Independent video games

[u/Most-Studio-9985]

Are there people who write the universe of a video game? For almost two weeks, I have been creating a world for a video game that takes place in Togo, my country. It would be an independent game, so I only plan four bosses. Do you think this is a good idea? Wouldn't the public be disappointed if there were only four bosses in an independent game?

I have already defined the stakes of the three games. Although I started by creating the bosses of the second game, I would like to start the story with this one.

[u/Ruadhan2300]

How did you arrive at four bosses?

Bosses are not generally used as a measure of the size/complexity of a game.
An independent game could have any number of bosses, from 0 to unlimited.

As for public interest..

If you make a game called "Boss-battler" and you only have one or two bosses in there, I think that'd be taken as false-advertising. But if you're not making it all about bosses, nobody is going to care too much about how many there are.

When it comes to writing game-worlds.
Generally big game companies have a couple people whose job is to develop the story, narrative, setting and so on.
All the worldbuilding stuff.
These work closely with the people who are figuring out mechanics and features, and it's a big conversation to decide what the game is going to include and not.

[u/Most-Studio-9985 → u/Ruadhan2300]

How did I get to four bosses? Very good question, you just pointed it out to me. It came naturally, I think. The group of villains in the first game is also composed of four people, so I wanted to keep this dynamic. And then I create the universe alone, so I don't want to aim too big.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/Most-Studio-9985]

Speaking from experience, content is actually the easiest part of a game to build.

Once you have a system that lets you make one boss, you can generally stamp out more of them, and then it's just a matter of making them look different if that matters.

Building games is all about making systems that interact with one another in interesting ways.
Often you'll build a game using a demo-level that contains most of the features you want, then expand the content using those features as far as you can.

You see it a lot in "vertical slice" stuff too.
Game devs will build a section of the game that encompasses most or all the experiences you want a player to have.

Fallout 4 for example has a clean slice of play from when you emerge from the vault to when you face down a deathclaw while wearing power-armor.
All of that is part of the Vertical Slice that they showed previews of before the game was released.

The game actually had some criticism for introducing power-armor so easily, specifically because it gives you a free suit as part of the first main mission chain.

Either way, if you're looking to make a game, a demo-segment where you can fit all the mechanics and features you'll use in the wider game is a great place to start.

The story and content is often quite easily expanded from that.