MORROWIND.
What makes it great? The graphics are ok even by today’s standards, at the time they were pretty top notch. The open ended factor is what made the game great for me, ok there's a main quest which gives you a definitive you win point. But all of those side quests is what really made it fun. You could follow the main story which was very in depth and cool or you could just explore the huge and very detailed landscape doing what you please. You could hunt daedra, be a freelance assassin like I was for quite some time, join the church and spread the
good word so to speak, join the army, you just did what ever you wanted basically and at any point you could come back and focus on the games main objectives or just keep going on your own little vendetta.
One thing that everyone who's ever played the game would have loved was the ability to almost seemingly endlessly change things. You didn’t like the way something looked fine change it, you think a house would look good here? Great put one there. Maybe we need a new town over there or a whole new island over there? How about a whole new species or creature or a new race to play? You could just open up the construction set and whip one up (Ok so it was a little more complicated then that, but you get the jist of it). I mean the game was released in the late 90's and it still has a very VERY strong community today. That’s how you define a great game, years on new gamers are still buying it and old gamers are still playing it, and making new things for it. Years on the forum community is still abuzz with life.
Ok so they had a huge team working on it and you’re one person so we need to be realistic. Well I’d say to be successful these are the things you need.
1. Ok graphics. And I say ok as it makes it not only easier for you, but more accessible to everyone who may not have a top notch pc at their disposal, it also reduces size. And anyway who wants to play a game if it’s crap, no one will care if it looks good if the gameplay doesn’t back up. So like I said ok graphics but they shouldn’t be a focal point.
2. Story line. The story line can make or break a game, if it’s just go here kill this shoot that or whatever. Sure it’ll be fun and many people will play it, but that will last about 5 minutes then people will move on. Involving the player is the key, make them care about their characters. If they care weather or not a character lives or dies then they are much more likely to want to play the game now aren’t they? And that’s what will keep them coming back.
3. Originality, ok I realise making a story line like the one above on your own could be kinda hard, so I dunno maybe you want to get some help with that. But if nothing else be original. If it’s new a different you’ve already got people attention, and hopefully everything else will be taken care of in due course. And you can always look at it this way, if it’s never been done before then you have no competition now do you?
4. Difficulty and user friendliness no one wants to play a game that’s to hard, or to easy for that matter. Finding the right balance is very important. People don’t want to play a game they have to spend ½ the time figuring out how they do anything, conversely if it’s to easy it will be boring and not a lot of fun.
5. Updates, this is what keeps the game alive long after the original story has long worn out. It also gives you a chance to iron out any bugs that users come across and also add things that you didn’t have time to do, were unable to do, or just didn’t think of the first time round.
6. User feedback is almost vital, you have to find out what people want. I mean it’s no good making the greatest game of all time if no one wants to play that kind of game. But you’ve already started the user feedback so good work.
I could go on more, but you probably know most of what I’ve already said and would say anyway.
