Making the city feel the most alive possible ?

Hello everybody,

I started officially working on my game.With the intro and the starting area complete,I will now start the hard part.The city.FYI the game only has 1 city with it's outskirts.I started mapping,but what I didn't decide though is how the make the city the most alive possible.Please help me with some suggestions ?

Thanks in advance !

If you only have one city, I recommend leaving it blank during most of the creation process. Either give yourself a very large working space, or cut off each section for it's intended purpose until you need another. Once you get your pieces together you can either keep them linked with transitions or copy-paste it to a larger map. Section off a large group of switches and variables for the city. Do not reuse switches or variables in this section. 

Lively cities contain lots of entertaining clickables and fewer useless npcs. Clicking on a sign that makes your character jump that tacos are on sale is signifcantly more interesting than hearing that some random character is good at magic from some other random character. Although it might be interesting if a group of cats carried on that same conversation..

@Evalis : The city is cut off to districts.Each district is different than the other and it's population will react to you depending on your Reputation points with the faction controlling the area is this alive enough ?.And thanks for your suggestions too.

Well, it depends... there are a lot of neat things you can add that depend on your game's features. For example: Is it traditional medieval fantasy or some other genre? Is there any unique quality to this world that we would need to know? (example: unique races) Is it a serious, dramatic or comedic story? Does it have a day/night system? Is the city static or do new things happen in it as the plot advances?

One interesting thing that you can do is not only making NPCs unique, but make their living areas reflect this. At least that's what I'm doing in my game (that also features only one city), for example one of the NPCs is a cartoonishly greedy pawnbroker, so I made his house tiny to show he's a cheapstake. The front of his house is the store, and everything is haphazardly thrown together with no rhyme or reason, while his room is filled with chests and bags of gold, since they're the only thing he really cares about. I know, it's kind of silly

NPC to NPC interaction, if used well is another very fun feature. Since you mentioned factions, you could show members of them fighting for their turf.

The NPCs need to react appropriately to everything in their world.

And that is gonna be a helluva lot of work, and why many cities are quite small.  Something that large and that dynamic is gonna be an excess of work to pull off.  The NPCs need to both react to the achievements of the player so the player can get info and logical story progression, as well as react to each other.  NPCs cant just stand around with their thumbs in their asses, they will need to move about and have a logical purpose for what they do.  Im going shopping, then move them in and out of shops.  Things of that nature.  Its a big difference between being animated and "feeling alive", and to feel alive, the NPCs need to have appropriate reactions, as stated above.

I agree with Heretic86.  If you want the feel of a living city, every NPC will need to have a lot of different texts to say.  The most "alive" game I've ever played, aside from Skyrim (which probably took legions of programmers YEARS to make), was Rune Factory 3.  That game had, maybe, 40 NPCs, tops (I'm ignoring the "second" village) in 1 village.  And what you'd see is the NPCs would mostly be in one place, but would sometimes walk or run from place to place carrying something.

And the NPCs would interact with the player, and of course they all said something different for the many Festivals (Rune Factory = Harvest Moon with RPG elements added in).  And each NPC had its own schedule.  I'm sure that by itself was a lot of effort for the developers.

Also, keep performance issues in mind.  Even if you don't mind taking 6 years to write a LOT of NPC dialogue that most players won't see, if you have a lot of moving Events (i.e. NPCs) on screen at once, that will slow down the game's performance.  I mention this because I feel an "alive" city would have hundreds or even thousands of people in it at any one time (think New York City during rush hour!)

At least when I play an RPG, I search for the next goal.  I don't go talking to every NPC unless I'm lost and need a clue or something.  So, at least for me, a lot of NPC dialogue is something I don't see.  And I get rather annoyed when a clear path is blocked by an NPC for no good reason --- for example a guard blocking a bridge makes sense, but a merchant blocking an alley because his Event wandered in front of it is irritating.

I think the better approach is to have a good in-universe reason why the city is barren and, if you REALLY want an "alive" feel, you can cleverly hint at it, rather than inundating the player with tons of NPCs.  Maybe the city is living in terror of Bad Thing X, so a lot of people stay underground or in buildings.

