Realm of Ulyssia [13 year WIP]

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Hello to all,

New to the whole game design profession/field - well technically not true, but mostly in the sense that I clearly need help (clearly to me anyways) with figuring out how I should make my game (if I ever get it finished).

I’ve been working on a game since I was 17, I’m 30 now, and barely made much progress (at least thats what I think). Originally I intended to make this world I’ve created in to a series of books (much like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars), but I have since expanded on it and started making it seem more like a game than a series of stories/books.

My issue right now is that I haven’t clue what kind of game I should make it into - it can be made into an RTS style like Command & Conquer, an Open World RPG like Elder Scrolls or Fallout (both online multiplayer & offline singleplayer), and the other possibles I forgot (love it when the words escape me).
I have asked my friends what their thoughts are (I showed them EVERYTHING) and I never got an opinion of it. I’ve made a Facebook page (Realm of Ulyssia) to share some of my work and hopefully get opinions, but still no such luck.

There is frankly far too much to share & I don’t wanna give away too much since anyone could use the ideas for themselves. But the basic idea of the world I made is that it has 8 continents (I’ve made the maps), each continent has different countries (as well as their own stories and timelines), the planet itself is the size of Jupiter but is an Earth like planet (I’ve added it’s own solar system, how many other planets, how many moons the planet has, and added that there’s 2 suns), and the current focus I have is “The Four Kingdoms” the exist on the continent of Kraedrius.
Each Kingdom has their own laws, their own ideologies, their own elite protector groups (Guardians), their own traditions, and each kingdom has factions that separate from the kingdoms - Sacronia, Verraz, Drakkonni, and Broezzin.

I’ve added multiple timeline start points - Before the kingdoms became kingdoms, Arrival of the Kingdoms’ teachers (aliens), The destruction of the 5th Kingdom an start of the 15 year war, The Erraticator’s Plague (Mage class - Chaos type. Created a plague that effects Magic Users only), The War of the Island, and The Enemy Revealed (Imagine Sauron, but 10 dark lords all with their own armies).

And I’ve gone further… I thought about “what would happen 1,000+ years later?” then created a Dark Future where the Daetrossi (my version of Devils & Demons) rise up to claim the world as their own. The entire world is changed, it becomes a nightmare of it’s former self, and the remnants of civilization have to find a way to drive them back to the hell (haven’t thought of a name for it yet) they came from and take back their home world. That one is called “Ruins of Ulyssia” and there is a lot to tell about that one too…

But basically… yeah, I’m doubting I’ll be able to finish this on my own without any opinions or thoughts to help me - I’m not asking for praise, I just want honesty. Be cruel and don’t sugar coat it.
I need to know if I’m doing a good job or if I need to work on something better. Yes I am new to making games, but without opinions or thoughts, I can’t really hope to make a good game.

I was thinking of using RPG maker as a way of attempting to show it off, but the scale I’m looking for might require more. I am seriously at a loss, even though the ideas keep coming in…
Ok I’ll stop there - sorry if I went overboard.

Side note: If you want pictures, go to my facebook page called “Realm of Ulyssia”. Only a small amount is there, but hopefully enough to get an idea of what I SHOULD go for or might be aiming for.

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Let me get this straight: you’re new to the game dev thing, and worked for 13 years on a game that you don’t yet know what it is going to be? I think you went a little too big. Try making something smaller first and then you’ll figure out what you like and what you want your game to be.

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That’s another issue for me - I can’t go small. I’ve tried to focus on just doing something quick, but then more ideas poured in and it becomes larger than I had intended.
I enjoyed playing games with a lot of depth & detail - Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1), Elder Scrolls, Fallout (Interplay), Warhammer 40k, and even flash games like Hands of War, Gemcraft, and Rebuild 2. All these games helped me expand greater & greater.

But the type of game I should make it, I’m just not confident in leaving it up to me - I’m asking for thoughts & opinions so I can figure out what it should be based on other gamers’ thoughts. Seen many good games that people shunned as terrible, and many terrible games that people praise. So, my inability to figure out for myself what it should be is also to do with how people might react to it if I choose a bad type for it.

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Seems like you started your game on the wrong end.
Starting a game with its story is like starting a book by drawing the cover.
To me it sounds like you are really only interested in telling a story, in which case why bother with gameplay at all? Make it a book, a short film, or if you really want to stick to the whole “game” thing, a visual novel.

It would help if you told us a little about your background. Are you a programmer, an artist? Maybe try something simple like Dear Esther to get a feel for game development before you jump into a crazy complex projekt.

But to get to the point, I totally agree with joni. If you are really new to game development DONT start with an rpg or strategy game. These are some of the most difficult genres to make. If you can’t make small games, then don’t make games because that’s simply not an option.

Either way, good luck with whatever you’ll be doing :slight_smile:

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Too big. You’re wasting your time.

Reduce scope, do 1GAM, learn practical development skills such as C# or 3D Modelling, outsource stuff you can’t do, set short term goals and timeframes, analyze why you aren’t making them and be more objective oriented.

If that doesn’t sound appealing then you aren’t going to make a game. Write a book or something.

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The post from Gyrannon made me think. It really seems like you just want to tell a story, but if you really want to stick with game dev, why don’t you create something like “The walking dead” game? Using this asset (it’s 50% off) Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making I think it should be pretty straight forward.

