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GAME ELEMENTS YOU HAVEN'T SEEN BEFORE, BUT WANT TO
Posts
Desertopa
775
Desertopa
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CloseA mirror to the last topic, and a chance to stretch your creativity a bit. What are some game elements (mechanical, story based, etc.) which you don't recall ever seeing in a game, but think would be good? Ideally, try to stick to things which you think would be technically feasible to implement.
Here are a couple of mine.
First off, I'd like to see an RPG with combat which is entirely magic-based. Why hit someone with a sword when you can throw fireballs capable of melting rock? Hit Points don't make much sense in this context, so I'd replace them with Barrier Points, representing the forces standing between you and sudden obliteration. Instead of the classic swords-and-sorcery setting, I'd be interested in seeing a setting which is magic-centric in the way that our own society revolves around technology.
Second, I'd like to see a game where, instead of offering up stronger and stronger enemies as the story progresses, the difficulty curve is designed with deliberate spikes and valleys. Instead of making the random soldiers from Kingdom A inexplicably much stronger than the random soldiers from Kingdom B, give the player characters a chance to rampage like Godzilla for a bit and revel in how strong they've gotten. Then throw the ravening hellbeasts at them. It takes a lot of plot contrivance to justify making every single obstacle the player characters face more dangerous than the last, so a lot of games don't bother and just enforce it arbitrarily. I'd like to see a game which doesn't go this route, and instead offers opportunities both for the player to be challenged, and for the player to experience some catharsis against enemies which they hopelessly outmatch.
Here are a couple of mine.
First off, I'd like to see an RPG with combat which is entirely magic-based. Why hit someone with a sword when you can throw fireballs capable of melting rock? Hit Points don't make much sense in this context, so I'd replace them with Barrier Points, representing the forces standing between you and sudden obliteration. Instead of the classic swords-and-sorcery setting, I'd be interested in seeing a setting which is magic-centric in the way that our own society revolves around technology.
Second, I'd like to see a game where, instead of offering up stronger and stronger enemies as the story progresses, the difficulty curve is designed with deliberate spikes and valleys. Instead of making the random soldiers from Kingdom A inexplicably much stronger than the random soldiers from Kingdom B, give the player characters a chance to rampage like Godzilla for a bit and revel in how strong they've gotten. Then throw the ravening hellbeasts at them. It takes a lot of plot contrivance to justify making every single obstacle the player characters face more dangerous than the last, so a lot of games don't bother and just enforce it arbitrarily. I'd like to see a game which doesn't go this route, and instead offers opportunities both for the player to be challenged, and for the player to experience some catharsis against enemies which they hopelessly outmatch.
RyaReisender
200
Dude, that's really hard because most things are at least in one game. But I often think that one thing is really only in one game that is very unknown or that didn't execute it very well which inspired me to a similar idea but more polished.
I mean your inspiration needs to come from somewhere. You don't just make genius ideas out of nothing.
Plus the unique ideas I had all were made into games in the first place by me, lol.
Well and many ideas are just battle systems that never existed before.
But why should I publish those ideas for free? I'm kind of scared someone steals them haha.
Hire me as game designer, then I'll develop some unique ideas never been in a game just for you. :-)
Well one thing that should exist but doesn't: A Wizardry Roguelike
Also here is one sample idea, I made a game with based on this idea once, but it got lost (and didn't run on Windows XP and newer anyway): Asynchronous multiplayer, for example a shmup where the second player is playing a small orb that is reflecting bullets and can't die and his main task is to fly into the bullets to reflect (remove) them to make it easier for the first player who controls the ship to survive.
I mean your inspiration needs to come from somewhere. You don't just make genius ideas out of nothing.
Plus the unique ideas I had all were made into games in the first place by me, lol.
Well and many ideas are just battle systems that never existed before.
But why should I publish those ideas for free? I'm kind of scared someone steals them haha.
Hire me as game designer, then I'll develop some unique ideas never been in a game just for you. :-)
Well one thing that should exist but doesn't: A Wizardry Roguelike
Also here is one sample idea, I made a game with based on this idea once, but it got lost (and didn't run on Windows XP and newer anyway): Asynchronous multiplayer, for example a shmup where the second player is playing a small orb that is reflecting bullets and can't die and his main task is to fly into the bullets to reflect (remove) them to make it easier for the first player who controls the ship to survive.
