Forebearers Dev Log 1
Turn-based turning back the clock?
As an avid fan of action and combat games, I often hear discourse about the idea that turn-based combat is a thing of the past; that it is dated, slow and isn’t as fun as real-time combat games that are more prevalent today. This is one of the viewpoints I considered when I started designing for Forebearers, “will players enjoy turn-based combat?” “what makes turn-based combat fun to me?” I personally love real-time action games, some of my favourites include: Devil may cry, Monster hunter and games like Hades, but I also love the strategy that comes with turn-based combat. In my mind, they each function in different parts of my brain. One works with my muscle memory and understanding of moment-to-moment gameplay where I can dodge, parry and attack with precision and feel good about my ability to time my moves, while the other, forces me to consider each move I make with foresight. “Will this action put me in an advantageous position?“ “is this the optimal way to use this ability?” To me, they are completely different in their construction, presentation and the way that players interact with the gameplay systems.
That being said, I don’t believe that every design decision from the 90’s onwards has a place in modern turn-based games. Things like random encounters are frustrating and remove the strategy element of planning, and mechanics that are really unforgiving are often times not favoured by players (unless it’s a FromSoftware game).
So Why Make a Turn-Based Game?
There are a few reasons why I chose to make this game a turn-based combat style, a lot of those reasons are simply personal preference for the theme. The design reasons outside of setting as to why I chose this are because I want the game to feel slower and more methodical, and I want a more finite area to playtest in. I am designing and developing this game solo, so I want to make sure that I can test effectively and tutorializing a turn-based game is quicker than a real-time one. There’s a finite amount of team combinations and each character only has access to a handful of abilities, so that makes it easier to spot when certain combinations of skills are unbalanced or could use tuning.
Goals of the Project
I have a few goals for this project.
Make a unique battle system that takes elements of established ideas and iterates on them
Create various characters that fulfill their aesthetics and fantasy
Explore other ways to fill the common RPG roles of Tank, DPS and Healer
And of course, make a game I’m proud of
If you’re interested in reading more and checking in on progress with the game, be sure to check out my documentation here.