What are you thinking about right now? Topic

pianotm

The TM is for Totally Magical.

32388

03/15/2017 05:52 PM

Kylaila
pianotm
Depressed, today.
*sends hugs*

:)

Mirak

Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.

9300

03/16/2017 04:09 AM

I had never seen the forum be this dead. Specially when there aren't any events going on that may justify this silence.

Seiromem

I would have more makerscore If I did things.

6375

03/16/2017 04:15 AM

author=Mirak
I had never seen the forum be this dead. Specially when there aren't any events going on that may justify this silence.

Mcbacon Starts tomorrow, maybe everyone is preparing?

Delsin7

6029

03/16/2017 12:37 PM

The calm before the storm. 'Ziggy, why have you imposed this theme on us? Woe is us, for we have been burdened by such a theme!' Then Ziggy will cast down his judgement upon them.

Aside from the stillness, thinking about...Old school jrpgs, like FF1 or Mother 1. Watching a speedrun of Mother 1 and its pretty fun.

NTC3

5625

03/16/2017 05:44 PM

So, as I've been playing quite a lot of RM horror/adventure recently, I've started to think quite a bit about two things. The first is how reliant any horror can be on the character being alone, or mostly alone, which is obvious enough. The second is the relationship pretty much all horror games have with saving, and how much its availability can define the player's experience.

I've started to think of how these can be subverted, and came up with what I think might be a cool concept: a horror game where you are actually a part of a reasonably large group of people (upwards of 10) who got stranded somewhere bad and dangerous and now must get out of there, going past the creatures and the obstacles, etc.

The catch is that saving is in-universe: you can do it at any time - so long as you kill someone and consume their lifeforce first. Moreover, the other characters can all try to do so too, whether towards you, or each other. And if someone already managed to save, they are basically invulnerable, and attempts to kill them will simply reload both of you at the start of the area, now with knowledge of what you attempted to do.

I'm not quite sure how something like this can be brought to a conclusion, but I wouldn't mind trying...eventually.

psy_wombats

13315

03/16/2017 09:50 PM

Is this a single player game? I think you'd run into problems with branching factor almost immediately. If the player can save at any time, they can attempt to kill someone at any time, right? So if you succeed, you've dramatically changed the story.

NTC3

5625

03/16/2017 10:21 PM

author=psy_wombats
Is this a single player game? I think you'd run into problems with branching factor almost immediately. If the player can save at any time, they can attempt to kill someone at any time, right? So if you succeed, you've dramatically changed the story.

Well, the counter-balancing factor here is that a) you are a normal person like the many horror protagonists, so killing is not quick in the first place; b) once everyone learns this, they obviously fear for their own lives and do not trust each other, and so at first, everyone sticks together tightly, and no-one can attempt to attack another without being overwhelmed by the group. However, the circumstances do force the people to split up, and that is when the fun begins.

I know that sounds a little vague: the simplest example is probably to make the game take place over the period of several days, so that the group has to stop for the night, and the question of who is (or is not) trusted to keep watch over everyone without taking advantage of this vulnerability forces the split on its own. However, yes: I certainly hope it could be a branching experience with a bunch of endings and intermediate outcomes. It should certainly be possible (though obviously not easy) to finish the game without ever saving, to give just one example.

Kaliesto