Desertopa
775
author=RyaReisender
Dude, that's really hard because most things are at least in one game. But I often think that one thing is really only in one game that is very unknown or that didn't execute it very well which inspired me to a similar idea but more polished.
I mean your inspiration needs to come from somewhere. You don't just make genius ideas out of nothing.
Everyone gets their inspiration from somewhere, yeah, but that doesn't mean people are limited to copying things which have been done before with only slight variation. Taking inspiration from a story doesn't have to mean doing something that's mostly the same, it can also mean having your eyes opened to a way of doing something really different.
I'll give an example. Lots of video games feature antagonists who want to become gods. Find some source of power, use it to transform yourself, rule over the world with an iron fist. Mainstay villain plot. You could set this in a classic sword-and-sorcery setting, a steampunk or cyberpunk setting, or a setting populated entirely by sea sponges, but it's still essentially the same plot. But what if instead the conflict is driven by a character trying to turn someone else into a god? What if they were trying to turn the main character into a god? Imagine someone broken by some terrible experience, who has come to the certain conviction, not only that there is no benevolent god watching over the world, but that there needs to be in order to protect humanity from the sorts of atrocity they've witnessed. They don't want to fill the position themself, they want a proper moral paragon, someone who upholds justice and has the strength of character to witness the worst humanity can do and be uncorrupted by it. And the person they choose to fill this role is the main character. The themes and issues addressed by the story would be very different from the basic "antagonist wants to turn himself into a god" plot, even though the basic idea was inspired by that type of plot.
author=RyaReisender
Plus the unique ideas I had all were made into games in the first place by me, lol.
Well and many ideas are just battle systems that never existed before.
But why should I publish those ideas for free? I'm kind of scared someone steals them haha.
Hire me as game designer, then I'll develop some unique ideas never been in a game just for you. :-)
It goes without saying that you shouldn't just give away ideas you'd be upset if other people just picked up and used. But not everyone needs to use every interesting idea they have. Personally, I have way too many ideas to get possessive about most of them. Some people have more ideas than they have time or opportunity to develop them, and some people have more time and opportunity to make things than they have ideas. Since I fall into the former group, I don't mind sharing mine around some.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I keep wanting to make a game where battles play out like an RPG battle, but there's no enemy. And no combat. It's not a fighting game. Maybe some kind of performance, like a concert, or even a sermon.
Instead of the goal being to reduce the enemy's HP to zero you'd have some other bar you had to reduce to zero or fill to 100 in order to win each "battle." Like maybe you have to increase the crowd's enthusiasm to 100% to win, but if their attention decreases to 0% or you run out of time points, you lose.
Instead of different enemies you'd have different situations. The time of year, the location, the makeup of the crowd, and other factors would cause the crowd to have different stats, which affect what they do and how effective it is, and how effective your skills are on them. They might have elemental resistances, cause various events to occur during the performance, etc, and you'd have a wide variety of skills to deal with different situations. Your skills would cost some equivalent of MP and have cooldowns and cause status effects and everything else you'd expect from an RPG - the meaning of everything would be totally different but deep down it would very much be an RPG.
For example, if I were doing a game that used this system for preaching sermons, where you have to increase their enthusiasm to 100 before their attention decreases to 0:
- You use Classical Hymn (puts 5-15% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (tradition elemental) (costs 5 music points and 7 time)
- Crowd uses Speak in Tongues! Crowd is now vulnerable to worship status but resists tradition!
- You use Contemporary Christian Music (puts 4-12% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (enthusiasm power: 5) (uplifting elemental) (costs 8 music points and 5 time)
- Crowd uses Lift Up Hands! Your next skill is super-effective!
- You use Gospel Solo (uplifting elemental) (enthusiasm power: 15) (costs 20 music points and 5 time) (once per battle).
- Crowd is getting edgy! Attention drops by 10. Music effectiveness halved for remainder of battle!
- You use Illustrative Story: Humor (restores 30 attention) (casual elemental) (diminishing results if used multiple times per sermon) (costs 3 time)
- A baby is crying! Crowd attention and enthusiasm drop by 5.
- You use Opening Prayer (sacrifice 10 attention to double power of all actions except illustrations for 5 rounds) (costs 1 time) (lose 4 enthusiasm if at least 30 time has been used) (usable once per sermon)
and so on and so forth
Instead of the goal being to reduce the enemy's HP to zero you'd have some other bar you had to reduce to zero or fill to 100 in order to win each "battle." Like maybe you have to increase the crowd's enthusiasm to 100% to win, but if their attention decreases to 0% or you run out of time points, you lose.
