Top Ten Tips of Making an RPG Game

I am making my own online RPG game, and have come up with a few tips for helping you along the way in making your own game.

1. Think about your audience

“But my game is aimed at everybody, of all ages!” Think about it logically. In an ideal world, yes, your game should be aimed at all age groups. But think – who is more likely to want to buy your product, a 70-year-old woman or a 16 year old boy?

2. Plan ahead

Don’t jump right into making your game. Buy a reporter’s notebook and jot down ideas, draw sketches, plan out quests and story lines. All in all, know what you are doing before you even start.

3. Don’t hype it up

Ok, so you want people to know about your game. But, you also don’t want them to get bored waiting. Just post a few screen shots and text, don’t over-do it with flashy graphical art and a cool-looking website, as they will get bored easily and won’t want to play it when it is released!

4. Don’t spoil the storyline

Don’t give away too much of the storyline. Saying your game is based in medieval times, that it involves an ancient princess and crystals, is fine, but don’t say something along the lines of: “First of all, you think you are a princess, but then you find out you are secretly a poor peasant, and in the end you defeat the real princess to become a princess yourself…”

5. If you use cliche, use it well

Nobody wants to play a game where you find the eight crystals and defeat the evil empress. If you have to use cliched ideas, use them well. Don’t make people bored.

6. The first 2 hours are the most important

Spend most of your time to start with on filling up the first 2 hours with the best content. If the first 2 hours are no good, even if your game is 40 hours long, they will not want to play the other 38+ hours.

7. Grind… grind… and more grind

Grind refers to leveling up, doing the same thing over again, farming for gold and exp. Avoid this where possible, a lot of people get bored doing the same thing over again. Come up with some form of alternative.

8. Don’t use cheats!

Where is the fun in playing a game and leveling up, if all you have to do is type “IAMAGOD” to become level 250? Avoid cheat codes, they only make the hard-working players bored and uninterested.

9. Accept feedback

People are more likely to play your game is you ask for, and act on, feedback regularly. Even if it is a simple suggestions board on a message forum, it can do a great deal of good because it makes them think you want to know their opinions.

10. Have fun!

The main part of game making is to have fun. If you don’t have fun making it, it wont be fun to play!