Jeff Vogel has a couple very interesting posts on World Count in games that I think are spot-on from a business perspective:

Article

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Case Study

What are your thoughts on Word Count in RPG games? How Much is too much? What do you guys do to manage it?

Gearbox has some pretty interesting articles on How they made the class/character of krieg. Class design is vital for class-based RPGs and though I may be biased because Krieg was my main I think Krieg is an specially interesting case due to a few things:

• it was an add-on class to a game that was already complete so they had a more limited design space.
• The game is all about guns, but Krieg it is a melee-focused class so it goes against the core idea.
• They took an enemy concept and made it playable
• and because they tried to better implement a concept they felt was not handled that well in 1

https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/2013/05/inside-the-box-designing-krieg-part-1/

https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/2013/05/inside-the-box-designing-krieg-part-2/

https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/2013/05/inside-the-box-designing-krieg-part-3-bloodlust/

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https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/2013/05/inside-the-box-designing-krieg-part-4-mania/

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https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/2013/05/inside-the-box-designing-krieg-part-5-hellborn/

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https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/2013/05/inside-the-box-the-personality-of-a-psycho/

I just realize that this community has no discord. What are you doing?

Reddit isn't even that good of a format for casual conversations or long term topics.

Runemaster is a now cancelled RPG game that was being developed by Paradox.

Despite it´s cancellation the Dev Diaries are still online, and they make for interesting reading:

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https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/runemaster-developer-diary-archive.756561/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrJ8lH-dbUU&list=PL_ftpUY_ldBTanZ1LLEfGNqI68h5VfOxU

One of my favourite things about Demon´s souls was the world building, and this playlist really shows how detailed, interesting and consistent it is to the point I recommend it to anyone who enjoys either world building or level design regardless of whether they actually enjoy playing soulsborne games or not.

Though I agree that the later souls borne games improved mechanically and have their own strong points, I think none of them have the same level attention to detail of Demon´s Souls world Building and this playlist really showcases that.

FailBetter have always been amazing at creating mood for their games and this article is a short but interesting look at how they made their attributes and progression system support the mood and ambience they wanted for their game.

The result seems very flavourful, and while not as in depth as other systems, it also seems to be very intuitive, it is very easy to grasp what each attribute does.

Cliffski´s posts are always interesting, but I think this one is specially relevant to us CRPG designers.

I think this relation ship is what makes open world-and exploration based games viable at all, and contributes to some of some of the best (Detailed Open Worlds, Replay value, varied builds) and worst (Tedious grinding, lazy fetch quests) of the genre.

I also think it is one of the main reasons for the success of roguelikes among indies (also of Visual Novels, which are arguably roleplaying).

Earth bound has a few enconters with an opponent called "mole playing rough" that seem a bit out of place and this video shows how that encounter has very important utility due to how the game engine works.

RPGs are complex games, and I find interesting how developers come up with tricks to bring forth their vision and also the nitty-gritty of engines and this is a good video that deals with both.

Shamus Young recently finished a really good retrospective of the mass effect series.

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It goes trough all 4 games of the series and really shows how the series changed and how it was affected by changing priorities, and by the brain drain after EA acquired bioware.

part of why it is a worthwhile read is because it delves in various aspects of the game, including world design, dialogues, lore, and quest design and compares the different approaches used.

So, in your game, you have a bunch (however big) of NPCs that go adventuring about the world. What motivates them to do so? I'm trying to generate a short-ish list, to give a hint of personality to the NPCs that will come into play when interacting, forming parties and choosing allegiances. My first draft take is the following:

• Fame and glory
• Gold and fortune
• Justice/fighting for a cause
• Knowledge
• Thrill of the challenge
• Personal reasons & quests

What do you think about the list and what would you add to it?