Game Discussion: Graveyard Keeper

Graveyard Keeper Multi-Genre Discussion

  • Information
    Posted on 22 August 18 at 06:29
    Please use this thread to discuss this game's classification under the multi-genre system.

    If you disagree with the current genres, please click the "Add genre disagreement" button below.
  • Information
    Posted on 04 January 19 at 09:17
    Ostrowidzki1989 has registered their disagreement about the genres applied to this game
    Completing almost any action rewards one of 3 types of experience points which is mandatory for story progression.

    You can upgrade your equipment.

    There's upgrades for your combat equipment which does make combat easier.

    There's upgrades for resource gathering.

    There's an obvious story line going on, but not linear.

    There's obvious management elements, but should not exclude roleplaying at all.
  • Posted on 10 January 19 at 11:41
    So this is being ignored?
  • Removed Gamer

    Removed Gamer

    Posted on 17 January 19 at 05:42
    The team has decided that RPG fits but Management does not
  • Posted on 18 January 19 at 02:32
    Thanks for looking at this. I know I tend try and add rpg tags to a lot of games, but it's been a genre I've played near exclusively for over 20 years.
  • Posted on 19 February 19 at 14:29
    I'm also a lover of adding RPG to as much as possible, but I never would have pegged this game as fitting. Regardless, how is Management or Simulation not in there as well? Here is the bio of the game:

    "Graveyard Keeper is the most inaccurate medieval cemetery management sim of the year. Build & manage your own graveyard while finding shortcuts to cut costs, expand into entertainment with witch-burning festivals, and scare nearby villagers into attending church. This is a game of capitalism and doing whatever it takes to build a thriving business.

    Face ethical dilemmas. Do you really want to spend money on that proper hotdog meat for the festival when you have so many resources lying around? Gather valuable resources & craft new items. Expand your Graveyard into a thriving business, go ahead and gather valuable resources scattered in the surrounding areas, and explore what this land has to offer. Make business alliances. These dead bodies don't need all that blood, do they? Why not sell it to someone who can put it to good use. Same for body parts. Hey, it's being efficient with recycling! Explore mysterious dungeons. No medieval game would be complete without these. Take a trip into the unknown and find useful new ingredients which may or may not poison a whole bunch of nearby villagers. Capitalism."

    It's literally Stardew Valley but a graveyard instead of a farm. Again, can't speak to any RPG elements they've added, but it seems it should have at least one of the others.
  • Posted on 11 March 19 at 06:54
    Management somewhat implies there's going to be a consequence for certain options. There isn't.

    The game has a very Runescape like feel to it as well as the fact that nearly everything in the game is locked behind a skill tree. Play runescape for 5 hours and then try this; you'd be hard pressed to not feel the similarities.

    Regardless of how you look at it, there's really no other genre that fits better than roleplaying. Roleplaying elements far outweigh management elements... and putting it under management to keep it out of roleplaying isn't healthy for the management genre either..

    Stardew valley does not have a skill tree that locks everything out to the extent this does. You almost literally can't do anything until you level your skill trees by using 1 of 3 different forms of experience.
  • Posted on 11 March 19 at 06:57
    The only management consequence in the entire game is being foolish how you spend your first bit of blue experience you gain. Better learn to make flasks or blue will be tough to come by again for a bit.
  • Information
    Posted on 15 June 19 at 00:57
    Xpovos has registered their disagreement about the genres applied to this game
    Since the team has already decided that Management is out, this might be "spitting in the wind," but I want to lay a case as best I can for this being Management. Keep it RPG if you want, that's fine. Seems odd to me at times, but I can see it as well. But Management, too, then.

    "Management games give the player high level control of an entity, such as a sports team or a business. The player must decide game strategy and deal with issues like resource limitations and periodic setbacks."

    Periodic setbacks aligns with "consequences" that Ostrowidzki1989 speaks of, perhaps. And no, none of these consequences are earth shattering, nor are any of them randomly assigned (with one possible exception), but the game has a natural ebb and flow as you follow the crafting trees, where, unless you're using a guide, you periodically hit a wall and need to re-navigate your empire around it. These are periodic, which very much implies regular and ongoing, but says nothing about permanent effects.

