Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Leveling up
While it's not always critical for games to have the story or progression on to the next area
as the focus, in most cases, it's important to ensure that the player feels they are achieving
something as they progress. This may be in how much gold they collect from the fallen en-
emies to buy swanky new gear and that Level 20 battle sword with flame powers they have
had their eye on for weeks. It could also be about increasing the statistics or skills of the
player, enabling them to take on more powerful enemies with a wave of their wrist.
Invariably, it is a mix of all of the previous things that makes a game stand out. In fact, in
some titles, this is the whole focus of the game; you spend more time planning what skills
to have or upgrade as you progress on to explore/fight.
One piece of advice I would give is to ensure that you have some sort of whole-world ex-
perience system, not just focus on the battles. This will make you stand out from the crowd.
You can have skills and strengths the player can use to affect the whole game; it should be
about the game experience and not just the fight. Many big RPG games spend a lot of their
development effort getting this right, but that's not to say this cannot be applied to smaller
or even episodic games.
