Thursday, December 30, 2010

LA2: Towns

Towns in Lucid Awakening 2 are different than the ones in most RPGs. For me, towns are some of the most memorable parts of RPGs; I think of the ones from Final Fantasy 6 in particular. But there was always something about towns I didn't like--my OCD would kick in and I would have to talk to every NPC in the entire town and check every barrel, crate, and pot for treasures. While this is something exciting and memorable, there was still a feeling of anxiety that would come with visiting a new town--"Oh no, I'm going to have to spend 15 minutes doing everything I can in this new town...."

In Final Fantasy 12 towns were different. The cities were absolutely huge and the amount of people there was more than I'd ever seen before in an RPG, yet something made them much less stressful for me--not all NPCs had something to say; only ones with a mark above their head were ones you could talk to. I used this as inspiration as I started making my very first town today on LA2.


I've always had trouble with towns and NPCs when making RPGs, but I think I finally did what's just right for me as a developer and designer.