Characteristics of an RPG

Role-playing video games typically rely on a highly developed story and setting, which is divided into a number of quests or levels. Players typically control one or more characters by issuing commands, which are then performed by the player character based on their defined abilities and attributes. Throughout the game, these attributes increase or decrease, and set the personality of the character.

An RPG usually also has a complex and dynamic interaction mechanism, defined and developed between the player character and the world within which they are immersed. This includes interaction with the world environment, as well as other non-character players defined within the world. Due to these factors, there is usually more time allocated to designing and developing the codebase that deals with the behavior and artificial-intelligence (AI) handling such events throughout the game.

The key elements of an RPG are as follows:

• Story and setting
• Exploration and quests
• Items and inventory
• Character actions and abilities
• Experience and levels
• Combat
• Interface and graphics