For example in a horror game, say with zombies, people might be too scared to venture out into the city, for obvious reasons.  But each small house might have life in it, or it might not.

Honestly, I think you're suggesting a too extreme approach. After all Baldur's Gate didn't have all of this stuff and still managed to get usme invested in it's titular city (and all the other ones we visit as well). Sure, game standards have changed since then, but what I'm aiming at is that you can make a very personable city without obessesing on realism. After all it's an RPG we're talking about, not a simulation game: it's not about the city, but about giving a feeling of reality to the fictional setting so the player would care about it enough to quest in it, at least that's how I see it.

Btw, both World's dawn (http://rpgmaker.net/games/1855/) and My lazy afternoons (http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/9647-my-lazy-afternoons-demo-available-now/) managed to do the Harvest Moon approach to their towns without losing framerate. MLA is particularly impressive in this because if you see an npc going into a house, they'll actually be in there when you enter it.

What Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale both achieved was the NPCs reacted appropriately to the enviornments and their situations.  It doesnt mean they all need to speak Encyclopedias of dialogue, it just means their reactions need to be appropriate.  A character that reacts to nothing does not feel alive.  Hi.  If thats all an NPC said, and every other NPC said, the town would not feel alive, it would feel like an early alpha build of a game.  The reactions they have can be very very simple, may two optional sets of dialogue "Im so scared the dragon will attack the town" and "Im so glad you took care of the dragon!",  Its very simple and isnt much on character development, but it is an appropriate reaction to the changes in the things that NPC will be paying attention to.

We also have the other end of the extreme, the Verbal Diahhrea treated with an Oral Laxative.  NPCs just open their mouths and Word Vomit falls out.  Games like Skyrim, despite all their efforts made me bored.  Im interested in the character development of a handful of characters, but I dont want to know the total number of times that X NPC changed their baby's diapers during the course of my adventure.  Information overload.  Just like we do in posts.  Typically one or two sentences that can vary depending on conditions are pretty appropriate for NPCs of this genre, especially when the dialogue is mostly unspoken.  "I don't think youre ready to try to take on the Evil Harbinger yet!"  Alternately, "Youre the only one who can take on the Evil Harbinger so what are you waiting for, Grumpycat Day?", and finally "Im so glad you freed us from the Evil Harbinger!  Others may need someone with your strength too!"  Not too much but not too little, theres a BALANCE.  A Curve.  A Story Arc.  if the Story Arc gets weighted down with unnecessary word vomit dialogue, players start mashing buttons to hurry through all the dialogue you spend hours writing.

Then there are Scripts. 

Some scripts you may not appreciate as much as Players.  Being able to walk away from an NPC who is experiencing an Open Mouth Dictionary Discharge of Pronouns and Auto-anonyms actually helps to keep the players interested in what is said.  Let them walk away without trapping them into reading a Thesaurus of piss poor spellings and irrelevant information that flat out doesnt make any sense to the player anyway.  One has to expect that unless your game is "on rails", like a Movie where the outcome is completely unchangable, that players will skip most of your precious hand crafted dialogue.  Portal is a good example of an "on rails" game.  Sure you can move around, but at each step, the outcome has already been determined, and you are just "along for the ride", like a Rollercoaster.

The Verbal Reaction to the situation of the game is only about half of bringing characters to life.  The other half is Animation.  Animation is important because 90% of human communication is done with Body Language.  Putting forth the effort to simulate that Body Language can have a big payoff for the player as well.  People talk as much with their Hands and Eyes as they do with their Mouths.  This is the reason that when RPG Maker went from XP to the VX series, Faces were included in the Dialogue Boxes.  It was so you could read the facial expressions of the speaker, because there is often more information in the Body Language than there is in just the Dialogue.  Face Dialogue Scripts were some of the most commonly requested features for XP, but I think it still could have been done a bit better.  Im not a fan of this method of commuicating dialogue as most people who utilize the Face Options tend to leave the Faces as Static and unchanging.  There are times it is done right and pays off, but when the face does not change at all, it is only a visual cue about who is speaking and says absolutely nothing about their current psychological state.

