I paused doing the spells because I realized I haven’t yet decided what visual the game will have. I would like to make a first person visual like dungeon master, but I’m not sure it is an easy task to simulate a whole dungeon in 3d (even if is not real-time).

I mean, I should render several layers based on what the player see on the dungeon, with distant objects, monsters, etc. Also this would mean having a huge map to walk on. Exploration would take an importan part in this case.

However I’m thinking to use another system. That is, fewer “cells” (rooms were you can move) but with more interaction. Why have the player travel for hours into the dungeons, maybe looking for an item they should have found in a quest? I don’t like that pixel-hunting. One of the most tedious tasks in Diablo or even the recent Fate, is when you re-explore a whole map because you haven’t yet found monster X or item Y – and this takes several minutes of frustration, not fun.

So what’s my solution? my solution would be to have a map, yes, but smaller than the usual ones, in practice connecting directly all the rooms with something to do – so no more “empty rooms” with no purpose. But every room would have an encounter, a quest, a riddle, a door/chest to open, stairs going up/down to other levels, etc.

I am even thinking of displaying directly on the map what kind of stuff you can expect in it – not exactly which monsters/items of course, but just a generic icon that represent what you can find on it. I’m really thinking this would be a good idea because would cut my development time a lot (so could release the game sooner) but also would enhance the player gameplay, eliminating another frustrating part that is present in many other CRPG games.

I’ll soon post a screenshot of this system so you’ll understand better!