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Forums - Gaming - Crazy game ideas

twesterm on 05 July 2011

I had a really complicated but what I thought would be really cool magic/ability system for my RPG I was going to make years ago.

Essentially, every round would have a reserve of time tokens and every action from every character, even enemies, took time tokens away from the pile. Characters would have an initiative similar to Dungeons and Dragons so quicker characters got the first choice and slower characters had to deal with a potentially small pot of time tokens.

That way when building and leveling up your character you really have to balance out power and speed. You'd also have to worry about enemies taking time away from the pile so I think it would really keep the typical JRPG grind fresh. Will you fight a group of quick enemies that eat away at the time pot? Do you want one character to have a huge attack that takes a lot of time so the others can take little time? Do you want everyone to try to make balanced attacks?

I also planned for augments that could do things that let characters overpower attacks (say Fire typically cost 5 tokens, you could overpower it to 10 for increased damage), give more time to the pot, give bonus to initiate, etc.

There were of course a few problems-- would I have to have 0 point abilities? How do I account for higher level actions, do I always keep the same amount of time in a round or increase the token pot?

It was a fun idea, I just never really got around to balancing it and I never got around to actually making the game.



 

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zarx on 05 July 2011
Dodece said:
That is a tall order getting people to confess their craziest ideas. Personally I do not think the following idea is crazy even though there isn't likely to ever be a developer that will take the notion to heart. A survival horror game that is not objective based. That design choice only detracts from the concept. Playing in a nightmare scenario should be about cunning, strategy, and personality. Instead we get scripted, shoved down linear paths, and forced to behave in predictable ways.

Somewhere along the line the developers decided to mimic the movies. Instead of treating their games like worlds that people can visit. Which is missing the catharsis that the genre should offer to players. We have a love slash hate relationship with these movies. We love the concept, but we want the characters to make rational decisions given what is happening to them. That may not make for a good story, but the players are about entertaining themselves. Not entertaining a audience. It doesn't have to look good. It just has to feel good.

Give me a open world with a start point and a end point. Then leave me to navigate the world to reach that goal. Let me have a list of options to exploit while navigating those worlds. Give me the option to handle situations indirectly. Let me build my character in a way that suits my mindset. Seriously I am tired of playing the Hero. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with playing the craven coward. From my perspective the coward probably stands a better chance or surviving, because they will not put themselves in the worst position.

I probably should put this all in a context. Give a concept game as it were. Drop my character in the middle of a major city going through a zombie apocalypse. My goal survive long enough to make my way out of the city. Let me have choices with this. Perhaps get to the harbor so I can get on a boat, or the airport to get a plane. Perhaps I can even just work my way past the outskirts of the city. Then don't make the game about just shooting my way out. Give me the option to hide from the zombies, or to elude them by sneaking, or using paths that obscure my movement. Perhaps even give me tools that may let me distract them away from my location.

Once you do that it seems more real, and since the zombies aren't just targets, but things to be avoided. You can begin to treat them as more then just mindless cannon fodder. Perhaps they can have group mechanics. Maybe they move through the city like army ants. I would just love to be truly strategic in one of these games. I see not one good reason that all of these games need to be on rails. Hell it may even offer up alternate modes.

I guess I am just arguing for a sandbox survival horror game. Which I think every fan has been wanting.


Have you looked into Project Zomboid? It is aparently a open world isometric survival RPG http://projectzomboid.com/blog/index.php/tldr-just-give-me-the-jist/



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Riachu on 05 July 2011
zarx said:
Dodece said:
That is a tall order getting people to confess their craziest ideas. Personally I do not think the following idea is crazy even though there isn't likely to ever be a developer that will take the notion to heart. A survival horror game that is not objective based. That design choice only detracts from the concept. Playing in a nightmare scenario should be about cunning, strategy, and personality. Instead we get scripted, shoved down linear paths, and forced to behave in predictable ways.

Somewhere along the line the developers decided to mimic the movies. Instead of treating their games like worlds that people can visit. Which is missing the catharsis that the genre should offer to players. We have a love slash hate relationship with these movies. We love the concept, but we want the characters to make rational decisions given what is happening to them. That may not make for a good story, but the players are about entertaining themselves. Not entertaining a audience. It doesn't have to look good. It just has to feel good.

Give me a open world with a start point and a end point. Then leave me to navigate the world to reach that goal. Let me have a list of options to exploit while navigating those worlds. Give me the option to handle situations indirectly. Let me build my character in a way that suits my mindset. Seriously I am tired of playing the Hero. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with playing the craven coward. From my perspective the coward probably stands a better chance or surviving, because they will not put themselves in the worst position.

I probably should put this all in a context. Give a concept game as it were. Drop my character in the middle of a major city going through a zombie apocalypse. My goal survive long enough to make my way out of the city. Let me have choices with this. Perhaps get to the harbor so I can get on a boat, or the airport to get a plane. Perhaps I can even just work my way past the outskirts of the city. Then don't make the game about just shooting my way out. Give me the option to hide from the zombies, or to elude them by sneaking, or using paths that obscure my movement. Perhaps even give me tools that may let me distract them away from my location.

Once you do that it seems more real, and since the zombies aren't just targets, but things to be avoided. You can begin to treat them as more then just mindless cannon fodder. Perhaps they can have group mechanics. Maybe they move through the city like army ants. I would just love to be truly strategic in one of these games. I see not one good reason that all of these games need to be on rails. Hell it may even offer up alternate modes.

I guess I am just arguing for a sandbox survival horror game. Which I think every fan has been wanting.


Have you looked into Project Zomboid? It is aparently a open world isometric survival RPG http://projectzomboid.com/blog/index.php/tldr-just-give-me-the-jist/



Sounds like a very interesting game



 

http://www.youtube.com/user/InvaderZimGuy1?feature=mhum

Rainbow Yoshi on 06 July 2011

I made this idea up when I was around the age of 10 so I would state that it may not be refined.

Set 100 years in the future and Earth has finally made contact with life. The expeditionary force set on their course to the planet currently known to them as ILP. On their way, an asteroid collides it their ship, however the life support system saves them from death. The crew discover themselves on a planet with a large citadel in front of them, thus suggesting that they have found intelligent life. The planet they have arrived on though is not the one they intended to go to. Settlers of come out from the citadel and capture the new arrivals, as it happens they landed near the capital of the planet. The settlers of the planet are extremely advanced and are able to decipher the language of the humans and then send them on tasks to wipe out threats on their hostile planet. The settlers (Vancesscans) send them to Duo-lakes on land side of planet (the other side is a vast ocean) and the vast Jungle surrounding them. Their task is to defeat the enemies of the Vancesscans to win back their freedom and technology back to earth.