Simplex Sky’s End is a tabletop adaptation of the game series Shin Megami Tensei. If you do not know what Shin Megami Tensei is do not worry, neither did I. It is a game where you play a Japanese high school student who gets pulled into another world to fight demons. Combat is typical team based rpg combat against various monsters.
I do not own this image it is property of Atlus
Simplex Sky’s End is in the early phases of development and is the first game I have been able to review this early on in the process. I want to take a brief moment to talk about what that means for my reviews. For each developer, I ask them, through what lens or perspective they want me to look at their game with each lens being more critical than the last.
1. Design Concept Review: the game is not yet complete, but I look at the core experience for the whole system if possible.
2. Feature Complete Review: the whole system is there but it is missing a few of the bells and whistles, like not all the feats are made, or there needs to be more classes, monsters, etc.
3. Player Perspective Review: I pretend I am a player looking at it for the first time.
4. Everything is fair game: I look at everything I can as a whole.
So, I was asked to review this game from a Player Perspective (3). The conclusion is that this game is not ready for players, I later changed my perspective to a Design Concept Review (1) because some major core aspects were still missing from the system. There was combat and how stats and magic works, and how the players level up. All very important systems to a JRPG style game and they do feel like a JRPG. Unfortunately, that is where the good news stops, so instead of harping on what is missing, I wanted to talk about the fun vs boring parts of writing an RPG system.
RPG development is fun. You can build a whole world, imagine different monsters or crazy stories and interesting experiences. But it is not all fun. There are always boring tasks with any creative work you do, and RPG development is no different. You have rules that you already know but need to type up and wording to adjust and lines to make sure they hit are the exact right length as to not run into a picture.
I can tell that the designer of Simplex Sky’s End is passionate about this project. There is a lot of thought and detail put into the fun parts of the game. How their magic works with elements, not too dissimilar to the Pokémon element table, or what progression and loot will look like for the players, which is crucial to many JRPGs. The problem here is that they forgot to do the boring work. It was assumed I knew exactly what Shin Megami Tensei was before reading the rules, which was necessary to understanding them.
So, what can we do as new designers when we have the passion to write a new game idea to help make sure we are explaining everything we need to? If it is your first RPG, I think you should just start writing the ideas down, organize your thoughts as best you can and just go for it, write down everything you can while the passion is there. But eventually you are going to need to fill in all the additional information. It is at this point that I recommend the following:
“Good Artists create, Great Artists steal” – Somebody who I am now stealing from cause I am a great artist.
In this context, what this means is that you can learn from other RPG writers, start with the book structure they have, with the sections for the boring rules and all. Then from there make it your own; fit it to your game. So, if this is your first RPG, make sure you read three to five other RPG books, paying particular attention to the sections they have, and the words they use to help write your own boring parts of your new RPG.
What books do you draw inspiration from? What made you start the project you are currently working on? Let me know in the comments below. As always, if you like what I am doing, follow me on Twitter @c22system.