For example, take a Face Pic with some dialogue where a friendly appearing character changes to a big bright smile and says "I'm gonna murder you to death!"  This can be interpreted in many different ways based on the context of the situation.  It could very easily be horesplay between two characters where actual harm is not intended.  Comic relief with a touch of dark humor.  It isnt the words themselves that make it humorous, but the juxtaposition between what is said and the "tone" how it was said where there is a contradiction in the literal words spoken and the Facial Expression.

Facial Expressions are not the only way to communicate Body Language.  A while back, I released a "Collection of 100% Compatible Scrips and Artwork".  Mostly its a big fat Tech Demo showing off dozens of different scripts with hundreds of features.  I set up the NPC's so whoever plays the Demo can walk away from most NPC's while they are speaking.  There are hundreds of NPCs also.  Each script that is contained in the "Collection" usually uses a Map for major scripts that are complex in their usage.  The NPC's were all created to be semi Lifelike.  When you trigger the NPC, you can move around.  They will turn to follow where you move, and the position of the dialogue "bubble" will shift to allow for maximum visibility of the player.  The NPC's also do this thing I call "Foot Forward" where as they speak, they put their "Foot Forward" as they talk.  Thus, they have a bit of actual Body Language and by turning to follow your position, also react to the actions of the player.  "Foot Forward" is a feature I put into another script called Multiple Message Windows, and it super easy to use.  For example, to have an NPC animate while they are speaking, its a part of the Dialogue itself!  \F+Good Morning!\F-  \F+I heard some new \bItems\b are for sale at the \bItem Shop\b!\F-  \b is for Bold Text, \F+ places the speakers Foot Forward, regardless of their direction (script does that for you, its just the @position variable), and \F- resets the character to their original pose.  I think it is rather pathetic that a Tech Demo has more lifelike characters than some complete games do. 

Im lookin at you, Final Fantasy XIII.  Yes, even the major developers make the mistake of not communicating with Body Language.  Dont get me wrong, a ton of work went into making that game.  But the chracters felt less alive than some of the better RPG Maker games I've played.  Final Fantasy dialogue usually consisted of something about hating Pulse, hating L'Cie, hating on something, but they came across as shallow and only had logical reactions to the changes in their enviornment, and it was used far too heavily as a crutch to communicate to the Player what was expected of them.  Dont even get me started on their literal in game Encyclopedia Gran Pulse.  The time developing the stupid book should have beed used to develop the lead characters.  Their NPC's literally did NOT move.  They sat on their asses and you'd hear some dialogue, or they'd run away like little sissies.  The NPCs were far too non-interactive.  The opposite end of the diaper changing scale is Skyrim, were NPC's are far too interactive.  There needs to be a BALANCE between the two.  Especially considering the level of work that you are capable of doing. 

Lets go back to Portal 2 for a second.  Wheatly, the little steel ball, was very heavily animated as a means of communicating with the players.  There was absolutely nothing about his apparent physical form what so ever.  He was a BALL.  And the gestures and movements that he was given by the guys at Valve paid off increating a believable character, believable enough that a player could suspend their disbelief  of the idea that "this is just a game" long enough for them to actually enjoy the game.  Wheatly was more heavily animated than every single NPC in Final Fantasy XIII put together did.  This is what Valve got right and Square failed.  So learn from their failures so you dont repeat the same mistakes.  A very tiny bit of animation goes a very very long way.  If Animation was compeletely useless, then Enterbrain would never have made turn_toward_player a flat out Default when you interact with Map Events.  And you can use the very very tiny stuff to your advantage.  Talk to the player and have the character move and turn about.  Looking toward the player shows interest in the Player.  Turning away from the Player can show either a lack of interest, or complete Dis-interest.  Its these small turns, foot forwards, and simple gestures that speak volumes about every Character's and NPC's personality archtype.

