set up, but can also benefit from. To elaborate on how the Assassin works exactly in this turn-based system, I would like to describe some of its skills in more detail.

Grazing Strike (costs MP)- In addition to an attack, leave light wounds on the target, making it more likely to be affected by “bleeding” effects. (Includes Vendra’s “severe wound” effect.)

Feral Strike (costs 20 TP)- Strike with the chance to apply the “bleeding” effect to the target.

This skill combination demonstrates the Assassin’s way of operating perfectly. As single target attacks generate 10 TP, as long as the Assassin already has 10 TP, he can use Grazing Strike on one turn, then Feral Strike on the next. No other party member can apply Grazing Strike’s effect, but they can apply “bleeding” to take advantage of it. It is worth noting that “bleeding” increases physical damage by 25%, so applying it early is a combo with other physical attacks as well.

Assassin’s Enchantments– Apply traces of magic to your weapon, granting a small chance to affect an attack target with the chosen spell school’s persistent effect. (Cold, Dark, and Wind.)

These enchantments allow the Assassin to help out the rest of the party as well as himself while he is doing his own thing. Since the Assassin can apply some spell effects in the magic element system passively, he does not need to dedicate any turns to helping the other party members deal damage. If he so chooses, he can simply focus on creating his own combos without relying on others. Additionally, the cold effect, “freezing,” lowers physical defense, furthering the Assassin’s ability to create his own combos.

Multi-Target Flurry– Move through the shadows behind every enemy, quickly striking them each once. This attack increases the caster’s crit rate and physical evasion temporarily.

Not only does this move have the flavor of sneaking around and deftly attacking, but it also furthers the Assassin’s mechanical goals, as it attacks every enemy with a weapon attack, which trigger the Assassin’s Enchantments described above. Not only that, but Assassins work best with the Off-Hand equipment slot filled with a light weapon that also cause weapon attacks to apply effects such as “bleeding” or “dazed.” If all else fails, this skill also increases the Assassin’s crit chance, so this skill also combos into multi-hitting skills, which also have chances to apply effects based on weapon attacks.

Overall, the Assassin class is made to feel like that it does not need to rely on others to successfully deal damage. The Assassin is able to use it’s own combos along with the Assassin’s Enchantments and off-hand weapons in order to deal effective damage without relying on party members and set up combos for party members.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.

DRACONIC KNIGHT:

In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the physically focused warrior and magic hybrid class is Vendra’s “Draconic Knight” option. The in-game description of the Draconic Knight is as follows:

Selecting this option will change Vendra to the “Draconic Knight” class. Aureus’ (a golden dragon) blood will unleash her latent mana, giving her a substantial boost to her magic potential and magic power. She will learn fire magic, wind magic, and spells typical of dragons. All of the spells she learns through the Draconic Knight class have a small chance to apply the “dragon fear” effect to their targets. She will also passively reduce any fire damage that she takes. The Draconic Knight is an aggressive mixed physical and magical damage dealer, but she also gains a unique set of defensive spells to support herself, which become very effective if she successfully anticipates her enemies. Although it may take some adjustments, the Draconic Knight is a terrifying force with the proper training and gear.

Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

The Draconic Knight is a class style that resembles paladin tanks and damage dealers, as it is a warrior and spellcasting hybrid, but it is also based on using spells themed around dragons. As the Draconic Knight casts spells, it is beneficial for it to allocate some resources to increasing its Magic Power stat. This, in turn, lowers the available stat resources for other important warrior stats such as physical defense, HP, and strength. As the player must make sacrifices in terms of stats, the class needs to make up for that minor deficiency in its abilities to stay competitive with the standard warrior class, “Warlord.” To elaborate on how the “Draconic Knight” effectively makes the player that the character is an effective tank and a spellcaster at the same time, I would like to explain a few of the class’ skills in more detail.

Blazing Breath– Breathe the vicious flames of a golden dragon on your enemies, hitting them all twice. This spell has a small chance to apply the “dragon fear” effect. Generates 4 TP per hit.

If the point of the class is to feel like a dragon, then there has to be a fire breath. This spell has a high mana cost, but also an abnormally high TP generation, so it rewards players for breathing fire on groups of enemies, which then gives the caster a chance to attack with hard-hitting TP spells. The flow is meant to emulate that of a dragon. The caster swoops in to weaken the enemies with a flood of fire breath, then finish them off with a massive physical attack.

Flaming Talon– Envelop your weapon in golden fire and strike the target for massive fire damage with a chance to apply the “burning” and “dragon fear” effects.

This skill is one of the large physical damage skills that uses TP mentioned just above. It has a high base power, and it also deals fire damage which can be even more devastating if the player is following the primer and detonator mechanics described in earlier posts. Basically, if players are using wind spells first, fire damage has the potential to deal double damage. Draconic Knights have access to a couple of wind spells to support this combo potential.

Golden Scion– Magically fortify to gain wind resistance and fire absorption. This spell also increases the caster’s M-POW for a short time and grants immunity to the “dragon fear” effect.

In this game, dragons absorb fire damage, halve wind damage, and are immune to “dragon fear.” Therefore, it is a must to give the dragon-resembling class access to the same bonuses.  How could one not feel like a dragon without bathing themselves in fire to heal? How could one feel like a dragon if they themselves fear dragons? Therefore, this spell provides these unique defensive benefits.

Now, “dragon fear” has been thrown around a lot in this discussion of the Draconic Knight, so it would be prudent to define it here and describe the thought behind its function in the game.

Dragon Fear–  reduces strength, magic power, speed, and luck by 34%.

