Like many people, I would like to create a large, open world RPG. However, I realise that in game development terms, that is about on a par with trying to slay a dragon, and I need to kill more than a few lesser creatures (metaphorically speaking) to gain experience first.

I already have a 3D game engine and scripting language in mind, so I mostly need a little advice as to whether the following plan to "level up" will work:-

Stage 1: Design, prototype and create an FPS, along the lines of Doom or Heretic.

Stage 2: Design, prototype and create an FPS with RPG elements, along the lines of Hexen or Legends of Might and Magic.

Stage 3: Design, prototype and create an action RPG, along the lines of Crusaders of Might and Magic.

Stage 4: Design, prototype and create an open world RPG, along the lines of the Elder Scrolls series.

I kind of want to include a first person adventure along the lines of Myst in there too, but am not where it would fit in the list, if anywhere.

Does this seem like a reasonable approach?

20 minutes ago, Wysardry said:

I already have a 3D game engine and scripting language in mind

What's the engine and language?

26 minutes ago, Wysardry said:

Does this seem like a reasonable approach?

Only if you're not a beginner and actually have some experience developing games. No matter the project I always use a design document, even in a basic form, I would suggest doing so as well.

Other than that, nobody here knows your level of experience to make any judgments.

I'll be using Unreal Engine 4 with SkookumScript, probably with some Blueprints in the mix.

I haven't created anything with those tools before, but have some experience in creating text adventures in BASIC, making maps for the Warcraft series and have played around with tools such as FPS Creator and RPG World.

I've also used Perl and PHP for simple website scripts.

Creating a design document would be part of the design process, yes. Most likely I will use Articy Draft for that.

As an alternative you could participate in the current GameDev challenge, a dungeon crawler:

2 minutes ago, Alberth said:

As an alternative you could participate in the current GameDev challenge, a dungeon crawler:

 

I highly recommend this to build up some experience.  

I’ve tried to make an open world RPG, and I can tell you what is likely to trip you up isn’t the development, the code behind an open world RPG isn’t that complex. It’s lengthy but not complicated.

what will likely trip you up is obtaining or creating art assets, an open world game has lots of models, materials, textures, maps, animations, rigging, and more.

there are some steps I recommend to make this manageable:

1) make it text only like a MUD - I’ve done this and finished the project, it worked well;

2) make it 2D like Zelda on 8 bit platforms which will bring down the art requirements to something easily satisfied by an off the shelf sprite pack.

Hope this helps!

The closing date for the GameDev Challenge might be a little too soon for me, considering that I haven't yet created anything with the tools I would be using. I'll keep it in mind though, in case I make better progress than I expect to.

UE4 isn't really designed for text only or 2D games and using another tool wouldn't teach me that many relevant skills.

An FPS is the simplest game type I could think of that included some of the features from a first person RPG and which would allow me to reuse code, assets and skills learned for the next stage.