The Art of a Quest

Sooooo. Pseudo is working on the release right? Riiiiiiight? =>

Amptitude

One of my goals with the game is to reduce or eliminate "grind." Basically, I try to make everything relevant to porn in some way. I don't want you playing for hours without porn. Even on a "pure" style run where you aim to keep Aylia from getting screwed, that's what the rivals are for. I won't say that EVERY quest leads to sex, but the majority will lead to something. So, you're right, I do ask that question every time. "Is it sexy?" One area that this has been a challenge is the battle stuff. I don't want every battle to devolve into sex, so there are a number of minor enemies without anything sex related. My plan was to make these shorter battles, and limit them. So, when you clear an enemy, it most likely stays dead for the remainder of the chapter. I have limited respawns. I also make it so the h-battles last longer, so there is more likelihood that you might see some h-stuff. I don't like when you have to force yourself to be terrible in battle for the good stuff to happen, I want it to be more natural. Finding that balance has been terribly time consuming and challenging.

YummyTiger Gaming

Excellent post. Saving it, this is a nice starter for brainstorming in terms of things to keep in mind. I also like when there are multiple ways of beating something (Deus Ex did this well)--even though, my completionist side hates to miss anything. That is something I am working to integrate, but as a novice game designer, it has been a challenge.

YummyTiger Gaming

Unless Bogwort has the game and he playing it before us. That green bastard.

Nine Horse Hitch

One more thing i'd like to add. You said it already but just as a remainder - this is supposed to be a porn game so quests should also be focused first and foremost on sexy content. You cant compete with Witcher 3 or other AAA RPGs, the only reason these Patreon porn games can be somewhat successful is that there is no big, professional competition. When i finish a quest in Aylia's Story and the only reward is some cool sword and a praise from village elder im gonna be disappointed. When designing quests the first question should be - "is it sexy?".

Saigon

I always find quests to be most interesting when there's a single goal, especially with multiple approaches to it. For instance, "collect 6 rabbit ears" is generally going to be achieved by killing three or more rabbits. "Rescue a hostage", however, might be achieved by stealth, slaughter, conversation, or taking a more direct approach. This tends to promote more freedom and choice, making the game far more interesting. Having a form of progress and emotional investment to a quest also really adds to the experience. Rescuing a hostage might be somewhat interesting on its own, but if that hostage is the key to some important negotiation, or the only person who can bring a water source to my town, suddenly I care a lot more about it. Similarly, if I know that taking down some big baddy will get me an exciting new power, destabilise a longterm opponent, or conquer an area on a strategic map, the game becomes a lot more interesting. Finally, a sense of tension can sometimes be great - though not too much at once (pacing is key here). Going back to the same example, if the hostage is to be executed after a certain amount of time, and I have to decide on the shortest or safest route to save them, the quest suddenly gets really interesting. It's important here to remind the player of their fallibility - having an early quest where failure is the expected result, and letting the game continue without too much cost from there, reminds the player that their actions have consequences, and means that future missions are more tense and exciting from there on.

So what will happen once, bogwort who has been in a cell, is released?

Nine Horse Hitch

I like it. You may find some similarities in how Zalran ultimately fits in the world order based on Aylia's actions.

YummyTiger Gaming

Nope, only saw it once. I appreciate the design lecture. I've given this a lot of thought, but I'm a novice, so any suggestions are appreciated. Even just stickign to a mantra of asking, "What do I want the player to experience," is a good point. Asking myself that throughout a quest design should keep me focused on the end result. Me being me, I can get sidetracked trying to make things "cool" or "interesting" and suddenly I'm drawing a bunch of pictures that may not be necessary or taking the quest in the wrong direction...

YummyTiger Gaming

Hey Darian! Good to see you again. All very good points, and the rivals are one way I hope to alleviate the issue of taking Aylia too far too soon. But, I also don't want to wait until 2027 to see her get screwed either. I'm totally on board with the underlying mysteries within quests to keep the player involved. That's a great idea. In fact, after reading this, I may have even tweaked a quest right away that it fit perfectly. One point I'll add is that while you note that "gameplay is quite limited," I do hope to spice a few quests up with some unique gameplay. Not sure if it will work, and RPG Maker doesn't make it easy, but I have a few ideas. So, perhaps not ALL of the game will have monotonous gameplay.

