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Ideas for a new game
Hi,
I am playing with the idea of writing a similar game but with a few major differences.
As a background, I've been working on games for >25 years and I'm pretty sure most people here have played some titles I worked on (if you like soccer or shooting, you have); I just can't write details at this stage, also this would be a hobby project.
I played a bunch of different rogue-like, both on computer and on tablets; SiL and Angband both caught my attention because I just kept coming back at them while I got bored with many others.
At the same time, I thought they were missing the depth you can get from Dwarf Fortress and the inability to modify the environment is something that is limiting.
The last step is that having a turn-based multiplayer game would be full of complex challenges since one main advantages of rogue likes is that they are fast.
For example, I like to be able to automatically run in a direction and stop instantly when there is a reason, it makes exploring super fast and would be totally impossible with a multiplayer game.
But challenges can be interesting; I came up with a few ideas, they may have flaws, and may not tie well into one another, but the goal of this post is to generate a discussion and see if it is possible to flesh out a design that makes sense.
The ideas below should be looked at from the gameplay / tech point of view, I have absolutely no scenario / lore in mind and any ideas are more than welcome.
So, here we go:
I see this as a large world with 2 main opposite forces (good vs. evil for the sake of example) since it can be re-balanced through external event (flood, meteor fall, etc).
It would be split in areas that have different characteristics in how they are built (mountains vs water, etc) and therefore different life, loots and challenges.
Each of these areas would have a set of common elements (marketplace, etc) and a bunch of cave to explore.
Once a cave has been won over by someone from one of the factions, it is 'owned' by that faction.
Each player from the same faction can freely come there as well, although it is 'done', so there is nothing to do; or there may be loot a previous player couldn't access, etc due to lack of equipment, etc.
You are free to fund the defense of this area from your own coins, making it harder for the enemy to take back.
An enemy player would, on the other hand see as a cave to conquer and the difficulty would be proportional to how the opposite side funds it.
Which means that exploring a cave is a totally independent game activity, yet your achievements will have an effect on the world's balance and each side slowly eats at each other.
This keeps the turned based system, adds a tower defense element since you can add to the funds of this area for the defense.
Each of the areas would produce resources which will allow the local towns to build and provide weapons and potions.
I see weapons, armors, etc as being damaged over time and they need to be repaired and/or replaced.
Potions will require resources to be made and available to the market, etc.
This can open the concept of economy as some players may chose to buy / sell stuff by traveling on the top map.
These are not new concepts, they're been around MMOs, but the idea here would be to bring more strategy and planning into the main war as every person has a real impact, which is not the case in any MMO where you can go redo the same mission instances over and over.
It would be possible to make the map truly gigantic but set it so that the opposite factions are still engaged with one another constantly.
Your progress on the top map would be possible only through land your faction owns; if you want to go further, you need to conquer the area.
As the cave explorations are separate events, this means it would be possible to have a gigantic amount of players at once, opening the idea of letting people build bots as well.
having the ability to leave messages in each cave mean some people could come and wipe some enemies and people with other skills could come later blow some walls for example.
maybe some caves would require people with different skills to make successive passes to complete it.
I don't see much difficulty in the coding; I see the whole challenge being about balancing the game properly, creating an enticing story in which events can be added at will to balance the world, etc.
I think it would need to basic gfx tiles to be able to convey a bit more information, specifically fire and water, things like that but it could remain extremely simple.
What do you guys think?
would you play something like this? if yes, add ideas, if not, write why!
I am playing with the idea of writing a similar game but with a few major differences.
As a background, I've been working on games for >25 years and I'm pretty sure most people here have played some titles I worked on (if you like soccer or shooting, you have); I just can't write details at this stage, also this would be a hobby project.
I played a bunch of different rogue-like, both on computer and on tablets; SiL and Angband both caught my attention because I just kept coming back at them while I got bored with many others.
At the same time, I thought they were missing the depth you can get from Dwarf Fortress and the inability to modify the environment is something that is limiting.
The last step is that having a turn-based multiplayer game would be full of complex challenges since one main advantages of rogue likes is that they are fast.
For example, I like to be able to automatically run in a direction and stop instantly when there is a reason, it makes exploring super fast and would be totally impossible with a multiplayer game.
But challenges can be interesting; I came up with a few ideas, they may have flaws, and may not tie well into one another, but the goal of this post is to generate a discussion and see if it is possible to flesh out a design that makes sense.
The ideas below should be looked at from the gameplay / tech point of view, I have absolutely no scenario / lore in mind and any ideas are more than welcome.
So, here we go:
I see this as a large world with 2 main opposite forces (good vs. evil for the sake of example) since it can be re-balanced through external event (flood, meteor fall, etc).
It would be split in areas that have different characteristics in how they are built (mountains vs water, etc) and therefore different life, loots and challenges.
Each of these areas would have a set of common elements (marketplace, etc) and a bunch of cave to explore.
Once a cave has been won over by someone from one of the factions, it is 'owned' by that faction.
Each player from the same faction can freely come there as well, although it is 'done', so there is nothing to do; or there may be loot a previous player couldn't access, etc due to lack of equipment, etc.
You are free to fund the defense of this area from your own coins, making it harder for the enemy to take back.
An enemy player would, on the other hand see as a cave to conquer and the difficulty would be proportional to how the opposite side funds it.
Which means that exploring a cave is a totally independent game activity, yet your achievements will have an effect on the world's balance and each side slowly eats at each other.
This keeps the turned based system, adds a tower defense element since you can add to the funds of this area for the defense.
Each of the areas would produce resources which will allow the local towns to build and provide weapons and potions.
I see weapons, armors, etc as being damaged over time and they need to be repaired and/or replaced.
Potions will require resources to be made and available to the market, etc.
This can open the concept of economy as some players may chose to buy / sell stuff by traveling on the top map.
These are not new concepts, they're been around MMOs, but the idea here would be to bring more strategy and planning into the main war as every person has a real impact, which is not the case in any MMO where you can go redo the same mission instances over and over.
It would be possible to make the map truly gigantic but set it so that the opposite factions are still engaged with one another constantly.
Your progress on the top map would be possible only through land your faction owns; if you want to go further, you need to conquer the area.
As the cave explorations are separate events, this means it would be possible to have a gigantic amount of players at once, opening the idea of letting people build bots as well.
having the ability to leave messages in each cave mean some people could come and wipe some enemies and people with other skills could come later blow some walls for example.
maybe some caves would require people with different skills to make successive passes to complete it.
I don't see much difficulty in the coding; I see the whole challenge being about balancing the game properly, creating an enticing story in which events can be added at will to balance the world, etc.
I think it would need to basic gfx tiles to be able to convey a bit more information, specifically fire and water, things like that but it could remain extremely simple.
What do you guys think?
would you play something like this? if yes, add ideas, if not, write why!
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