When some hear “epic game”, they tend to think huge maps. While it’s true that a large map helps make the game feel epic, there’s a bit more to it than that.
Yes, that blue little square is my character.
What makes a game epic is the importance and the exploration. It varies from person to person on what makes a game “epic” since people have different tastes and different opinions, but I will try to explain what I feel makes an epic game.
Writing
I am a bit hesitant to do this part since I do feel there really isn’t a “right” and “wrong” way to write something. There is so much variation with writing that it’s difficult to make a concrete tutorial on this. However, I will write a guide for those who are really struggling with this section and need some inspiration or ideas.
Please do not take all this at face value and believe it’s the only way to write a story. 
Make the NPCs Important
Source: Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask, Gameplay by MarioWorldHacker
If you’re going for the hero saving a town or world, it’s important to make it so that the hero has a reason to save these NPCs and their town. The best way to do this is to give a variation in dialogue and make them talk like how people in the real world would talk. Even if it’s in the Middle Ages, you can still look at books or movies from that period to get an idea of how people would speak to one another. Make them not only give you hints, but also show that they have a life outside of standing around and waiting for you to talk to them. Perhaps you can make a side story between three or four NPCs where talking to them will give out a scandal going on through the town.
Another way is to show the culture of the town. Maybe they have a different religion, or they have different ideals of what is taboo and what is acceptable in their society.
In short, the best way to make NPCs important is not to think of them like tools to get the player from point A to point B, but as unplayable characters who have their own life and stories.
Make the Goal Important
Source: Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
What is the motivation for the player to complete this goal? The typical one is saving the world or stopping the antagonist, but sometimes it can be difficult to make that the only motivation unless the player cares about the characters. For making a game epic with the goal, there are different methods of achieving this. The first one is saving the world/village. The second one, which I like the most personally, is making the goal personal to the playable character. This gives the character a motivation to go out and achieve the goal and depending on the situation, can make the playable character sympathetic to the player. This will make the player root for the playable character and want to achieve the end goal.
The Explorer Protagonist
Source: Syberia, Gameplay by GamerZmaj.
One of the best ways to show that a world is grand is by having the protagonist view it as grand. One of the easiest ways to create this is to make the “explorer” protagonist.
This protagonist has a thirst for adventure and looks at the world with wide eyes. A protagonist can start off not being an explorer type and develop into that throughout the story. That would also give the protagonist some personal growth as well.
Other types of protagonists that work well in making an Epic game would be the Silent Protagonist and the Observer.
The Observer
This protagonist doesn’t have much character development and does not play much importance in the world. However, they are essential in being the eyes for the player to see the grand and vast world filled with various people. One of the most popular observer character is Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby. Another one would be Watson from Sherlock Holmes.
The Silent Protagonist
This protagonist doesn’t have dialogue and doesn’t really have much to say at all. The purpose of this protagonist is usually to make it so the player is the protagonist. The most popular silent protagonist is Link from the Legend of Zelda series or Red from the Pokemon games.
Game Design
For this we are going to look at making the game feel grand.
Create Optional Side-quests
Source: Fable, Gameplay by VolitileGabe
Some players love side-quests and some hate them. My solution to this is to make side-quests optional. That will let the people who hate them skip over them and play the game for the story. The players who love them can get rewards such as money or a special item not needed to complete the game as rewards.
With side-quests, it’s important to make them interesting. Combining this with making the NPCs important, you can make the side-quest fit the NPC and maybe have it connect to their story. This will give a rewarding feeling for the player to help the NPC. You can even set it up that the NPC doesn’t ask the protagonist for help, but the protagonist can decide to do it any way as a kind gesture.
One important thing is to make sure that the side-quest mechanic isn’t too annoying or frustrating. It’s important to give a challenge, but don’t make it so that the player wants to rip their hair out with the quest. Don’t be shy about asking for beta testers specifically to test your side quests.
Make Buildings Feel Big
I don’t mean that you need to make every building feel big. A variety is good for making the game visually appealing. However, making a big building will make that building feel grand and important.
Let’s look at this image here. This is for the typical chibi character. The building that is 3 squares high would be a way to shrink the area down. This is useful if you’re wanting to show a town that has limited supplies or is mobile. I recommend these for small huts and possibly little log cabins.