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Yeah - Lane and inko kind of nailed it.

What you have is commonly known as Lore. The lore is already created and now you just need to make a that grand game or 10 small games around it. That’s really backwards, but I’m not saying scrap all your lore to make a game.
However your grand game design that puts Fallout, Mass Effect, Oblivion, Zelda, Halo, God of War all combined to shame should be put so far in the back of the filing cabinet you can’t reach it, locked away, with a trap door that incinerates it if you touch it, and chops off both your hands with a laser guillotine - before you’ve developed completely, and released for scrutiny, 3-5 smaller games. Those games will give you the experience and knowledge to either proceed with the grand game design, or realize how silly you were thinking without an army of dedicated, developers at your disposal it was never going to happen - ever.

Suggest LOOSELY use your lore as motivation while doing all the things Lane and inko stated.
After getting a plan in place for small scale development, while learning everything you can about game development, and coding and/or art, start super small, box and cylinder, 2D, one simple system, a moving character, an interactive menu. and build up to a functional, small, focused, short game.

Using your lore - If I were you - I’d take 1 character, at 1 point in time, remove all the historical clutter that doesn’t effect that 1 character at that 1 point in time, and create a simple 2D platformer, or a gun-hell ship attacking the zergs or whatever is in your lore. Small and specific without EVERYTHING getting in the way.
Only use your lore as filler, have a set scope like rescue the princess from your lore, from the evil koboldlings from your lore, or collect-a-thon all the rare resources or currency in your lore.
Don’t build the game restricted to the rules, laws, history, ongoings, planetary gravity, in your lore. Fill a playable game with aspects pulled from your lore. Put two suns in the parallaxed background of your small game.

I may be a little off - but I believe most of us - maybe - have a similar story to tell, a grand Lore that - if we could- we’d make it, but that’s high sky stuff. After we all make millions on our smaller games - we will all make those games and push aside LOTR, SW, HP to make room for our own Game of Thrones.

Take everything I say as just book knowledge - I’ve scrapped numerous prototypes and currently still working on my first alpha build. :eyes:

2 Likes
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To answer - well for one, I didn’t say that my game world would put any game to shame (dunno where that came from), I did give examples of what it COULD be like (cause every game ever made does take from one game or another on some aspect).

I do intend to make games FROM my game world, I have quite a number of timelines I can start from. But my original question was about HOW I should make it or them or one of them. Telling me “Its never gonna happen” is pretty brutal… I sure as hell wouldn’t tell anyone that based on a single idea… Thanks for the advice, but please keep the “here’s your future” talk out (get enough of that from advert callers).

As for my abilities as a person new to game dev, Writer, Map Design (though I’m nothing spectacular), I helped the creators of Requiem Memento Mori (was Bloodymare before MM) with suggesting monsters (stats, names, lore, what makes them terrifying, and detailed descriptions) and did some beta testing for them (notifying them of bugs, crashes, exploits, spelling errors, and broken mechanics - I was offered to be a game mod, but it didn’t interest me at the time). I’m working with a few people that understand my eagerness to finish this - one suggested that I get advice from professionals about what type of game I should start with, and few others are helping me setup the systems of the world (not consoles, I mean grade systems, charts, military structures, government structures, etc).

I do however appreciate people telling me what I should learn - thank you.

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And this is just one of the maps from my game world - had to reduce it’s size from 5000x5460 to 1900x2000 (it was larger than 4 mb that the site allowed), so it’ll undoubtedly look off. And this was with MS Paint after putting my hand drawn version through a scanner - I hope to refine it with a better mapping software/program in the future.

2114229--138721--Kraedrius Continent Map (Four Kingdoms).jpg
2114229--138721--Kraedrius Continent Map (Four Kingdoms).jpg1900×2074 729 KB

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Well, you asked us to give you our honest oppinions “without sugar coating” and that’s exactly what you got. You asked us if you should do an rpg, a strategy game or an mmo and we told you that you should do neither.

And you haven’t adressed any of our suggestions at all. Noone is trying to talk you out of anything and I’d be happy to be proven wrong on this, but trying to make game like an mmo or a strategy game without any game- or software development experience is like trying to paint the Sistine Chapel with nothing but a bucket of water. It’s just not gonna happen.

Don’t start making crazy story lines or paint fancy world maps because they don’t get you anywhere. Start with code. And if you don’t know how to code, learn it. And if you don’t want to learn it, write a book instead.

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Pretty sure this was answered several times. How to proceed. Start small build your way into your grand idea after you’ve finished several smaller games.

Your friends are giving you some good advice, and in my personal totally biased opinion so are we.
I’m sure you have lots of eagerness to finish this — but before that you need to start this.
Your still starting in the wrong spot. As inko said code and super small (no art) interactive things.
Cube and cylinder, one little character controller, that you can make run left, right and jump, one room the character can go into and out of without loading, one little inventory system. Roll the ball tutorial.

And based on your map you provided - I’d suggest you go the code/programmer route. Sorry if you take that as a slight but I’m just being honest.
Maybe a book or series of books is a better route instead. Then later, when your world is established, and people are clamoring for the next novel to be released in the series, you can be involved with the development of a game based on your lore.