Doin’ it old school

Filed under Design Diary on January 14, 2008
Keywords: CRPGs

I downloaded the demo for Eschalon: Book 1 after reading about it over on Twenty Sided. While I wasn’t as impressed with it as Shamus was, it did get me in the mood for some classic computer roleplaying games (CRPGs). The fact that I’m working on a Neverwinter Nights conversion of Pool of Radiance also helps.

There seems to be a niche market for new “classic” CRPGs: turn-based, stat-heavy gameplay that relies upon immersive prose rather than state-of-the-art graphics to draw the player into the massive game world. It is the stomping grounds of small, independent development studios. Just like Goldbox.

As work progresses on the d00M RPS core rules, I’ve started thinking on how to best use it as a product. Releasing it as a tabletop RPG product was my first inclination, but now I’m more of a mind to package it up as a 16-bit, turn-based, CRPG. This approach would incur less production costs, and serve as a promotional vehicle for the eventual release of the tabletop product.

My new awareness of this market has me curious about revenue models. Basilisk Games is selling Eschalon as a download from their website for just under $30, and it appears this pricing is consistent with other developers. There is definite resistance on my part to that price point, though I know from the comments on Twenty Sided that some folks are willing to pay. I’ve just started looking into distribution networks like RealArcade, but those are geared toward casual gamers, with catalogs full of puzzles, card, or arcade-style action games.