    While the game plays a low level, the new DLC introduces much more upper-level management simulation aspects through the zombie workers. Even if it's just you doing all of the work, the strategy element of the game, rather than the "press A to spend energy" is all about the high level decisions about what to do next.

    Resource limitations are absolutely integral to the game, and while they're ultimately infinite, the time gated nature limits options considerably.

    On another note, I frequently refer to this game, to the uninitiated as, "a macabre Stardew Valley." I'll note that Stardew Valley is neither RPG, nor Management, but is instead Action/Adventure and Simulation.

    If Management doesn't work (and it should, in my opinion) maybe Simulation works better for the genre team.
  • Posted on 06 July 19 at 00:26
    Simulation doesn't make any sense since it simulates nothing; the sims wouldbe a better example of simulation. Management implies that there's consequences to decisions being made.

    There are so many ways to speed time up, where time management is a non issue if you know what you're doing. If you're implying a paid dlc creates a new genre, that's not right.

    The only action adventure aspects are so minimal, it's absolutely forgettable.
  • XpovosXpovos1,210,771
    Posted on 07 July 19 at 20:57
    Hey, thanks for your condescending response. It's better than nothing.

    I'm not in favor of a Simulation genre for this game. I merely noted that an incredibly similar game was tagged as such. If you feel strongly that Simulation isn't a good fit here, it's probably a better use of time to advocate against it over on Stardew Valley.

    The paid DLC does not add any achievements and fundamentally changes how the game can be played. There is no way to tell whether someone is playing the with zombies version, or vanilla, since the base content is the same, it's just been modified. If you believe that the new content doesn't change the genre, or don't care, both are fine. It's an interesting additional point.

    I'll reaffirm my initial position. The base game, Graveyard Keeper is more Management than any other genre.

    Regarding your point on speeding time up, there are exactly three ways to speed up time: speed potions, sleeping, and meditation. Only speed potions are actually effective in that vein, unless you're aiming to get to a specific event rotation. Speed potions are a fairly deep item, at least a third of the way into the game, and still require crafting from items. If you know the key ingredients, it's fairly trivial, but navigating the path to them is itself managerial. You are choosing to prioritize those tech trees and prerequisites rather than pursuing other opportunities. Ultimately, all paths lead to Rome, and speed potions, but it's entirely possible to not have them near the end of the game. Regardless, the existence of a single item, and it's completely optional use seems a poor reason to prohibit a genre that otherwise would apply perfectly.

    Similarly, if "speeding up time" negated Management elements, then the free-to-play genre would be denuded of that genre quickly. Take Fallout Shelter, currently a Management title. Want to speed things up? Use some Nuka Quantum. Oh, I guess it's not Management anymore because you can optionally use an existing in-game item to speed things up. Or pay real money to buy more of them?

    You may believe, fully, that a management genre requires that decisions have consequences, but that isn't the definition that TA uses. It says, "periodic setbacks," as I noted in the quoted definition in my disagreement, and where I enumerated my reasons for supporting it. If you disagree with me on that, let me know how those periodic setbacks are not, in fact, periodic setbacks.
    Time not important; only life important.
  • LV 1 Blue SlimeLV 1 Blue Slime1,666,744
    Posted on 12 July 19 at 00:28
    I would remove RPG and put management. I think that's the best fit. I guess my main issue with RPG being on it is it doesn't really have any RPG elements at all. The skill tree isn't a skill tree, it's a technology tree. Very few nodes have anything to do with your character, it's all about resource gathering and making new buildings and stuff. It feels more like the kind of technology tree you see in Supreme Commander and other RTS games, and I wouldn't put those in RPGs either, of course. When I think RPG I think character development, and outside of a few nodes in the tree that boost damage and defense, everything else is aimed at the management side of the game. I would also like to say that putting RPG on something that doesn't even involve leveling up is sacrilege.

    As for the management side of things, there's plenty of consequences to be had. Unlocking the wrong technologies (especially the ones that take blue points) can set you back quite far until you have the facilities to pump out flasks or RIP headstones quickly and easily for blue points, and the game gives you no real indication of what technologies are going to be important. This is further compounded by the time-gated nature of the story and the fact that most quest-givers only appear on a certain day, if you need something for a quest that you aren't anywhere near unlocking, you'll be stuck grinding points to unlock the required technologies, and then waiting for the day they show up again on top of that. I hit these kinds of roadblocks quite often.