YummyTiger Gaming

The hamster in my head is running right now. Never really thought about it this way, but a minor quest opening up unexpectedly is really cool. I think that is also what struck me about the Witcher 3 quest, was I was not expecting it. Most of them are track down this monster, kill it, get reward, but suddenly I'm attending a wedding with a ghost that is filled with comical situations. That was an unexpected blast and spurred me to make this post.

YummyTiger Gaming

In an h-game? That's just silly.

YummyTiger Gaming

I am a fan of hypnosis... so, we'll see!

YummyTiger Gaming

Good point.

YummyTiger Gaming

Will have to try it.

YummyTiger Gaming

Very good points. I agree. That was one purpose behind using the quest log script was to keep the player pointed in the right direction. It can be hard to give multiple ways of solving quests, but I do plan on trying. As for artificial urgency, I don't plan on having any timers, and I'm hoping to keep things consistent in that regard. It's not a huge deal, but I'm with you, it is a bit silly at times how NPCs are freaking out, but you just piss around for multiple quests while something major is supposed to be happening.

YummyTiger Gaming

Soon (tm)

YummyTiger Gaming

It does help. I agree on the unique power ups, I have that planned. The h-game suggestions are good as well. I'm waiting for VPT to get fully translated, but it has been one I was excited about for a long time.

YummyTiger Gaming

I remember that quest, and rebuilding that castle was one of my favorite things in a video game. Pillars of Eternity kind of had that too with Caed Nua. My hope is that rebuilding Zalran will give the player similar satisfaction, but it's a different thing. If I end up doing the mercenary game for my second title, you'll rebuild a merc company, and that might be more fun.

YummyTiger Gaming

Well, hopefully you think Bogwort is funny! He won't be the only comic relief, but he is one of them.

YummyTiger Gaming

Here's another favorite quest: in Knights of the Old Republic, you travel to Dantooine and suss out some local problems; at the end of the planet's quest tree, depending on how you've been making choices, you either defend the local gov't outpost or you take it over - the results of which affect your companions and presumably the future of that place on Dantooine. It's even more enjoyable because the fruits of your efforts from previous missions affect the number of attackers/defenders. For the tech at the time, it was a pretty impressive amount of flexibility in a game, and the feeling of decision and consequence actually felt real.

Amptitude

Sorry if you see this comment twice. My original post isn't here so I decided to post again. One of the key questions that you need to consider when designing quests, or anything to do with game development really, is 'What do I want the player to experience?'. The answer to this question is entirely dependant on the game. For example, if the player is currently in a serious section of the main plot then you might not want the player to be able to find and complete a comical side quest. Or maybe you do. Bioware and Bethesda games pride themselves on allowing the player to take the main story at their own pace. Perhaps you want to structure your story like that. The problem with that kind of quest structure is that it requires a very strong overarching narrative, otherwise players may lose interest in the main story entirely. If not losing interest, then they might forget why they need to do the main plot. But, again, maybe you want that. This method allows for players to have more exploration and, possibly, more immersion. However, if not done right, it can make your story seem disjointed and difficult to follow. Sorry for the quest design lecture, I'm a game designer myself. I don't know too much about how you want your story to work, so it is a little difficult to give good advice. I hope this, at least, helps/makes sense.

I think you should define more precisely what kind of quests you want help with. The main quests that change the story (and Aylia)? Long quests developing secondary characters or plots? Or stand alone short quests that change nothing but make the game richer? I guess it's the later. For a good quest you need 3 things: - The gameplay - The reward - The story the gameplay is quite limited and won't change from one quest to another so no need to talk about it. The reward is much more important since it's an H-scene and the reason why people play the game. The main problem here is to make the H-scenes coherent with the advancement of the story; if Aylia is already so open-minded that she walks around naked, an H-scene where she's embarrassed by having to be topless would make little sense. How to synchronize a quest that can be done at any time with the main story? You could avoid that problem by not making Aylia the protagonist of those scenes. She can be a simple witness or she can have her consciousness momentarily transfered into the body of the girl (or the guy) so she can experience the emotions and sensations but without the hability to do anything. To justify such transfers you could add items like gems or something, finding those gems being part of the quests. You can also make Aylia see glimpses of someone's past or future, maybe even her own future. Making those quests not about Aylia has another advantage, you can put spicy scenes right into chapter one so we don't have to wait chapter 3 and 2027. The story is the hardest to do right since for each short quest you have to hook the player, who's probably focused on something else. One method you could use is to have one or maybe a few underlying stories, things happening in the background without impact on the main story, at least not before the end. For example something involving a forgotten goddess or a secret cult, with each quest unfolding a part of the mystery, each short story being a piece of the puzzle. For instance a farmer's daughter is missing and the player find a piece of paper that reads “seventh part of the ritual: offer a virgin to the minotaur”. Once the player has found the girl he still have a lot questions: what's that ritual? What's its purpose? What are the other parts? Who are those cloaked guys who kidnapped the girl? If the players are aware of an underlying mystery and is looking for answers they will pay more attention to those seemingly independent quests and hooking them will be far more easier.

