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cairnswm
02-10-2007, 07:51 PM
Hi All

As I have been asked by a number of people to document my idea for rAge's Game.Dev idols competition - here it is!

Introduction about the game, including Genre, Theme and how it plays! (Background story?)

I am thinking of a game thats a cross between Minesweeper and an RPG. Basically you explore a map in the same way as you do in Minesweeper. If you click on an area that is open it opens a larger area. As minesweeper has bombs that need to be found, in MRPG instead of mines you have a collection of other items and events that can be triggered. The blocks around the item/event will contain clues to what is in the block in the same way the numbers around the bombs show where bombs will be.

The clues will give an indication of what may be found in the neighbouring blocks. So for example the bloks around a small village may contain small fiels, while the area around a goblin village would contain scarred trees, and skeletons, and around a dragon would contain burnt tree stumps and large skeletons.

What in your game would make it special and make people want to play it?

Most people open up mindsweeper from time to time just to waste a bit of time (while waiting for your grandmother to finish in the bathroom maybe?) and people just never seem to get enough of RPGs out in the Market, Diablo II is still a very popular game. People seem to really like the exploration mechanic that these games provide. By combining these in a simple turn based point and click interface it should get people playing it.

How possible would it be to develop? (Time vs Resources)

In most cases static images could work. Some animation would be nice for when dragons eat the player, or Orcs wipe out the local village. I think the resource requirements are pretty small.

What would make people play it more than once?

The exploration part of the game :)

What aspect of your game would you concentrate on to make the game amazing?

Making fun adventures.

Based on questions from the judges the following was also discussed:
How will combat work? Like the old point and click adventure games worked. To beat a goblin you first need to go and find a sword. To beat a dragon you need three knights, a magic sword, a full suit of armour, a magic horse (and a big shot gun!) etc.

The combat bit might need some rework as this system sort of prevents leveling up etc that RPGs typically use.

Some toher guides on movement. Only open plains etc open up large areas. Some terrain cannot be clicked on - such as deep forest or Mountinas 9unless you are an elf or dwarf respectivly). but these areas can have paths to traverse the area. Paths are clicked on square by square.

Adventures consist of a number of turns to finish. So each click is a turn. Planned adventures could contain clues etc.

Triggers on certian squares/time can make things happen (like start a village of orcs moving) - if the event happens in an open area the player would be informed of the event.

People felt that the option of random adventures was very important. This allows people to sit down and play a quick game without having to play the various scenarios. (Though I think Scenarios might be cool as tutorials or as expansion packs that can be player developed and shared on the internet - maybe even with their own graphics etc).



I would love more feedback on this game idea. I have been approached by one of the forum members to turn this into a proper project. More feedback later...... :)

Tr00jg
02-10-2007, 08:18 PM
Wow, really cool idea Cairnswm! I'd say go for the random world, but the scenario's could also work... Perhaps make room for both?

Evil_Toaster
02-10-2007, 10:30 PM
Sounds good. ;)

There was an addictive little starwars desktop game I played years ago called Yoda Stories. You might want to see if you can find it and give it a few plays. It's not the same game, but it had this really good system where each time you played, the game was different. As I remember (and this is a little fuzzy..) it did random levels with random enemies, along with random story elements and items to aquire. I think the story even managed to make sense each time.. it was probably tied to the set of items you needed to aquire. It might give you some inspiration for the design of this game.

Nandrew
02-10-2007, 10:38 PM
I second the random / scenario concept.

However, I'd like to propose another idea: a sense of persistence between gaming sessions. Let your character level up after killing that dragon, let him choose to keep a piece of armour after the previous session, whatever.

Then build random stages based on your character's level / equipment. If the player's character has low stats and is generally weak, the program should put in lots of orc huts. If the player is stronger, he'll end up fighting a helluva lot of dragons.

As a supplement to these random stages, you create set stages that players can engage in if they so wish. These are staggered in difficulty, from tutorial to "dragon valley" scenario. The idea is that the player will engage in lots of random quests for a while, then when they feel like a particular challenge they can go on the set quests and see if their character is strong enough to match up to the task at hand.

Ultimately, I'd like this to be the sort of game that is casual, but can *get* serious. The random stages are for the fly-by-night player. The scenarios are challenges for enthusiasts.

Nandrew
02-10-2007, 10:40 PM
Sounds good. ;)

There was an addictive little starwars desktop game I played years ago called Yoda Stories. You might want to see if you can find it and give it a few plays. It's not the same game, but it had this really good system where each time you played, the game was different. As I remember (and this is a little fuzzy..) it did random levels with random enemies, along with random story elements and items to aquire. I think the story even managed to make sense each time.. it was probably tied to the set of items you needed to aquire. It might give you some inspiration for the design of this game.

YODA STORIES! WOOO!

There's also Indiana Jones Desktop Adventures.

I felt that they had their weaknesses, though, which need to be worked around.

Gazza_N
03-10-2007, 05:53 PM
I have to agree that this game lends itself perfectly to procedural levels. In fact, I feel that it's essential for your replay value. Scenarios are good and fine, but the game will stagnate if too much stays the same.

Thaumaturge
03-10-2007, 10:38 PM
This is a very interesting and inspired idea, I'd say - I like it very much! ^_^

I'm especially fond of your proposed inclusion of both procedurally generated random adventures and pre-set missions, especially if mixed with Nandrew's suggestion of persistence. As Nandrew pointed out, that might allow the game to allow for both strictly casual play and, perhaps, some degree of more "serious" play.

To perhaps add a little to the idea of persistence, I would like to suggest that this be handled in a final screen, shown on the successful completion of a random adventure.

In this screen the player is presented with the items that they have collected thus far, and allowed to keep one (perhaps two or three, depending on how many various items you have available - if you have many then some generosity in this screen shouldn't hurt too much) of these items.

Another possibility is to have levelling up occur on the successful completion of an adventure, instead of via the amassment of XP.