    I hate losing the RPG score after finishing the game, but it is what it is.

    I also noticed this : My Time at Portia Multi-Genre Discussion and that Stardew Valley keeps coming up. It's odd all 3 have completely different genres when they sound quite similar, though I haven't played the other two.
    "Slutty outfit? You're one to talk." "This isn't slutty, it's strategically placed."
  • KasugaSamaKasugaSama124,840
    Posted on 14 July 19 at 13:07
    The team has talked about it, and we've decided to add Management to Graveyard Keeper, and remove Role-Playing.

    Hopefully this is more fitting. toast
    Everything you do is a balloon.
  • Information
    Posted on 12 August 19 at 19:22
    Ostrowidzki1989 has removed their disagreement about the genres applied to this game
    I disagree
  • Information
    Posted on 12 August 19 at 20:04
    Ostrowidzki1989 has registered their disagreement about the genres applied to this game
    The problem I see with this, is that it's essentially the same game as My Time at Portia and stardew Valley.

    In all 3, we see very clear character progression, unlike animal crossing in which the only clear progression appears to upgrade your house, Tom Nook's and have a statue erected of yourself with no elements of real character progression or management elements of farming or harvesting, thusforth, it's just a simulation in the end.

    Harvest moon is something I've not really ever played much of ,but to my knowledge, it's got elements of upgrade your farm, selling crops and making decisions on what to grow. To my knowledge, there is no character progression making it just a management/simulation game.

    Now, if I pop in the action replay or game shark, give myself a bunch of money, then I'm right at the end game, no character progression necessary.

    Now, my time at portia, graveyard keeper and stardew valley all contain a fair bit of elements of roleplaying, sand box, simulation and management. The fact that these 3 games are essentially the same thing with different skins and completely different genres is ridiculous.

    The genre tags applied to My Time at Portia should all be applied to graveyard keeper and stardew valley. The fact they all have different genres kind of diminishes the meaning of the genre system in place.
  • KasugaSamaKasugaSama124,840
    Posted on 20 August 19 at 11:08, Edited on 20 August 19 at 13:30 by KasugaSama
    This issue with your disagreement, Ostro, is that you seem to go back on forth on your own disagreements from the past. You previously disagreed on Simulation and Management being added to this game, and you made no further complaints of us not adding RPG. Now you're saying you want all of the above added.

    Portia genres are fine as they are, in my opinion, though anyone can make disagreements for it.
    The team will discuss Stardew.
    As for Graveyard Keeper, we feel like management is good enough to describe it. I personally have played it, and agree with others in this thread that management is a good genre to leave on it, on its own.

    EDIT: We've altered Stardew and Portia to better fall in line with this whole thing, and we are happy with how they are. Though, once again, anyone can register disagreements on those to further discuss it with us so we can figure out what they should be, if what they are now is incorrect.
    Everything you do is a balloon.
  • Posted on 21 August 19 at 07:55
    KasugaSama said:
    This issue with your disagreement, Ostro, is that you seem to go back on forth on your own disagreements from the past. You previously disagreed on Simulation and Management being added to this game, and you made no further complaints of us not adding RPG. Now you're saying you want all of the above added.

    Portia genres are fine as they are, in my opinion, though anyone can make disagreements for it.
    The team will discuss Stardew.
    As for Graveyard Keeper, we feel like management is good enough to describe it. I personally have played it, and agree with others in this thread that management is a good genre to leave on it, on its own.

    EDIT: We've altered Stardew and Portia to better fall in line with this whole thing, and we are happy with how they are. Though, once again, anyone can register disagreements on those to further discuss it with us so we can figure out what they should be, if what they are now is incorrect.
    The simple fact is that I still believe there are strong roleplaying elements in the game.

    I go back and forth because you guys really want to put management on this game for god knows what reason. I would say it's got more roleplaying elements than any other

    Management games have consequences for making certain decisions. Granted, blue points are hard to come by early on... unless you're not an idiot and you and put down a few furnaces making glass jars and blue points making management as the only genre very wrong. There are very slight management elements, but definitely not enough to warrant it as the only genre.

