thread: 2008-03-31 : Conpulsion 2008 Story 4: Indie Shortcomings
On 2008-04-12, xenopulse wrote:
I was on an RPG design panel with Jake, Matt, et al. here at Gamestorm recently. We talked about this issue from the designer's POV, too: that many designers have a relatively small field of experience, their "neighborhood" of games that they grew up with, and so it becomes hard to break out into orbit and look down at the rest of the possible world of RPGs.
Robin Laws was supposed to be on the panel, but he had to go to the hospital, so Rob Heinsoo sat on it instead. He's the lead designer of D&D 4e, and seems like a really cool and sharp guy. His impression of indie games seemed to jive with that short-term vibe: he said that most of them seem to focus on providing a particular, powerful experience.
He talked about the time he played Dogs with his wife, I think, and someone who'd never played an RPG before. He and another Dog ended up pointing barrels at each other over whether to shoot an old lady sinner, and he said that it was a "whoa" moment, one of the more powerful ones of his roleplaying experience.
But I think, as others have said, that there are plenty of indie games that don't necessarily do that and are much more flexible. Also, as the indie community grows, so does the variety in our games.
- Christian
