I've been pondering over building one of those lock & key games, where the goal is to explore, find stuff that will let you explore more, and keep exploring until you've found everything you need to find in order to finish the game! However, finding the key to unlock door #2 so you can explore the area behind door #2 to get the key for door #3 isn't all that exciting after a while. So I'm looking for ideas that I could use to make the process more interesting.
Metroid and Zelda are good examples for the kind of ideas I'm looking for. Those games are basically lock & key games (with a lot of monster-killing in between), but the locks and keys are interesting, and the games are more fun to play as a result. Finding objects that'll destroy certain walls, for example, or finding objects that'll let you move things to reveal hidden entrances. How about the Hookshot, letting you fly across chasms whenever there's something to grab onto on the other side.
Some things to keep in mind though. First of all, there currently aren't any monsters or enemies to speak of, so combat-related objects are meaningless. Second, I'm trying to get by with only four controls: Left, right, up and down. So items should not require an action button. Also, the sprites aren't directional, so items requiring you to face a specific direction don'tt work unless it involves bumping into stuff. Third, there's no way to save changes that happen on the map. So anything that the player effects has to be able to reset itself over time, even if it means doing weird things like teleporting blocks back to their original location. :P
So, I'm looking for ideas for items that'll let the player access new things in interesting ways, and preferably using as much of BYOND's built in functions as possible.
Here's some of the ideas I've had so far:
- keys that unlock doors
- portals that activate when player has certain objects
- an object that lets you break down certain walls (which repair over time)
- objects that let you cross certain terrain types
- an object that lets you see in dark areas
- objects that let you move around blocks (which teleport back into position eventually)
- an object that lets you see invisible things, hidden passages, etc...
Any other ideas?
ID:152653
 Mar 5 2006, 9:51 pm (Edited on Mar 5 2006, 9:58 pm)
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A room with a set of different colored tiles, which play a note when stepped on. Play the right notes in the proper sequence, and something unlocks, is revealed, locked, etc.... You could even have a single set of musical tiles operate many different locks, depending on the melody played.
Movement states! Don't skimp on the eye candy, dern it! If walking is all the character will ever do, at least give us that much of an animation, with 4 directions. No reason to have a stiff old sprite for such a hum drum game, especially when I know you can make a nice looking sprite. Sorry, but without combat, it's never going to be very exciting to play. Sokobon-type slider puzzles. Tag game with bugs, or something (think catching fearies with a net in Zelda, except the bugs freeze for a certain amount of time after being bumped, then become active again. Freezing them all unlocks the door, reveals a key, etc...). Long-term investment vs instant gratification. Let certain puzzles be solved in two or more ways. Depending on how you solve it, you can gain a slight advance for some nifty treasure, or unlock a deeper area with more portential for bigger loot. Make it difficult, if not impossible to solve it more than once, so people will have to make a choice then and there which direction they want to go. Later on, provide teleports back to these puzzles so people can explore the whole game if they choose. ~X | |
-decode items (IE a rosetta stone type object to decipher old writing, a gremlin dictionary to look up what they are saying, a cipher to unscramble a spy's code)
-modification of size ala Alice in Wonderland to fit in small areas or reach inaccessible things -a magic sword (or potion of defoliation :-)) to circumvent a wall of sleeep-thorns -big fat critter blocking the way that wants food/wine/etc. -big mean critter that blocks the way and must be put to sleep (music/more wine/etc.) -big nice critter that wants something to take you somewhere -stepping into a spirit or magic world that has effects on the "real" world (and vice versa) -Flight to circumvent obstacles or reach new areas | |
- an item that allows you to make copies of yourself (think multiple characters in Wind Waker). Without an action button you'd have to make it so that you stand on a copy pad. That turns you into a clone (and leaves the original behind).After which you are free to walk around as normal, but if you sit idle for five seconds the clone will freeze and control will switch back to the original. dude it would be cool if you could make multipul clones like on naruto and have them fight for you. A.I. Diablo 2 (expansion or not) A.I. Necromancer with his golems and undead. (expansion included) A.I. the Druid with his summoning ability's. | |
Xooxer wrote:
Movement states! Don't skimp on the eye candy, dern it! If walking is all the character will ever do, at least give us that much of an animation, with 4 directions. No reason to have a stiff old sprite for such a hum drum game, especially when I know you can make a nice looking sprite. I find it difficult to imagine an animated sprite that fits well with my roguelike-style tiles. Besides, its a lot of extra work, I suck at animating stuff, and I like the stiff old sprite look. :) Sorry, but without combat, it's never going to be very exciting to play. Not with an attitude like that anyway. But I'll risk making a boring game in order to make a game that I've wanted to make for a while. This is, after all, Build Your Own Net Dream, not someone else's. That's why there are so many DBZ games! However, rather than giving up on a project since it could never possibly be any fun to play whatsoever, I'd rather just ponder over ways to make it interesting. | |
Speaking of Metroid, don't forget armor that lets you safely pass through really hot areas.
Another major feature that you might consider... have you ever played Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver? In that game, there were two versions of the world: the real world, and the spirit realm (the underworld). As you might expect, solving puzzles or passing through certain areas required you to enter/exit each realm. In the spirit realm the main character could "dissolve" through barred gates, and water had no heft or lift so it could be walked through as if it were air. The terrain was also slightly different, allowing you to reach certain areas that were unavailable in the other realm. Damn that game was cool. Aside from amazing gameplay, it had one of the best stories and hands-down the best voice acting ever produced for a video game. | |
Ahh, many games have done that(not saying SR stole the idea though), Zelda did it with "Link to the Past", Prince of Persia did it on all of thier games I believe(Time travel was the main theme of the game). It is a great way to add dynamics to the game, and add a little thinking to it. Also, some items should be able to do different things in different times(or perhaps only work in one time). For example, there is a key to a gate that only works in the past, because the gate got broken and rebuild, replacing the lock, but the gate is in both times.