    But what do I know? I'm only someone who's played the game for over 80 hours and completed it. At launch, you guys tagged bards tale trilogy as a racing sim... where you guys come up with your logic is beyond me. Ff8 remaster is coming soon... vehicular combat/equestrian sports tags...?

    I've invited one of the other genre guys to a party chat to discuss what a roleplaying game constitutes as, but he stood me up. I'd really love to be able to have a civil discussion about what the genre means... because there's quite a few games deserving of the genre tag that don't have it...
  • KasugaSamaKasugaSama124,840
    Posted on 21 August 19 at 10:25
    Ostrowidzki1989 said:
    But what do I know? I'm only someone who's played the game for over 80 hours and completed it. At launch, you guys tagged bards tale trilogy as a racing sim... where you guys come up with your logic is beyond me. Ff8 remaster is coming soon... vehicular combat/equestrian sports tags...?
    I was simply asking for a confirmation on your disagreements as you have evidently gone back and forth and said contradicting things. I am trying to understand what exactly you want on this game in particular. There's no reason to act the way you're acting.

    As for Bards Trilogy, if you go ahead and read the multi-genre discussion on it, you will CLEARLY see that it is a glitch, that we're leaving as is so the devs can sort it out, and avoid future problems. We did NOT pick those genres for the Bards Trilogy.

    The Bard's Tale Trilogy Multi-Genre Discussion

    "This was a system glitch, looks like genres I applied to something else were instead assigned to this game. I won't change it just yet, I notified site administration so they can look into the glitch first, then it'll be changed."
    Everything you do is a balloon.
  • Posted on 21 August 19 at 20:04
    KasugaSama said:
    Ostrowidzki1989 said:
    But what do I know? I'm only someone who's played the game for over 80 hours and completed it. At launch, you guys tagged bards tale trilogy as a racing sim... where you guys come up with your logic is beyond me. Ff8 remaster is coming soon... vehicular combat/equestrian sports tags...?
    I was simply asking for a confirmation on your disagreements as you have evidently gone back and forth and said contradicting things. I am trying to understand what exactly you want on this game in particular. There's no reason to act the way you're acting.

    As for Bards Trilogy, if you go ahead and read the multi-genre discussion on it, you will CLEARLY see that it is a glitch, that we're leaving as is so the devs can sort it out, and avoid future problems. We did NOT pick those genres for the Bards Trilogy.

    The Bard's Tale Trilogy Multi-Genre Discussion

    "This was a system glitch, looks like genres I applied to something else were instead assigned to this game. I won't change it just yet, I notified site administration so they can look into the glitch first, then it'll be changed."
    Okay. Firstly, there's management to a very small degree. How you spend each day and how you prepare the week. Since the game works on a 6 day week, there's special NPCs that show up only on specific days. If you don't focus on them, you'll have to wait another 6 days.

    Waiting for in game days to pass can be very easily accomplished by going to the quary and mining/chiseling to deplete energy so you can sleep faster. Might take 15 minutes or less cycling an entire week and amassing incredible amounts of all 3 types of points.

    If you invest your initial blue points into something that returns blue points right away, you'll never be short on them. Plus, researching also grants obscene amounts of blue points.
    S
    Management elements are there to a degree, but by far not enough to justify it as the only genre.

    Simulation... I feel this is a way stronger genre choice if there's to be only one genre to pick between the 2 as it's essentially a life simulation... in a weird way like stardew valley. I feel there's enough here to really make sense out of it.

    Now for roleplaying and the reason why I'm so adamant about it.

    The story behind the game is to get back home, and the only way to do that is to help all 6 people on all 6 days with their situations and see how they all intertwine to reach tye end goal.

    Now, the real focal point comes into play. In order to reach the end game, there's about 60 hours worth of gathering raw materials getting experience in order to unlock new crafting options that are required to progress through the story.

    There is combat as well, and in my opinion, about as vital as it is in my time at portia. By far not super crucial overall, but definitely necessary for certain crafting and achievements related to getting to the end of the dungeon.
Want to join in the discussion? Please log in or Register For Free to comment.
Hide ads
Hide ads