Minimalism is a hard theme. The easy route (for me) would be to do an arcade game with minimalist graphics, but I want to keep challenging myself. I’ve decided to do an RPG. I’ve never done that before, but I really enjoy the genre. I’m thinking that designing a simple, minimalist RPG will be a fun, but hard challenge. Should the combat be minimalist, or the story, or just the graphics? Maybe all three. Maybe there should be no combat?

Basic story:
In the game, you will start alone, in a lush forest landscape. You have heard rumors of a cave filled with treasures in the mountains, and being a poor lad, you want to seek out that treasure. What dangers await you on the journey? Probably lots, but you don’t care. You got the hunger. You are in Farmworld. Explore and dig, and find the golden potato to win. Beware though, cause the spuds can kill.

Plan:
– create a repo (done)
– create a world map (done)
– design basic world sprite tiles (done)
– create a player (done)
– give player characteristics (done)
– design a basic player sprite (done)
– put player in the world (done)
– design enemies (done)
– put enemies in the world (done)
– design combat scenes (done)
– ???
– submit game

Ruminations:
Turns out the ??? was rethink the entire story in order to finish the game before the deadline was over. Turned out rather silly in the end, but I’m quite pleased with the result. Some bugs remain, like spawning so far left you end up under the menu, and some features went AWOL, like magic, but that’s how it goes.

The time limit imposed on this contest is really tough, especially given that are required to create your own graphics and sound within the same period. Being mainly a coder, having to create graphics from scratch while coding a game that’s supposed to be finished in a weekend, is a huge challenge.

On “Farmworld” I had originally planned a more RPGish setting, with more monsters, more combat, more fun. With only 12 hours to go I realized that in order to make something with some form of gameplay and an ending, I had to come up with something clever. Now, I’m not going to claim what I did end up with was clever, but at least it was a way to wrap it up.

I’d like to fork this game now post-LD and make it a real adventure. I like RPGs and I think I have the basics for a game that can be fun and interesting to play.