I'm no game designer, though I have written the odd short story - but after reading Yahtzee's extra punctuation article on creating a game which levels backwards I decided to take up the challenge and think into it. I came up with an set-up in which levelling backwards could work and be an interesting mechanic. How does this sound...
Its a science fiction, I'm thinking multiplayer. When you start out you're being sent to a foul prison planet as part of some oppressive regime (it may be fun to allow the player to decide what they're being sent there for). I should mention that I mean an undeveloped swampish/jungle-like planet as opposed to the stereotypical, cells and concrete, idea of a prison.
Anyway, you're sent there loaded up with enough weapons, ammo and kit to survive almost anything the planet can throw at you. As you play though, your ammo runs out, your weapons fall into disrepair and your equipment succumbs to fast-acting microbiology. Until soon you find yourself defenceless. This would give players a chance to get the feel of the game, but then they have to adapt to the intricacies of the environment and create a new way of surviving using the things they can find around them. The weak would soon perish but the stronger players could continue to survive in ever more ingenious ways.
Then as a further level of interest, due to some strange and potent type of radiation, you slowly stop becoming human. It could start slowly at first, for example you can say less words at once, the number of words you can say before hitting enter decreases until all you can communicate with are monosyllabic grunts. Your appearance would also change over time, making you become increasingly animalistic.
However this could not come without compensation, as you lose your ability to speak and communicate with humans, you gain a new, telepathic ability in which you can communicate with other degenerates. This would create a scenario in which the older players are an entirely different species to the new, they can understand what the new are saying but cannot be understood by them.
The reason I think this would work is, as you play multiplayer games your network of friends increases - so by the time you're an animal (well lets say a creature) you have a group of friends and companions you can rely on. This would mean the game would pit groups of weaker but well organised experienced players against lone heavily-armed newbies. Doesn't that sound like an interesting challenge for both sides?
To get the rivalries going, lets say that you can delay the process of degeneration by consuming a substance taken from dead creatures, and that the corpses of the creatures are some of the most valuable resources on the game e.g. hides, bones for weapons, food etc. This would mean newbies would hunt oldies for their resources and to slow their own decay - forcing the oldies to team up and maybe stike back, taking out the newbies with guile and strategy.
So that's about the overall gist of my idea. What do you all think? Anything to criticise? Anything you'd like to add? Anyone of you a game designed just so happening to be looking for a new idea?
Please reply whatever your thoughts are.
Ta
Its a science fiction, I'm thinking multiplayer. When you start out you're being sent to a foul prison planet as part of some oppressive regime (it may be fun to allow the player to decide what they're being sent there for). I should mention that I mean an undeveloped swampish/jungle-like planet as opposed to the stereotypical, cells and concrete, idea of a prison.
Anyway, you're sent there loaded up with enough weapons, ammo and kit to survive almost anything the planet can throw at you. As you play though, your ammo runs out, your weapons fall into disrepair and your equipment succumbs to fast-acting microbiology. Until soon you find yourself defenceless. This would give players a chance to get the feel of the game, but then they have to adapt to the intricacies of the environment and create a new way of surviving using the things they can find around them. The weak would soon perish but the stronger players could continue to survive in ever more ingenious ways.
Then as a further level of interest, due to some strange and potent type of radiation, you slowly stop becoming human. It could start slowly at first, for example you can say less words at once, the number of words you can say before hitting enter decreases until all you can communicate with are monosyllabic grunts. Your appearance would also change over time, making you become increasingly animalistic.
However this could not come without compensation, as you lose your ability to speak and communicate with humans, you gain a new, telepathic ability in which you can communicate with other degenerates. This would create a scenario in which the older players are an entirely different species to the new, they can understand what the new are saying but cannot be understood by them.
The reason I think this would work is, as you play multiplayer games your network of friends increases - so by the time you're an animal (well lets say a creature) you have a group of friends and companions you can rely on. This would mean the game would pit groups of weaker but well organised experienced players against lone heavily-armed newbies. Doesn't that sound like an interesting challenge for both sides?
To get the rivalries going, lets say that you can delay the process of degeneration by consuming a substance taken from dead creatures, and that the corpses of the creatures are some of the most valuable resources on the game e.g. hides, bones for weapons, food etc. This would mean newbies would hunt oldies for their resources and to slow their own decay - forcing the oldies to team up and maybe stike back, taking out the newbies with guile and strategy.
So that's about the overall gist of my idea. What do you all think? Anything to criticise? Anything you'd like to add? Anyone of you a game designed just so happening to be looking for a new idea?
Please reply whatever your thoughts are.
Ta
