Thursday, July 15

Linear RPG

A friend of mine on Facebook posted this. It is an interesting concept and makes you think. The challenge, the way this person took it was to strip down an RPG to it's very basic components. In a way, this is exactly it if you remove all the fancy graphics, skills, etc, etc...
www.sophiehoulden.com/games/thelinearrpg

Check out her other games too if you've got nothing better to do.
www.sophiehoulden.com/games

One that I find to be interesting on so many different levels is this one.
Try it. I think you'll see why.
www.sophiehoulden.com/games/thedomestic

5 comments:

  1. She is one of the Indie masters. Boxgame is great proof how well 3D can work inside a browser. I played through that a half year ago as part of research for work :)

    I didn't even realize the list of games had grown this big. I'll definitely will try out some.

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  2. Ehm, that first game is exactly what you get if you take away all the fancy graphics, skills, and anything that makes an RPG an RPG. What's left is a lineair basic levelling game. Since when was Roleplaying about levelling and not about story (not present) and character (not present) development? Ok, in some games the last represented by XP. If the game's a statement that if you stip down CRPG's from the graphical and other fluff elements that help you suspend disbelief (the third pillar of RPG) and story, what's left is a rather pover game, sure. We already knew that. If you saw two legs of of a three legged stool it'll fall over. Don't need to get all flashy about that. Simple deduction that that too.

    I must have played

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  3. When did roleplaying become about leveling? Wait, you mean it's not?! Crap, now I've gotta start over with my 20+ years of gaming from square one. *sigh* *facepalm* I'm doin' it wrong! *insert appropriate lolcat here*

    Seriously though, the character development and story is present in the text that scrolls in the background. If you notice, you don't get more of the story, until you run your little guy back and forth over the inn to build up enough XP to level up to gain enough HP so that you can move on to the next one (illustration of grinding, whether your goal is the next level or the next part of the story isn't important) which in turn reveals more of the story. Essentially, it's all there. The only thing that isn't there is the ability to deviate from the developer's story and create your own within it (which technically it is, you just ignore the scrolling text and use your imagination - which is exactly what people do in RP guilds within MMOs).

    I find her games intriguing because, as an example, I see so much more in them than just moving a box back and forth. For instance, in the.domestic, you notice as your stress goes up, it's harder to control the box, and because of the failure to anticipate the extra speed, you can ram into your "spouse." I think that's a brilliant illustration of what happens with people in real life. They get so caught up in jobs and circumstances, they forget about the well being of others around them.

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  4. Oh, BTW, I got the survivor title on the Linear RPG. ;)


    http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Survivor

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  5. Played both the linear rpg, and the domestic. And I thought they were both pretty nifty. The are not games, they are just cute gimmicks. Very cleverly executed. On both of them I automatically came to the same conclusions as you, but only afterwards realized both your comments. So that means she had in a very clever way lead me to that. I am impressed!

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