Darian

Yeah, I explored lots of the relationships in ME, 2, and 3. Like many was not too happy with the ME3 ending, but that's neither here nor there. Hoping to be able to get ME Andromeda soon to see how that will be.

Darthjake

Mass Effect 2 has a big hook in me in the same way Witcher 3 has it's hooks in you. In a game like that, I believe it's your connection to the characters, and how immersed you are into the game itself. I fell in love with the crew of ME2, so I did any and every quest so I could see them interacting with each other, and having more stories to talk about in the game. If you're trying to apply this theory to your game...I don't think you should be going at it this hard. Keep in mind you're getting $10k per update because you can draw a great naked woman, and also have the patience to code her into a game. The best thing you could go for is likability for your characters. Compelling gameplay is going to be damn near impossible using the RPG maker engines. Have us laughing during the game, and fapping during the scenes, and you're 10/10 for an RPG Maker game.

For me, the best sidequests are the ones that are short, memorable and also hidden in the rough. Sidequests that have huge build-up or take a long time to set up are great, but for me, the best gems are always the ones you don't expect, the little "Go grab the goods from the broken cart at A" only to find what was supposed to be a tiny sidequest rails off into a well written, story. Using The Witcher 3 as an example (because NOBODY HAS DONE THAT YET :P) The quest "Where the cat and the wolf play" Started off as the most basic of a quest you could get. Go to a village and speak with the leader to kill a problem in the forest. But when you get there, the village is massacred, the monster was already dead and the killer is nowhere to be found...Now you investigate. Probably one of my favorite sidequests in the whole game, short, sweet with a really gripping moral choice at the end that has a friend of mine still butting heads with me over who's more right. Gem's like that are rare but are why I play RPG's in the first place, great stories aside, the little things that you find just by accepting the most basic of quests always feel the most rewarding.

Porn.

The mass effect games have always managed to satisfy me in terms of questing and story... except the ending of the third gaame. Otherwise, The Imperial Agent storyline of the game "Star Wars The Old Republic". It's a Star Wars MMO and they have a different storyline for every character. The Imperial agent storyline is similar to a James Bond story. You have to infiltrate different organisations, and at time become a double, triple, or quadruple agent. Basically, manipulation and backstabbing all the way. At one point, because of some hypnosis keyword, you're being forced to obey the orders of another double agent, while still being conscious of your actions (could be a great idea for your game... Bogwort install a hypnosis command keyword on Aylia, but someone else finds out and decide to use it and take her)

If I think of great ways to make quests, it'll fall into one of two categories. First one is rather clearly exemplified in the comments; basically just make a quest that does something unexpected and is generally interesting. Second method is to make the quest meaningful in the grand scheme of things, something WoW did rather successfully and something I think you already thought of. Instead of having a series of isolated quests with no meaning, make them part of a building process for something big.

Systematic Chaos

I liked that quest chain a lot too -- same thing as MM7 where all the shops are in the castle and you have your own town as well. Really is great for getting pulled into a world

One thing that springs to mind for me is the game Beyond Good and Evil. Specifically, the wacky and unique characters in there. It's been years since I've played it, but I still remember: "If your momma won't go, come to MammaGo! MammaGo Garage!" I think the characters in that game could be good inspiration.

Maniac

I think a good quest is in how the gameplay is executed more than the story aspect. I'm a fan of quests with clearly defined, simple objectives but rich and complex ways to execute them. I detest games where you get a wall of text that you have to parse through to determine "Oh, so I need to talk to X to find out where to find Y, and if X is missing try Z instead, because that will get me to ....". That's just not fun, and I end up ignoring the canvas the creator is painting because I'm trying to figure out what it is exactly I need to do so I don't get stuck somewhere. A good quest should be solvable in multiple ways (maybe kill the guard, maybe distract the guard, maybe befriend the guard if you have met some requirements, ...), at least one of which is straightforward. It is also important that there be a way to find out what the hell I am supposed to be doing if I get derailed. Sidebar: A pet peeve of mine is when a major storyline quest has artificial urgency attached to it. "Oh no! The Darkness will be here soon! Get to the <objective>, hurry!" Except there isn't really a hurry, and the other NPC in the same room is happy to offer a side quest to retrieve his lost sentimental coconut and nobody thinks that's strange. And the game rewards me for wasting time looking behind every tree while I am on the 'urgent' quest. If I really am under the gun, time-wise, make it clear what exactly that means, or don't pretend it's a rush.

