Matthew DiMaria

 

The game I chose to look at was DnD, as I feel that our game shares many different ideas and mechanics with it. With DnD, the game is very open-ended, and each game follows a very different story to that of another, do to the fact that most stories and games are created by a DM or Dungeon Master. The idea is that a set number of players all control their created/chosen hero, with all players normally forming some type of party to combat the evil of their world that they are in. While there are several different mechanics to the play of the game, such as role play, the main feature that we look at for our game is the use of time.

In DnD, when combat starts, it is broken up into rounds, with each player getting a turn in which they get to make an action. It is usually said that every round lasts about six seconds, as every turn is technically happening all at once, rather than one at a time. Within this time frame, players are allowed to move a certain amount of space, as well as take an action phase, and sometimes a “bonus” action phase. This idea carries over to our game, as players are given a certain amount of time, determined by roll, to move and take their actions.

We also have sort of adapted the goal/story or play style of DnD in a sense. In DnD, you work with a group to kill a monster or villain and save your world/city, which is the same goal of our game. Similarly, while players work as a group, some compete with others in the group to be the sort of main hero that gets the final blow or deals the most damage.

Another matter that comes up in a game like DnD, that we’ve been trying to find a way to fairly implement in our game, is what happens when you lose an encounter with an enemy, as it doesn’t really work for our game to say that the player is now dead. In DnD, while it seems likely that the players will follow the story and beat the bad guy, there is a level of uncertainty to the game. Sometimes, players may chose to do something completely against the preset story that takes them down a completely different path. On the other hand, as like most modern video games, the difficulty of a DnD campaign increases with time, as enemies grow stronger with the players. If the team of players are unable to work together and make elaborate plans, then there is the likelihood that the party of players can all be killed, resulting in a sort of game over, as DnD usually follows a sort of permadeath structure.

Overall, as we came to develop the game more, I came to notice that there were mechanics that I had seen done, and work, in DnD, and figured that we could use a similar method for our game. As we went on, the incorporated story of the monster threatening the town, or worlds, came into play, helping to really shape the game up into what it is now.