Intro: As some of you know I want to put together a great BYOND team that makes hit games. For more info read here http://www.byond.com/people/sariat
I've started this game a couple of times before in my BYOND career just like "Super Hero Bash!", but this one was just way too far out of my skill level. My inspiration for this was my first BYOND game I ever played, SpaceTug!
I am going to pitch this to the Doritos Xbox Live Arcade game contest for $50,000 who knows, I may win it! Anyway being realistic in the fact that it doesn't get made, I would love to see this on BYOND. So, let me know your thoughts, comments and concerns.
Realize this is the initial design document and will not have the detailed gameplay info, just overall info about the game. This would be the start-up project I want to complete with my team. (Read the blog on my page!)
Anyway, here it goes!
Title: SUBMERGED
Tag Line: TBA
Overall Theme: M for Mature, a very dark game. Lots of blood and gore. Lighting is a huge role in this game, even with the lights on, you can't see EVERYTHING, even worse when the lights are off. Fear of the unknown! You never know whats around the corner, you never know how long the battery of your flashlight will hold or how long the oxygen is going to last in a certain area, etc
Story: An underwater compound is the setting for this gritty game. There is only one goal, and many ways to achieve it in this robust, multiplayer survival game: STAY ALIVE. Through various RANDOM scenarios , players must either escape to the surface of this mutli-level building or eliminate all threats by any means neccessary.
NOTE: A game will consist of 4-8 players per "round" , rounds should last anywhere from 5-15 minutes but typically no longer than 20. Once a player dies, they will be able to observe thier peers.
Characters: Would be random ranging from doctors to scientists to would be human expiriments that got lucky that a state of emergency has been called. Just regular ol' folk with no super human powers. Unless you're the monster. Then you're a bad ass who can kill the humans with a couple of attacks (obviously some game balance would be there-- more difficult to open doors and wouldnt be able to use any objects)
Gameplay: A few of the many possible scenarios are:
Monster Mash:
Monster(s) have breached the underwater compound and the crew must eliminate the monster(s) by any means possible. Monsters would be playable characters and chosen at random.
H1N1(Swine Flu) Mode
One player would start out infected with a virus and that person's goal is to infect the entire crew before they escape. Once a person is infected, they can also help spread the infection or sacrifice themselves before the virus takes full control.
Sabotage:
The entire compound has reached a Civil War and the last remaning survivors battle each other to escape the underwater compound. Players could sabotage submarines, start fires, lockdown doors and flood certain areas to prevent the other team from escaping and so on. First team out/Team with most survivors wins! (I forsee a lot of battles to the death on the top floor!)
And last but certainly not least: SURVIVAL.
Survival throws in a dangerous mix of all the previous game modes but the overall objective is to ESCAPE! At the start of this mode, the underwater compound will be on the brink of destruction, fires blazing, stairwells blocked off, very few working lights, Monster infested floors, NPC's infected with the virus, and so on. Every man for themselves on this one. Live together, or die alone anyone?
Rewarding the player: Players receive points by accomplishing goals. If they are a monster, and kill somebody, they earn points. If they are a human and escape, they earn points, and so on.
Weapons: There will be no guns in the game. A small arms pistol with limited ammo MAYBE, think more along the lines of tazers, metal pipes, and some other unconvential weapons. Nothing long range.
X-Factor: The most important character of the game is the underwater compound itself. It will never be the same map, ever. The compound could be anywhere from 5-20 stories tall, there are several ways to get up or down floors, MAP LAYOUTS WILL NOT BE THE SAME (they will be created on the fly each round) ,items will be scattered and in random conditions, stairwells may be blocked, a small fire might have started , the lights may or may not be on with only emergency back up lights on, there may be only one submarine that fits one person or a large submarine that fits four people, etc . The main focus is that the same game will never be played twice thus creating a high level of replayability for constant, robust mayhem with several possibilities.
Discuss!
ID:151661
 Sep 27 2009, 9:00 pm
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Lets see
Is that true for all modes? 5-15 minutes but typically no longer than 20 5-20 stories tall Map layouts will not be the same. How big exactly is a floor level and what will be on one apart from the walls and the ground? | |
This has some similarities with Space Station 13 - you'll have to deal with some similar problems, I suspect. In particular, griefing. The entire game is going to have to be designed so that one jerk can't stuff up everyone else's enjoyment. That's not to say that you should make griefing impossible - it's the point of the game to cultivate a healthy helping of paranoia, I imagine. More that you'll want to set it up so that there's some way for players to deal with serial griefers, or you'll just get people fighting battles with each other over and over again, immediately beating the crap out of each other on sight. That's going to interfere with some people's fun.
Some random thoughts on mitigating the problem: - Set it up so that players can start well apart from each other - maybe it's a game option or something. That way, you don't get the first moments of a game being the griefer grabbing a pipe and hitting someone with it. - Don't provide an in-game name to key-name mapping to regular players, and encourage not associating character names with key names (Perhaps randomly generate the names, and then let people change them if they want one they pick). This makes it harder for people to pick on each other over the course of a few games unless it's a mutual desire to pick fights, because you need to figure out who they are first. | |
Chowder wrote:
Lets see I would say the floor levels are on a small to medium size on average with an occasional larger floor. There would be doors, vents (that lead to higher/lower floors), stairs up and down and an elevator access point on 2 sides. There will be unique floors per game. For example, each game there WILL be a Captains floor -- but it won't be on the same location and will not look exactly the same. It will still have the same features (IE: command over all of the overrides, etc). An infirmary, cafeteria, etc | |
I would say remove the ability to play monsters. Scatter humans randomly and in different conditions, if they Manage to somehow meet together at a central point (say the cafeteria) they can escape but that isn't the basic point. Its to try to solve the problems to keep the place running, only leaving if the "monsters" and "problems" have gotten beyond control should they tempt an escape and thats when the whole "how many subs have been destroyed/etc" comes into play. This idea is well thought out but how does it play through? It sounds good in theory...
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UmbrousSoul wrote:
I would say remove the ability to play monsters. Scatter humans randomly and in different conditions, if they Manage to somehow meet together at a central point (say the cafeteria) they can escape but that isn't the basic point. Its to try to solve the problems to keep the place running, only leaving if the "monsters" and "problems" have gotten beyond control should they tempt an escape and thats when the whole "how many subs have been destroyed/etc" comes into play. This idea is well thought out but how does it play through? It sounds good in theory... I like the scatter part you guys are talking about, makes the gameplay a lot more interesting! As far as the gameplay, I would want it to be simple and very fast paced, the player would always be moving and not do too much of messing with their inventory... unless they were planning some type of elaborate trap! | |
Exactly that was my point. Always moving and solving these room by room puzzles (like those old math based C64 games, except no math or not much.) The puzzles would be enough to make you think without forcing you to stop and slow down unless (like you mentioned) it was specific to the room (like a key room) where you had to hold off and wait for someone to drain the water / turn off the electricity, while you find a key or specific item.
This could get good. | |
These parts made me laugh.