Dubsington

TES: Morrowind: in Solstheim, your character serves as the catalyst that grows an entire city on the island - its a quest chain that starts you out helping a soldier reach a small clearing by the coast, and after 5-6 quests, the place is a fully realized town with an inn, houses, an outpost, docks, and a merchant. Not to mention the quests you were doing to reach that point had their own interesting rewards. Unlike player castles, this place was lived in and owned by a group of people who did all the work in maintaining it. That felt a lot more rewarding than the old trope of conquering someplace that was already built

Amptitude

The idea sounds very good.But,So far, we seem to have no harvest results~

THE_VEZ

My favorite side quests in RPGS have always been for unique power ups and abilities. In Breath of Fire III, the main characters ability was to turn into a dragon, but there other cool things he could do. One side quest optional, basically become mayor of the Faerie village. You get to manage the Faerie village and pick up some unique abilities and weapons. Eventually, you grow your population enough, that you can summoning a bunch of Faerie to drop bombs on your enemies in battle.) In Final Fantasy Tactics The War of the Lions, for the PSP, the hero Ramza can become a Dark Knight if he personally kills 20 enemies and absorbs there crystals. Of Course, the best side quests are story based, where you can actually change the plot. Mass Effect / Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross immediately come to mind as you can resurrect characters who died and even determine if a character is normal or not. As for side quests for Aylia Story, since this is an H game, Iet me tell you about my 2 favorite H game side quests. The first, is in Virgin's Protection Magic, basically, the witch if she becomes lewd enough, will strip down and try to get back to her hotel naked. The 2nd time she tries this she masturbates in public. The third time she lets the towns folk have her. The 2nd, is an NTR optional quest in Parallel fantasy IFVer2.2d, where the Ati goes into a dungeon with Crane and is poisoned by a monster. The goal is to get back to same goblin that poison Ati, to make an antidote. However, every time Crane fails, the man watching Ati strips and eventually fucks her. Opens up a completely different storyline and bad endings. Hope this help you out with your brain storming, Yummytiger.

xellos49698

For example: when you had to go undercover through Drow(dark elf) city. Thanks to powerful illusion magic your party looked like dark elves but you also had to act like them which was the tricky part because their society is built on different values to put it lightly. The idea of going undercover is an interesting one for me since it forces the hero to act differently from his/her usual self. You could make Aylia investigate some mysterious cult, criminal organization(slavers?), corrupted noble's manor etc from the inside.

Saigon

1. Witcher 3 is indeed awesome, for me its more than a game - its a new standard in RPGs that hasnt been matched by Bethesda, Bioware or any other dev so far. 2. Are you suggesting Aylia gets possessed by some ghost/demon(hopefully super horny one)? If so, thats an excellent idea ^^. 3. Its hard for me to pick one quest since i have been playing RPGs for a long time(since...1996). Baldurs Gate 2 alone has so many great quests and almost none of them are simple "bring me 10 wolf pelts/kill those evil dudez".

Saigon

Also, not really quests, but the Social Links in Persona are great for having character interactions that lead to gameplay benefits while you get to know a character better in small steps.