Instead of different enemies you'd have different situations. The time of year, the location, the makeup of the crowd, and other factors would cause the crowd to have different stats, which affect what they do and how effective it is, and how effective your skills are on them. They might have elemental resistances, cause various events to occur during the performance, etc, and you'd have a wide variety of skills to deal with different situations. Your skills would cost some equivalent of MP and have cooldowns and cause status effects and everything else you'd expect from an RPG - the meaning of everything would be totally different but deep down it would very much be an RPG.
For example, if I were doing a game that used this system for preaching sermons, where you have to increase their enthusiasm to 100 before their attention decreases to 0:
- You use Classical Hymn (puts 5-15% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (tradition elemental) (costs 5 music points and 7 time)
- Crowd uses Speak in Tongues! Crowd is now vulnerable to worship status but resists tradition!
- You use Contemporary Christian Music (puts 4-12% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (enthusiasm power: 5) (uplifting elemental) (costs 8 music points and 5 time)
- Crowd uses Lift Up Hands! Your next skill is super-effective!
- You use Gospel Solo (uplifting elemental) (enthusiasm power: 15) (costs 20 music points and 5 time) (once per battle).
- Crowd is getting edgy! Attention drops by 10. Music effectiveness halved for remainder of battle!
- You use Illustrative Story: Humor (restores 30 attention) (casual elemental) (diminishing results if used multiple times per sermon) (costs 3 time)
- A baby is crying! Crowd attention and enthusiasm drop by 5.
- You use Opening Prayer (sacrifice 10 attention to double power of all actions except illustrations for 5 rounds) (costs 1 time) (lose 4 enthusiasm if at least 30 time has been used) (usable once per sermon)
and so on and so forth
^ I guess that's an idea many of us have thought about, but the difficult part is how to make it interesting enough to support an entire game. At the end of the day, slaying dragons is much more appealing that giving sermons; That's why this kind of stuff is often more fitting for mini-games or for other genre of games completely. For example, you concert idea made me think of the game PaRappa the Rapper. But involving music in battles is probably more adequate for a fast-paced interface rather than a turn-based one. And if you go that route, you'll probably end up with a rhythm game before you realize it. (Not that there's anything wrong with that) =P
Btw, have you played The Logomancer? I believe is kinda like what you want, but I haven't tried it myself so I can't tell if it's any good...
Btw, have you played The Logomancer? I believe is kinda like what you want, but I haven't tried it myself so I can't tell if it's any good...
Desertopa
775
Here's something else I think would be interesting. A stealth and dialogue based RPG without combat revolving around a spy protagonist. I mean, "spy movies" typically involve lots of action, with shooting, blowing stuff up, hand to hand combat and whatever, but honestly, what are spies supposed to do? Find shit out without getting found out. If they have combat training, it's generally only for the final extreme where things go completely pear shaped.
Arguably a game with story but no combat where you try to resolve the plot by talking to people and sneaking around should be considered an Adventure Game, but I'd rather avoid the classic "find the items which can be combined in an improbable way to resolve this puzzle" format, and stick mostly to using dialogue trees and tracking character relationships in order to forward the narrative.
Arguably a game with story but no combat where you try to resolve the plot by talking to people and sneaking around should be considered an Adventure Game, but I'd rather avoid the classic "find the items which can be combined in an improbable way to resolve this puzzle" format, and stick mostly to using dialogue trees and tracking character relationships in order to forward the narrative.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I kind of want a game with a "save the princess" plot, where your goal is to rescue a kidnapped person, but the kidnappee is still actively involved in the gameplay, via communication device or something. A bit like Princess Peach's segments in Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door, but not as a minigame, rather a supplemental character in the game.
TheNecromancer
3160
author=Sooz
I kind of want a game with a "save the princess" plot, where your goal is to rescue a kidnapped person, but the kidnappee is still actively involved in the gameplay, via communication device or something. A bit like Princess Peach's segments in Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door, but not as a minigame, rather a supplemental character in the game.
In Zelda:LttP there is some communication from kidnappees. I forget if it's Zelda or the Maidens but once and while you get a mental message.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I meant more as having the "princess" character as a kind of bodiless second party member, not just occasional "Here is a hint to progress."