As the name suggests, this is an effect used by dragons. For the most part, only dragons can apply this effect to the player, but the player can have access to this effect through the Draconic Knight class. It is applied through most skills in this class’ spellbook, and it is the Draconic Knight’s answer to having its stats spread more thinly than the Warlord. The effect is applied actively through fighting normally, and it mitigates damage for the player. The idea for the player to use “dragon fear” in this way was inspired by World of Warcraft’s introduction of “active mitigation” tanking in the early to mid 2010s.

Overall, the goal of the Draconic Knight class is to make the player feel like they are fighting like a dragon. Although some lower numbers may appear on the stat page compared to the Warlord, the Draconic Knight becomes an overwhelming force through its aggressive offensive skills, and its ability to mitigate damage both actively and passively through skills.

Ultimately, the goal of most classes are the same: attack to get the enemies’ HP down to zero. Therefore, it is up to the blending of mechanics and narrative to make each class feel unique. Theming a class around a certain archetype or narrative will help to define each class mechanically as well.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.

WARLORD:

In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the standard advanced warrior class is Vendra’s “Warlord” option. The in-game description of the Warlord is as follows:

Selecting this option will change Vendra to the “Warlord” class. She will continue to focus on overwhelming her enemies with physical force in martial combat and gain more skills to that end. She will also gain a passive ability to counterattack physical hits naturally. The Warlord’s fighting style is very straight forward. She deals damage through strength alone while she controls the flow of battle. Essentially, the Warlord fights like a Vanguard, but with higher power and a few extra interesting tactics.

Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

In short, the class fantasy of the Warlord is being an overwhelming physical force, who uses marshal prowess to both attack enemies and defend allies. To elaborate on the description above, I would like to explain a few of the Warlord’s class skills in more detail.

Stalwart Protector – Stand steadfast in front of your allies to eliminate the brunt of all incoming damage this turn by applying “guard” to all allies.

Using this skill allows players to feel that the Warlord stands at the front of the party, and is unmovable in the face of daunting threats.

Challenge of Strength – Attempt to goad the target into a contest of strength, applying the “silence” effect to the target and applying both the “mocking” effect and the “fortified body” effect to the user.

This skill forces the selected target to attack the Warlord with only physical skills, and makes the Warlord immune to many negative physical effects such as “bleeding” and “stunned” through the “fortified body” effect. Basically, the Warlord is declaring “I’m stronger than you, and I know it” as this spell is cast. A good use of this skill truly gives players the impression of the Warlord’s physical superiority.

Massive Blow– Brutally assault the target for high damage and apply the “dazed” effect. Additionally, the “dazed” effect has a high chance to be upgraded into the “stunned” effect.

Of course, the Warlord needs an attack that conveys raw power. Not only does this skill deal high damage, but also it can, with one strike, stun normal enemies for 2-4 turns. Dealing high damage while reducing damage via a stun truly embodies the feeling of the Warlord’s physical prowess.

Ultimately, the goal of most classes are the same: attack to get the enemies’ HP down to zero. Therefore, it is up to the blending of mechanics and narrative to make each class feel unique. Theming a class around a certain archetype or narrative will help to define each class mechanically as well.

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!

The largest thing that sets video games apart from other forms of digital media is that they have the potential to be deeply interactive. Therefore, the player needs to have some sort of a sense of agency in both the mechanics and narrative. The simplest way to do this is to create a “player character,” and whether it is customizable or not, that character needs to make an impact in most scenes in which it appears.

Needless to say, practically by the definition of a game, the player character or player party should be the primary driving force in the game’s mechanics and gameplay. However, in writing the narrative of a video game, it is somewhat of a pitfall to sweep aside the player character in a passive roles in cut-scenes and other narrative events. This mistake could arise for a few reasons. The one that stands out most in my mind is a fear of stepping on the toes of the player. As in, a fear of making a player character perform actions that make the player think, “I would never do that,” or something similar. Many address this problem by designing games with branching dialogue trees or morality systems so that the player understands that they are playing is a certain archetype.

Even if the player character is a set, non-customizable protagonist, it needs to have agency in the narrative. Many players, and this is especially the case for RPG players, play video games to interact with the world of the game, and the player character is their proxy. If the player character isn’t doing anything, then the player will feel that immediately. It will evoke thoughts like, “Nothing is happening in this game.” For a game’s narrative to be compelling, it needs to be a collection of scenarios in which the player character acts and reacts to its situations.

One of the most recent games I have played that fails to give the player character an active role is Pokemon Sword/Shield. Now, I’ve liked Pokemon since I was a kid with a Game Boy, and I understand what I should expect from the narrative from one of these games, but this latest entry into the franchise feels especially weak to me in a narrative sense. This is because the player does not do anything in the narrative. You watch your rivals, Hop, Marnie, and Bede change as characters. And you watch the adults try to take care of any narrative conflict that arises. Often, the player is brushed off and told something like, “Don’t worry about it, so  just go do the gym challenge.” This is not the right way to treat your player or player character. In fact, it is actively removing the player from what would make this game unique in the franchise, as the core model and gameplay are largely the same, resulting in a hollow experience. Whether the player character is a mute RPG protagonist, or a well-developed character, it needs to take an active role in a game’s narrative.

On the other hand, the original Mass Effect is a game that sticks out in my mind that grants the player character a good amount of agency in the story. In Mass Effect, the player controls Commander Shepherd, who very early on takes control of situations, calls shots when appropriate, and fights many kinds of adversity. In other words, Commander Shepherd takes action in response to his/her situations. He/she does not allow the other party members to just take him/her along for the ride.

Overall, the games with great narratives are the ones that employ the player character as a force in the story. Doing this makes it so that the player is experiencing the game, not just watching the game. 

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!