Design Document

A very high level draft of my design document has been completed. Since I'm learning more about XNA daily, I wasn't too specific regarding some of the technical details. The document does outline a few technologies that I'm certain will be used: a 2D tile engine, spritesheets, an XML based map-editor, etc. I've spent the most time on the story. That's what every good RPG needs, right?

The idea is that some bland everyman from an office is transported to a fantasy realm for some RPG fun. If it were a pitch for a movie, I don't think it would sell too much popcorn, but I'm excited about some of the specifics. I'm starting to appreciate the writing in RPGs. Yes they are often rife with terrible dialogue, endless male power-fantasies, and flat characters. I've been highly critical of many RPG stories, but now I see how it easily happens. I fell right into a number of cliches as I was writing. No, Final Fantasy series, I still think you have gone off the rails, but it's definitely challenging to write an interesting story while remaining in an RPG framework.

Players have certain expectations when they play an RPG. Those expectations dictate many parts of how the story must develop. For example, there has to be a number of things to fight, there must be a number of locales to explore, there probably should be some sort of climactic boss encounter to close out the experience. I'm not going to buck convention when just trying to actually get a functioning first RPG, but I still want to deliver a mildly interesting tale.