Another game that should be noted as a Case Study is Chrono Trigger.  RPG Maker XP (and in general) is very very graphically similar to Chrono Trigger.  Thats one that Square knocked it out of the park.  What they did right in that game was very similar to the default tools we have to work with.  Chrono Trigger is on many different Top Ten Best Games of ALL TIME Lists, and there are very very powerful yet simple reasons for this.  Their message system was simple in comparison to what we have to work with in the RPG Maker series.  No faces, and Top or Bottom of screen only.  So Chrono Trigger is even closer to XP than the VX series.  What they got right was the Character Animations.  During each Cutscene, the characters had some non walking poses to work with.  Arms out.  Head shaking.  Adjusting Glasses.  Pretty simple stuff.  You can probably find the spritesheets by googling for it, and you'll see that there are really not that many.  Each character had some unique poses because each character had unique reactions.  A girl with no glasses doesnt have an animation for adjusting their glasses.  It was their Body Language that made Chrono Trigger succeed and Final Fantasy XIII fall flat on its face.  Dont get me wrong, they had to get literally everything right with the game for even one single person to consider it to be Top Ten if not THE Best Game of ALL TIME list.  Their Battle System was perfect.  Their dialogue was short enough to not bore the players, but robust enough to create fairly deep characters (for the time and tech), their graphics were exceptionally highly detailed compared to everything else that was available at the time.  Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger were both made by Square.  Final Fantasy is closer to the Chibi / Kaiser sprite styles of our VX series, while Chrono Trigger was the largest RPG Character Sprite that had ever been released.  I was very young at the time but was old enough to know that Chrono Trigger had that something "super special" about it.  And I played Chrono Trigger when it first came out way way way back in the day.

The towns in Chrono Trigger were not very big at all.  Maybe only five or six NPC's total.  They have an opening sequence at the start of the game that was developed close to the very end of the games development cycle for for the Millenial Fair.  The Fair had more NPC's than most other early parts of the game.  One house might have two or more NPC's.  Later in the game, there are some larger buildings with more than two or three NPC's but theres really only one city like that.  It all blended together perfectly.  The music.  The battle.  The visuals.  The sprite styles.  But most important to this thread was the Animations of the Main Characters were what brought the game to life.  Chrono Trigger is what the visual style of RPG Maker XP was designed around while Final Fantasy was used as a rough guideline for the VX series.  That is how much impact that game has had.  Its reach still affects designs of games even today.

In conclusion, to bring a City to Life, a city usually needs Characters, when the city itself is not a character, ala Silent Hill.  These humanoid NPC Characters need to have both Verbal and Body Language Reaction to what goes on around them.  Mostly it will be direct interactions with the player, some interactions with each other, and reactions to major events concerning the town.  Each interaction is a mini-cutscene so it helps a lot to animate with a Template or Scripts.  It doesnt have to be long, or some super complex cutscene, but just a very simple realistic reaction, both with reactionary dialogue, and what ever you choose to supplement your dialogue, either something like Foot Forward, or changing a Facial Expression. 

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For those who dont know me, Ive worked in both Broadcast Media and Film for most of my adult life, and Im no spring chicken.  I have a tremendous level of experience as a professional who communicates for a living, both techical and biological, but I do better with the tech.  If you want better advice, try asking a major film director, if you can find one...

At present I have each NPC player say a random selection of things defaulted to them (3 lines of text per) and they will randomly say each one, this stops the repeated 1 line of text, they also vary from person to person from their greetings to what they have to say.

Some will mention little hints of areas that you may not know about, others will just babble spout about the weather and such.

Some even teach you how to do different abilities (like how to make new weapons e.c.t.)

I feel like you need to make your players want to speak to people rather than them just being there.

You may have to go through an old womans babble about how she misses her husband since the dragon ate him, but then you will find out about the cave where the dragon is hiding (and so on...)

what I am working on has still so much work to be done, I feel like I am 20% of the way there at least, with lots of side quests, character story quests, 4 heroes atm, a lot of activities to do and such, but this is one thing I am always concerned about is immersion into the game, I want it to be addicting as possible!

(100 detailed maps for caves and such) - there is more but I don't count shop maps as maps

Very good points by Heretic86. The default graphics are very limited, with just one face per character, which could work for NPCs, shopkeepers etc. The character creator is alright for creating some different expressions for a home-made character, and for a main character, you really should make at least 10 different expressions to use in dialogue boxes. Even NPCs could have a few different faces, especially if you're going to have a longer dialogue with them, like a quest giver or story exposition. Even better is of course if you can draw them yourself, or commission an artist, to have full control over the faces you need.