Things Happen in a Place

 How dangerous is this world, and what are the stakes? What happens when some smarmy player grabs a few townsfolk and starts running as far as they can into some dangerous area? Should NPCs be able to die? How rare/hard-to-do should that be? On one hand, you want to let people get attached to these NPCs and not be afraid that the game is gonna yoink them out from under you because your combat skills weren't good enough. On the other hand, some of my favorite memories from games are times when you got into trouble and there was some danger: The medic in Rimworld staying up all night to heal as many people as he could. The X-Com rookie pulling out that super clutch shot in a scary fight. Also X-Com: blundering into a room full of sectopods and having the "How are we going to get out of this one?" moment. Wildermyth spouse sacrifices themself for their other spouse to win a boss fight. Nate and his brothers fending off a sea monster in Valheim, trying to figure out whether t...

In Wildermyth, I liked having a guiding question to help make decisions which would otherwise have been really squishy and hard to pin down: "Will this help us create memorable heroes?" Transformed limbs? Memorable heroes. Overland economy with money? Not so much. Weapon-name generator? Memorable heroes. Research tree? Not so much. I'm flailing around trying to figure out a guiding question for this next thing, at least for myself, and at least in preproduction. The closest I've got is, "How can I deepen my relationships with these townspeople?"   At the end of the game, I want to feel like I've got their backs, they've got mine, we've been through some shit, and hopefully I've had a chance to do right by them through the things I've made and done in the game. When I'm thinking about what sort of concept art to draw, I want to think about those moments where you're potentially bonding with an NPC. It's a starting point, anyway...