Zephyr
1241
Have you played The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks then?
Your description is closer than you'd think.
Your description is closer than you'd think.
UPRC
5516
author=LockeZ
I keep wanting to make a game where battles play out like an RPG battle, but there's no enemy. And no combat. It's not a fighting game. Maybe some kind of performance, like a concert, or even a sermon.
Instead of the goal being to reduce the enemy's HP to zero you'd have some other bar you had to reduce to zero or fill to 100 in order to win each "battle." Like maybe you have to increase the crowd's enthusiasm to 100% to win, but if their attention decreases to 0% or you run out of time points, you lose.
Instead of different enemies you'd have different situations. The time of year, the location, the makeup of the crowd, and other factors would cause the crowd to have different stats, which affect what they do and how effective it is, and how effective your skills are on them. They might have elemental resistances, cause various events to occur during the performance, etc, and you'd have a wide variety of skills to deal with different situations. Your skills would cost some equivalent of MP and have cooldowns and cause status effects and everything else you'd expect from an RPG - the meaning of everything would be totally different but deep down it would very much be an RPG.
For example, if I were doing a game that used this system for preaching sermons, where you have to increase their enthusiasm to 100 before their attention decreases to 0:
- You use Classical Hymn (puts 5-15% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (tradition elemental) (costs 5 music points and 7 time)
- Crowd uses Speak in Tongues! Crowd is now vulnerable to worship status but resists tradition!
- You use Contemporary Christian Music (puts 4-12% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (enthusiasm power: 5) (uplifting elemental) (costs 8 music points and 5 time)
- Crowd uses Lift Up Hands! Your next skill is super-effective!
- You use Gospel Solo (uplifting elemental) (enthusiasm power: 15) (costs 20 music points and 5 time) (once per battle).
- Crowd is getting edgy! Attention drops by 10. Music effectiveness halved for remainder of battle!
- You use Illustrative Story: Humor (restores 30 attention) (casual elemental) (diminishing results if used multiple times per sermon) (costs 3 time)
- A baby is crying! Crowd attention and enthusiasm drop by 5.
- You use Opening Prayer (sacrifice 10 attention to double power of all actions except illustrations for 5 rounds) (costs 1 time) (lose 4 enthusiasm if at least 30 time has been used) (usable once per sermon)
and so on and so forth
I like it. Someone must now make Guitar Hero RPG.
^Ye Olde Guitar of the Blood God. (This came up once using that random videogame name generator). You'd have a Guitaromancer, a Singstar, Beat Master, and Rebel Bass as classes. Maybe a class that uses keytars, too.
Anywho, I thought this was going to be a topic about elements, as in "If watermelon exists why doesn't earthmelon, firemelon and airmelon? The elemelons." I was going to say, most people think there are only 4 elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air, but they forget about the 5th element: the element of SURPRISE.
Anywho, I thought this was going to be a topic about elements, as in "If watermelon exists why doesn't earthmelon, firemelon and airmelon? The elemelons." I was going to say, most people think there are only 4 elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air, but they forget about the 5th element: the element of SURPRISE.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
"What type of attack works best against tastes-like-orange-tang elemental enemies?"
"...Doesn't-taste-like-orange-tang?"
"...Doesn't-taste-like-orange-tang?"
TheNecromancer
3160
author=UPRC
I like it. Someone must now make Guitar Hero RPG.
Sup, bro? http://rpgmaker.net/games/4564/images/32231/
author=Sooz
I kind of want a game with a "save the princess" plot, where your goal is to rescue a kidnapped person, but the kidnappee is still actively involved in the gameplay, via communication device or something. A bit like Princess Peach's segments in Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door, but not as a minigame, rather a supplemental character in the game.
I'm working on something sorta like that with Lily! Your friend dives into a portal to go battle a demon, and you spend the game trying to chase after her so you can help her in the battle. The game cuts back and forth between you and the demon/friend battle as you play, and both are important to your success (as well as the story). I was definitely channeling the Peach scenes from Paper Mario when I came up with that idea :P
@LockeZ: I always thought an RPG about diplomacy would be cool, where you'd have to meet with neighboring politicians and leaders to settle disputes, laws, and the like. Battles would be fierce debates, and if you lost/won it would affect the rest of the game (wars begin, laws are passed, trade routes established, etc.).
