RPG Building, Behind the Scenes (part 2)

I started building Solar Echoes with a very clear idea of some core concepts: I knew exactly what it was that I wanted and didn’t want in my RPG. A few of my ideas were very anti-traditional, so it was very easy to wonder if going against tradition was even going to work. You need to be very tenacious and be willing to go through a long process or trial-and-error to work out the problems. One thing that is extremely important to remember is that you can’t get too attached to anything—be ready to throw something out if it is simply not working. On the other hand, don’t give up on something too quickly, either. It takes the right combination of elements to make something work, so be ready to adjust and try countless permutations until you can get your concept to work. A common mistake in game design is “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” It is very easy to get frustrated when something isn’t working and assume that you need to start everything over entirely, rebooting the entire process. I think this is the biggest reason many good ideas never see completion, because after several complete reboots, people give up entirely. Be ready to sacrifice something and remove it if it just doesn’t fit, but recognize what is working, and try to adapt your ideas to that. It’s best to have a dreamer on your development team and a pragmatic, experienced person in the game genre—they will balance each other out and keep each other in check.