The evolution of gameplay.

“Renowned tradition of gamedev – write design document after few years of development and couple concept switches”.

^_^. As I wrote before, «fun projects» should be treated as «serious» ones or they can turn from «fun» to «funny».
Let’s take a look at the concept of «Fallen».

At first we had something like this:

Our hero, here he is.


Oh. Wait, maybe this way:

Yeah, much better. Now GoodSir can’t say he is the only one artist! ^_^

Hero starts in town!

And this town is located somewhere in huge world. Read HUGE MAP.

There a lot of different locations, fortresses, forests, monsters and treasures!
Oh yes, we have underground level too!

There are all this «fortresses, forests, monsters and treasures», but also tunnels!

OMG! So cool!!!

Wait, no.

The test has shown it was damn boring.
Very big map and very boring.

Okay!

Let’s add some cool post-apocalyptic story!

..and remove surface.

Great! A lot of underground cities, horrible mana shrines.

Ugh. Lurking automatons! And Radio! And Quests! And Caravans! And so on, so on!


Yeah, Yeah. The dream game.

Here is the catch: 2-3 years of full time work would be enough.
AND! It doesn't guarantee fun!

What have to be done?

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Cut the map.

Cut the skills. (yes, yes. They took a lot of work.)

Yeah, yeah. Everybody likes skills. Look at their names: Onslaught, Control! Wow!

But these skills are mere layer between skill point and players abilities. 

Maybe, just maybe, we can remove them?

No problem.
And so on. 

So, how do gameplay of Fallen looks now? I’ll write about it soon.