The problem with non-action puzzle games are that they don't keep my attention(some would not agree, I am sure). But they have proven to do well in some cases. Take Mist for example. One of the first and biggest graphical PC games. It was nothing but a slideshow style puzzle game. So there is a market for those types of games. Some other ideas would be to have clues writen on the ground or walls, sometimes ones that will make perfect since if remember at the right time. For example, you pass some writing on a wall that says 5-4-2 and you walk up on door with a pin pad asking for a 3 digit pin code. Or maybe some arrows that point in directions, and those directions can be entered into a four button pad with arrows(responding to the four arrow keys on your keyboard.) | |
Scoobert wrote:
Ahh, many games have done that(not saying SR stole the idea though), Zelda did it with "Link to the Past", Prince of Persia did it on all of thier games I believe(Time travel was the main theme of the game). Yeah, it's not an original concept... but it was particularly well executed in Soul Reaver. A Link to the Past was pretty awesome as well, but the Soul Reaver formula is more along the lines of what Foomer is looking for. | |
Scoobert wrote:
The problem with non-action puzzle games are that they don't keep my attention(some would not agree, I am sure). But they have proven to do well in some cases. Take Mist for example. One of the first and biggest graphical PC games. It was nothing but a slideshow style puzzle game. So there is a market for those types of games. Well, I'm not really trying to make a slideshow game or a puzzle game, so don't be thinking I'm trying to make a BoulderDash (Rockrunner!) style puzzle game or something like that. What I want to build is mostly just a game where the goal is to explore and find new things, just for the joy of exploring and finding stuff. (Seiklus is a great example.) Think of exploring ancient egyptian tombs or something to that effect. I'd love to be able to tell a story by exploring the remains of an ancient civilization. | |
Myst/Uru style.
I likee. I'd most definatly play this - if you're gonna add your ancient civilization, have various books scattered around about the world - they could even form part of the puzzles, offering clues or riddles. | |
Uru sounds more like what I had in mind. Explore weird fantasy environments (limited to whatever tiles I've drawn, unfortunately), hopefully finding information about them (still need to find an appealing way to convey information through BYOND), while finding items that'll let you access new areas of the world(s). Of course, that's with a reasonable downgrade to what a normal, unmotivated person without gobs of free time can do. And on top of that, I'd still have to figure out good ways to decimate all those little civilizations I have stored up in the back of my mind. :)
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Make areas! Like Themed worlds!
with that in mind, and like SilkWizard said, different "dimensions." and good example is Metroid Prime 2. (its pretty good :P) | |
Foomer wrote:
I've been pondering over building one of those lock & key games, where the goal is to explore, find stuff that will let you explore more, and keep exploring until you've found everything you need to find in order to finish the game! However, finding the key to unlock door #2 so you can explore the area behind door #2 to get the key for door #3 isn't all that exciting after a while. It was certainly exciting enough to keep me addicted to "Chip's Challenge" for quite a while =P. There were monsters, but only as moving obstacles: there was no combat. Chip's Challenge's being divided into shorter levels certainly helped it. Perhaps you could take advantage of the online medium and put up a high-score board, making the goal of the game to finish the most levels in the shortest possible amount of time. Dividing your game into levels, of course, brings up another design question: should players be allowed to leave the game and resume at the level in which they last were before they quit? If so, should they start at the beginning of the level or wherever in the level they last were? | |
Chip's challenge was a fun game, but it got very annoying on the one level made almost entirely of ice. I couldn't figure out how to get past it, and eventually lost enthusiasm.
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In my opinion making a level-based game is mostly just a good way to avoid having a plot. I've actually played quite a bit of Chip's Challenge, and fiddled with custom levels, but I want something with more depth now.
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Yeah. That's what killed a lot of puzzle games for me when I was younger. I remember I loved Hero's Hearts, but it got to a point where the levels were just to hard to be fun.
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VolksBlade wrote:
dude it would be cool if you could make multipul clones like on naruto and have them fight for you. Or not. =p I think DarkView was getting at a more Zelda-style cloning feature. I forget which Zelda game it was (at least, I think it's from a Zelda game), but essentially you could make clones of yourself that would then follow your movements. They'd be slightly removed from the original Link so they'de walk in different places, allowing you to reach two (or more) places at once. | |
What about special objects that let you run extremely fast or 1 that lets you go intangeble, 1 that makes you immortal for a few moments, 1 that lets you go to an area that you get bonus credits, a scroll that lets you enchant items. I could go on forever
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At one point I started work on a game that would randomly generate a world for a game such as this, but nonlinear. However it didn't go much past the initial planning stages, largely because I had trouble figuring out some of the basic algorithms involved.
Lummox JR | |
I think as well as making it so that the new 'keys' unlock new areas they also improve movement between the areas you've previously unlocked.
One thing to remember is to make the locks puzzles. So it's not just a simple matter of having a Bracelet of Strength, you have to use it to push blocks around to solve the puzzle. Then later when you come back through that area you'd have the Hammer of Doom which can just smash the blocks so you can walk right through.
As for items I've only got a few suggestions.
- an item that allows you to use teleportation pads. Ie, step on pad A and it'll take you to pad B.
- an item that allows you to make copies of yourself (think multiple characters in Wind Waker). Without an action button you'd have to make it so that you stand on a copy pad. That turns you into a clone (and leaves the original behind).
After which you are free to walk around as normal, but if you sit idle for five seconds the clone will freeze and control will switch back to the original.