bigtotoro

There is the classic "A night to remember" in Skyrim, where a Daedric prince in disguise gets you drunk, and you have to track your crazy journey back to find him and get the powerful artifact you won in the drinking competition with him. It's not the same thing as with Geralt, since the dragonborn is your avatar, not a defined character, but it's still a lot of fun, and I think it could be even more fun if there was an actual character shown reacting to the craziness. I enjoyed daedric quests in that game the most probably, since they show how these powerful demon-god entities of warped morals toy with the fates of mortals, including the player. Aside from Sanguine's, I also liked the quests of Clavicus Vile (help a jackass genie demon lord either reconnect with his conscience in the form of a dog and regain full power OR help him get rid of his conscience by killing the dog), Sheogorath (escape the mind of an insane dead monarch by helping him rest in peace), Namira (you find out half the people in the city of Markarth are cannibals!), Azura, Malacath.... scratch that, probably most of them. I thinking powerful demonic creatures that you can't really defeat fucking up peoples lives (sometimes because of your fault) could have some great uses in an H-game too :D Also the thieves guild/dark brotherhood quest lines, since they reveal a darker side of some people, when you find out some regular citizens help the thieves guild / want their neighbor assassinated. In Bloodborne there is this thing where you help people find a safe shelter during the hunt, when beasts are rampaging in the city of Yahrnam. You can either point them to the clinic where you started at the beginning of the game, where a nice lady behind the door gives you healing medicine, or a chapel where a creepy beggar who likes to laugh suspiciously is sitting. Shock of all shocks, the chapel turns out to be safer, as the the woman is actually experimenting on the people you send to her. It's an interesting feeling when the game makes you feel the unexpected consequences of your actions- again, in a hentai game too, some scenes being partially your fault (even if all results are bad) could add a lot to them. Not only regarding the rivals, but regular NPCs as well. I also recently played Devil Survivor, where you have to make the right decisions in a limited time (every timeline action you do takes 30 minutes off the day). If you don't do some events in time, some characters will die. How about some quests that when not fulfilled fast enough will lead to bad consequences. Like you go to a bandit camp, and you find a farm girl whom you didn't help kill bandits at the start of the game pregnant there. Those quests would need to be marked as urgent though, to help the player realize they can be missed. There is also Majora's Mask with the time loop mechanics, where basically most people's lives are screwed even without the moon falling, unless you help them out. You don't have time to help everyone during one loop and you get to see some consequences of not helping some of them - like Romani getting abducted by aliens.

bigtotoro

I'm going to be dating myself here to some folks but a particular quest that always stuck out to me was from Might and Magic VII. Basically, the game starts with your party engaged in a scavenger hunt to find the deed to a castle called Harmondale and the surrounding. Landswhich will be given to whoever completes the scavenger hunt first. Of course your party completed the task at hand and you become the new Lords and Ladies of Harmondale. When you get there you find out its run down and dilapidated with monsters inside. After clearing the monsters out and going on a few side quests to repair the place you find out that Harmondale is a disputed territory between the Humans and Elves. There is an arbitrator to the dispute and both Humans and Elves give you quests -- which if you complete will mean their respective side wins the dispute and you will become part of their territory. Also going on is a battle between the humans and elves at a distant battlefield for a trinket. Again you are tasked with getting the trinket -- if you give it to the humans they win or the elves and they win. HOWEVER if you give the trinket to the arbitrator he decided that Harmondale will be its own independent nation and you get to be the Kings and Queen of the new Kingdom! As far as gameplay goes it doesn't matter who wins (human, elves, or you) in how the story ultimately plays out but as a kid that was such an awesome plot device and really tied the world together imho. In doing the side quests you really learned a great deal about the elves, humans, and the land that you were now in control of. It really brought the lore and the world itself into the forefront and was a great storytelling device. (Btw for you kids Might and Magic VII was a PC game released back in 1999 - damn I feel old now!)

In general as long as you have great character any quest will be enjoyable, but in particular comedy can really add a lot. My favorite quest in boarderlands 2 is the Face McShooty one, where he asks you to shoot him in the face. Not the arm, leg, chest, or the back just the face. After doing so the quest is done. It's funny in the idea and the fact that it is short. Not all quest have to take hours or even minutes to due, while those should not be absent from a game, it is a nice feeling completing a quest that is humorously short.

Not very many quest standout from open world RPG quest. They all seem to follow the same formula. But what makes a good quest is to draw the player in. The only other quest (series) was like that was Crazy God expansion and Dark Brotherhood for Oblivion and Dark Brotherhood for Skyrim. The players have to want it and you have to sell that felling. The Crazy God was a perfect expansion IMO They really immersed the world that you were in to match the theme. Same with the Dark Brotherhood your an assassin for hire no questions asked or care given. And for the Dark brotherhood planning was required. Most of the other quest in Oblivion and Skyrim can be done from the hip. The mages Guild doesn't even really require magic from the player (or stealth is Overpowered)

Nine Horse Hitch

Of any game, Two worlds paying for herbs from this one girl. It is not a hard quest. rather easy. you pay a girl for herbs (your character even flirts with her). But the third time you go to buy some herbs her moms there. Her was needing the gold for her moms medicine. But she been in the woods for a whole day. You go out to find her. And she is dead. You go back to the mom and she berates you for killing her daughter. It the emotions that make that quest stand out. It made feel as though i was wrong for even try to do the quest in the first place.

Nine Horse Hitch