Really though, you could make almost any sort of clash or conflict work in an RPG battle system. For example, I just saw yesterday that a group is making an RPG-esque cookoff game. It's like high fantasy meets Iron Chef.
Desertopa
775
author=LockeZ
"What type of attack works best against tastes-like-orange-tang elemental enemies?"
"...Doesn't-taste-like-orange-tang?"
I should have known that there would be other people who've read Adventurers! on RMN.
But the actual weakness of tastes-like-orange-tang element is spinach.
Here's something else I'd like to see. On the opposite end from the magic-centric RPG idea, I think it would be cool to see an RPG without any magical elements. The setting could be drawn from another world whose history doesn't correspond to our own, but the mechanics would be entirely mundane. I'd also like to take the chance to do away entirely with in-battle healing. It could have real time active combat, like, say, the Star Ocean games, making it not just possible, but necessary, to avoid enemies' attacks rather than just sitting there like a bullseye and taking whatever they throw at you.
RyaReisender
200
Actually that just inspires me to something:
A game where battles are like quiz game shows! Like real quiz questions from real life being asked and a correct answer will result in a successful attack (or something).
I like RPGs and I like quiz games, so why not?
A game where battles are like quiz game shows! Like real quiz questions from real life being asked and a correct answer will result in a successful attack (or something).
I like RPGs and I like quiz games, so why not?
Desertopa
775
author=LockeZ
I keep wanting to make a game where battles play out like an RPG battle, but there's no enemy. And no combat. It's not a fighting game. Maybe some kind of performance, like a concert, or even a sermon.
Instead of the goal being to reduce the enemy's HP to zero you'd have some other bar you had to reduce to zero or fill to 100 in order to win each "battle." Like maybe you have to increase the crowd's enthusiasm to 100% to win, but if their attention decreases to 0% or you run out of time points, you lose.
Instead of different enemies you'd have different situations. The time of year, the location, the makeup of the crowd, and other factors would cause the crowd to have different stats, which affect what they do and how effective it is, and how effective your skills are on them. They might have elemental resistances, cause various events to occur during the performance, etc, and you'd have a wide variety of skills to deal with different situations. Your skills would cost some equivalent of MP and have cooldowns and cause status effects and everything else you'd expect from an RPG - the meaning of everything would be totally different but deep down it would very much be an RPG.
For example, if I were doing a game that used this system for preaching sermons, where you have to increase their enthusiasm to 100 before their attention decreases to 0:
- You use Classical Hymn (puts 5-15% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (tradition elemental) (costs 5 music points and 7 time)
- Crowd uses Speak in Tongues! Crowd is now vulnerable to worship status but resists tradition!
- You use Contemporary Christian Music (puts 4-12% of crowd into "worship" status, tripling their vulnerability to all skills) (enthusiasm power: 5) (uplifting elemental) (costs 8 music points and 5 time)
- Crowd uses Lift Up Hands! Your next skill is super-effective!
- You use Gospel Solo (uplifting elemental) (enthusiasm power: 15) (costs 20 music points and 5 time) (once per battle).
- Crowd is getting edgy! Attention drops by 10. Music effectiveness halved for remainder of battle!
- You use Illustrative Story: Humor (restores 30 attention) (casual elemental) (diminishing results if used multiple times per sermon) (costs 3 time)
- A baby is crying! Crowd attention and enthusiasm drop by 5.
- You use Opening Prayer (sacrifice 10 attention to double power of all actions except illustrations for 5 rounds) (costs 1 time) (lose 4 enthusiasm if at least 30 time has been used) (usable once per sermon)
and so on and so forth
I've actually just started playing a game which does something very similar to this, and it's pretty good so far. I'm planning to submit a review of it for Reviewrim, so I should have more to say about it soon.
RyaReisender
200
I'm pretty sure there are some games without real battles. For example Sequence.
Catherine as well, though I wouldn't really consider it an RPG (though it's said to be an RPG/Puzzle hybrid).
Aaaaaand... even more accurate, there was a Kickstarter once about a game that's pretty much exactly that, unfortunately I don't remember the name... hm...
After 20 minutes of searching I actually found it for you.
Catherine as well, though I wouldn't really consider it an RPG (though it's said to be an RPG/Puzzle hybrid).
Aaaaaand... even more accurate, there was a Kickstarter once about a game that's pretty much exactly that, unfortunately I don't remember the name... hm...
After 20 minutes of searching I actually found it for you.
