This topic was written because many people were curious about the limitation of the number of multi-players to three.
Actually, I've never designed a game before I started Runteller, so I'm careful if I can write something like this... I thought it was right to share our thoughts about what many people were curious about, so I took the courage to write it.
If anyone who is well-versed in game design sees this article, I would appreciate it if you could share your opinions on the wrong contents or problems.
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# the aesthetics of 3
In the game world, I think people started to like the number 3.
The boss of the Super Mario series collapses under 3 attacks, and there are 3 races in Starcraft. There are 3 role groups in Overwatch, and there are numerous 3-stroke champions in League of Legends.
3 is the national rule?
If I think about why, there seems to be a sense of stability given by the number 3.
"It's not too much, but not too little." - Too... subjective..?
But this isn't the only reason we've concluded that there are up to three players...
(If so, this article would not exist.)
As other designs were taken based on 3, such a conclusion was finally reached.
So let's first look at the other effects of the number 3 on Rune Teller.
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# Runteller and 3
In the RPG game, the role consists largely of three types of Tank/Damage/Heal.
These days, roles are often subdivided or hybridized, but most of them seem to be derived from Tank/Damage/Heal.
You can play Rune Teller alone, but since Rune Teller is an RPG that has multi-play as its strength, we really wanted to give it fun from the division of roles.
Therefore, considering the single play, the distinction between Tank/Damage/Heal is not clear,
but we tried to create synergy of the party by playing a role that friends cannot play in multi-play.
That's how we made 3 weapons types.
| Weapon Type | Features |
|---|---|
| Sword | Shield available, ally protection/buff skills |
| Dagger | Single target specialized, dash/dodge skills |
| Staff | Multi target specilized, support/heal skills |
The first time you select a weapon,
After making three types of weapons, we also need armor type for each type of weapon.
Although armor type is not enforced depending on the weapon, the ability required by each weapon was given as the main effect.
| Armor Type | Features |
|---|---|
| Heavy Armor | HP specialized, high defense, low move speed |
| Light Armor | AP specialized, mid defense, mid move speed |
| Clothes | MP specialized, low defense, high move speed |
Two key systems of the game have already been made up of three.
However, this is not the only 3 that exists in Rune Teller.
Gathering and crafting in open world games is a great system that makes a reason to explore the world. However, we didn't want the process to be too complicated because there are many users who feel tired of such gathering and crafting.
Therefore, we limited the production system to only three types,
because we felt that two types were too small to be called systems,
and more than four types were judged to be able to give users fatigue.
| Craft Type | Manufacturable Goods |
|---|---|
| Alchemy | Healing potion, debuff cure potion, repair kit |
| Blacksmithing | Ingot, weapons |
| Cooking | Buff dishes |
For Runteller, the number 3 was becoming an inseparable design system.
The process of designing the world will also include content such as setting rewards, such as "giving key materials for weapons production" or "increasing proficiency in production" as rewards for each region. As a result, the areas encountered from the middle of the game were also divided into a total of 3 core areas.
| Core Area | Features |
|---|---|
| Desert | Heat debuff, heat resistance heavy armor available |
| Snow Mountain | Cold debuff, cold resistance light armor available |
| Swamp | Poison debuff, poison resistance clothes available |
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# What if there's a 4-member multiplayer in this situation?
In fact, until the middle of the project, we were not able to decide on the number of multi-players.
There are many 4-man co-op games, so we wanted to support Rune Teller even 4-man multi-play.
However, in a world of three, including weapons, defenses, production and world,
"We imagined four players running around and we began to see problems."
First, a situation in which roles overlap occurs.
There is no problem if users who use the same weapon in multi-play,
but we think that people couldn't feel the fun from the role-distribution we intended.
Second, as the equipment used overlaps, there is a need to clear the same dungeon several times for item farming. It results in that goes against our design policy, because Rune Teller tried to exclude repetitive play as much as possible to provide the experience of playing package games.
Third, problems also begin to arise with balance.
Due to the nature of action games, sophisticated judgments or damaged action are very important, and as the number of players increases, it is often crowded and chaotic.
In addition, if four players took turns and put in a groggy action, the monster could die without doing anything. This was a problem that could not be solved by spawning many/strong monsters depending on the player.
Rune Teller has no limit on the number of targets in non-targeting,
so when there are more monsters, it has become a Warriors Series game.
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# Conclusion
Due to the above-mentioned problems, we had no choice but to limit the number of users to three in order to provide the maximum fun we intended.
(Sorry for those who want more than 4 people)
In addition, users with four or more people can be divided into two or three combinations.
For example, if it is a four-member composition, it can be divided into two people and two people, and if it is a five-member composition, it can be divided into two people and three people.
Therefore, it was concluded that even if the friends together were composed of more than four people, everyone could enjoy multi-play with at least two people, so they would not be left alone among friends.
If there is a situation that the limit on the number of people has to be changed for some reason, the current goal is to come up with solutions to the aforementioned problems so that they do not provide unintended discomfort to users.
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In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, there were systematic problems with network costs, but they were too technical to include in the article.
In the next episode, I'll write a story about what happens while we're developing a content!
Thank you for reading until the end, and if you enjoyed reading it, please like/comment!