What was the thinking behind the decision to set the level cap at 30 in SLARPG?
SLARPG was always intended to be a relatively short game (even if it did end up being 20 hours long), so I set the level cap as 30 pretty early on. Later in development, I kept it that low so that players doing all the side quests would likely hit the level cap late in Act IV, rather than accidentally hitting some absurd level before the final dungeon and one-shotting the final bosses. At that point doing better in combat becomes a matter of equipping better gear and using smarter strategies, rather than being able to rely on overleveling.
I wanted to discourage unnecessary grinding in general, actually. I knew if the level cap was higher then some people would brute force their way to the max level, regardless of whether or not they were having fun doing so. This is part of the reason why I chose not to give the game achievements, too, and why there isn't some super crazy secret reward for completing the bestiary. Extrinsic motivators like that will compel certain types of player to 100% the game and max out everything, even if they find the actual act of doing so extremely tedious, and this can easily bring down your experience with a game as a whole. You might not remember the earlier parts of the game as well as you remember all the grinding you did near the end to get that platinum.
As for the specific number, I also wanted to maintain a sense that the Novas still have a long way to go in their adventuring careers even at the end of the game. And maybe it's level 30 because they're in their early 20s and they have a hard time envisioning themselves past 30, or something.