The 4 squares high is the normal building size. What I like to do is use this as the base as what the normal house size would be and then modify it to if I want to make the area feel bigger or smaller. You can even use this for an individual house to make it feel more or less important than the other houses.
The 5+ squares would be for large houses. These tend to be castles and mansions.
This method isn’t just for houses. You can use this for trees and cliffs as well.
The World Map
Let’s take a look at the world map from Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time:
It looks pretty massive, but in reality, it isn’t as scary as you’d think:
These are the main sections that I highlighted. This is excluding the dungeons, but it gives you a bit of an idea of how the world is divided.
And this would be the outline if we take away all the details.
The Little Details Matter
One of the best ways to make the game feel grand without making 500 X 500 maps is to make the world interactive. Not only make the tiny details, but add ways for the player to interact with them, even if it’s just having footprints in the sand. Small details and small interactions are important in the long run and can make the game feel polished.
The Importance of a Good Battle System
There are so many different types of battle systems you can do for RPG Maker. For an “epic” fantasy game, I typically enjoy an ABS system. This is a matter of personal taste though. You can use turn base or a strategic base battle system as well, but make sure you keep it balanced. If you have random encounters, I highly, highly recommend you either have on screen sprites so the player can evade them if they wish. Or, alternatively, you can do what Pokemon does and have it set to a patch of grass.
Deciding on Party Members
For an epic game, either having it be a single character/player or having the option of party members is completely up to you. If you do decide to go for the party members, make sure that they are just as interesting as the character/NPCs/world. Give them personalities and insecurities. Give them flaws and give them strengths. There’s a chance that a player will like one character over the other, but that’s a good thing! Different personalities are going to be appealing to one player but indifferent to another.
An example would be Power Rangers. When I was little, my favorite power ranger was the blue ranger, but my cousin liked the red ranger the most. His sister loved the pink ranger the most. Neither of these characters were better than the other, but having a variety to choose from made the show more appealing.
Having a variety of personalities, you give your game more options of people being drawn to a character, resulting in the player rooting for the whole team.
The Conflict
Source: Mario 64, Gameplay by SilentSlayers
For conflict in an epic game, the best ones I would say would be Person vs Person or Person vs Society.
Character Against Character: The character is in conflict with another character
Character Against Society: The character is in conflict with the rules of society. Can overlap with Character Against Character.
There are others you can play with, but these are the easiest to make the conflict feel grand. It also gives an idea of who the antagonist is so that the player can focus on the world building. If you go with character against character, I would recommend that you have it so the protagonist takes the antagonist seriously.
With this, I don’t mean that you need to make your antagonist a brooding serious and dark character if you don’t want to. You can have your antagonist ham it up and chew the scenery if you’d like. What I mean is by taking the antagonist seriously is to make them a threat to the protagonist. They don’t need to kick kittens in their free time and light fires to orphanages to be an antagonist. An antagonist is, in simple terms, someone to be an obstacle for the protagonist.
With that said, there are different viewpoints on what makes a good antagonist. You can make a truly evil character, or you can make a character who does bad things but has another side to them that makes them sympathetic. Whichever you decide to take your antagonist, I would recommend researching that type from other commercial games, indie games, or stories. Then you can decided what qualities you like, what qualities you want to change, and what qualities you want to drop completely.
Using Tones and Lighting
The obvious difference between making a game and writing a story is that a game is visual. You can use visuals and lighting to set the mood and to create the atmosphere instead of having to rely on just words.
Fog and Rain can invoke the feeling of dreariness.
Red can invoke the feeling of urgency or uncomfortableness.
Blue can invoke the feeling of calmness or melancholy.
Yellow can invoke the feeling of happiness.
Play around with the tint screen and try out various colors. If the tint invokes the emotion you feel is right for your scene, then that should be the tint you should go for.
Using Music and Ambiance
This is something that is a little tough for me to give advice on. Music and ambiance can be very powerful at completing a scene or area. The best thing I can recommend is listening to the music all the way through while having the game in play mode. For me, I just download a lot of royalty free songs and go through trial and error until I find what completes the area the most.
And that is my advice on making an epic game. You can find ways that are completely different than mine and still make an amazing epic game. These are just suggestions to help you get started and hopefully give you inspiration.
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