MonoGame Role-Playing Game Development Succinctly

What is an RPG?

We’ll assume you’re reading this because you’ve heard that role-playing games (RPGs) are an awesome type of video game that a lot of people play, and you want to create one. You may or may not have ever played one, so we’ll let Wikipedia help out here with a definition that we can use to start the design process:

“A role-playing game (abbreviated RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.”

There are some key words/phrases that we’ll need to look at here:

• Characters
• Acting out
• Narrative
• Character development
• Formal system of rules

The game usually revolves around a central character, which the player controls. The player makes all the decisions about what the character does, the “acting out” part of the definition. Usually, the character is part of the story (narrative) that is happening and will need to make decisions that may affect the story’s end. Along the way, the character will usually become more powerful, gaining or increasing in abilities and physical/mental attributes. These abilities and attributes, along with things like combat, the success or failure of actions the character does, and random events that may occur, all are controlled by the system in the game that is part of the rules that govern the game.

Types of RPGs

Within the RPG genre, there are a number of types of games, each of which adds one or more unique features or types of gameplay that distinguish it from others:

• Action RPG
• Massively multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG)
• Roguelikes
• Tactical RPG
• Sandbox RPG
• First-person, party-based RPG
• Japanese RPG (JRPG)
• Monster tamer

If you have any knowledge of video games, you’ll probably have heard of games that fit within these, such as the Fallout series (action and tactical RPG), World of Warcraft (MMORPG), Final Fantasy (JRPG), and Pokémon (monster tamer).

The first step in creating your RPG will be deciding what type of game it will be, as you’ll need to design and code the various systems specific to the type and integrate it into the main game.