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Game like Everything - need game mechanic ideas (brainstorming)

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by yoonitee, Dec 23, 2018.

  1. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    I have been building a game a bit like Everything. I.e. you can grow and shrink from basically the size of the universe to an atom.
    You can pick up things put things down, climb on things, fly about and shoot things.

    But basically I need some ideas how to make it into a game with a goal or enemies or things like that.

    One idea i had was that your goal is to collect dna from different alien animals in the universe to make a super organism. But maybe that might be too boring. Any ideas?
     
  2. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Did you play spore by any chance?
    Could be some potential good starting point, for ideas in that matter?
     
  3. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Yes, I quite liked Spore. Mind you, it did get a bit repetitive. I didn't get much further than stage 2. I'll have to have another go of it on different stages.
     
  4. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Spore had quite short most of stages.
    But idea may be of collecting parts / DNA.
    Or look int like KSP format, with thech tree.

    You can mix both ways as well.
    Just a thoughts
     
  5. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Hmm, well the whole idea of building things from recipes etc. has been done lots of times. But if people like it. Why reinvent the wheel.

    The other idea I had was something like slither.io where you grow when you eat things. But really I want it the other way round where you start off big.

    So maybe I'll have it where you have a certain time limit before you go back to a big size again. Kind of like the film Inner Space.
     
  6. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    Screenshots! Video! Or it doesn't exist!

    Seems like you could easily get carried away with something like this. My initial ideas involve chasing after some villian who is a gnat one second, a meteor tens times the size of the sun another minute, and a virus the next. But that's just ridiculous isn't it.

    I think seeing what you've got in action might make coming up with interesting idea's more useful.
     
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  7. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Yes, I did think about having some sort of spirits that you would chase into the galaxies and they'd keep disappearing into things or leave a trail where the thing they "dived" into would glow.
    But I was thinking in the end that's kind of linear in the sense that you'd search for a glowing object, jump on it, shrink, and repeat. Until you're both the size of atoms and you'd have some sort of fight.

    Other mechanics I was thinking of was the kind of "Eat me" "Drink me" from Alice in Wonderland. Where you find potions to grow and shrink.

    Another one I was thinking of which is a bit tenuous is that certain galaxies/worlds/object are blocked off by evil spirits/force-fields and you have to find some sort of keys to open them.

    Another one is that you consume various objects to get energy to resize. So you might eat a galaxy or a tree depending on what scale you are.

    Another one would be that they'd be various aliens round the Universe that you'd have to ask questions to get the clue to the next alien. This might be a good one. The aliens could be different sizes like a planet sized alien and a gnat sized alien and a galaxy sized space dragon or a Universe sized god-like being...

    But still haven't thought of the "killer idea".

    BTW It will be set in a future "dying" Universe where most animals have gone extinct. (Because I'm not gonna make a million animals for this thing! I'd rather have fewer things with more personalities.)
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2018
  8. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    This is likely because you're trying to work backwards from a systems idea rather than starting with the killer idea and working towards the systems that would best facilitate it.
     
  9. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Yep. Could be. And then you end up with a sandbox game.
     
  10. ClaudiaTheDev

    ClaudiaTheDev

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    I think it is hard to give ideas because of no video or screenshot. Growing and shrinking could mean a lot and guessing won't help a lot.
    I think that growing and shrinking is just a mechanic. Players are motivated by goals. Perhaps you can beat an enemy easier with a specific size or reach new areas when you are small or big. But it's just a guess because I can't really imagine what the game actually looks and feels.
     
  11. BlankDeedxxAldenHilcrest

    BlankDeedxxAldenHilcrest

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    Seems like tools that could be used to make a pretty fun/complex space game.
     
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  12. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Well OK then. Here's an early version.

    This is like from over a year again so it's not exactly the same now. But you can get the general idea of the shrinking and jumping mechanic.
    You'll have to ignore things like the sky disappearing!
     
  13. BlankDeedxxAldenHilcrest

    BlankDeedxxAldenHilcrest

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    Holy S***, this could really be something special. Good work, by the way. I don't know why, but it keeps making me think of Black and White for some reason.
     
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  14. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Thank you! That's kind. My initial aim was to try and get something that smoothly interpolates from big to small. (Like the game "Everything" kind of cheats a bit with fades.) Just as a challenge really.
    I started making it before I knew of the game Everything so that was annoying as you can imagine!
    BTW, yes you can jump on the dinosaurs and ladybirds and ride around on them.
    So I've got this thing and it would be nice to add some game mechanic to make a simple game with it. But with two things in mind. Firstly not to try to put too much in the game ("Everything" already did that and it was kind of pointless in the end). Secondly to make it fun and have a purpose. If I can do those two things I think I could make a nice $5 indie game that people would enjoy. I would rather promise too little than too much!

    You mention Black and White. That has giant creatures which I think would be nice to incorporate aliens of different sizes. And Shadow of the Colossus has some similarities in that you can jump onto large creatures.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
  15. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    The video is very interesting. Nice concept.
    What you need, some form of challenge to shrink or grow. Not give this option straight away.
    Make some form of 'puzzle', where player would need find certain components.
    Make it logical. Look into world of chemistry and materials. I think is best thing you could make game of it.
     
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  16. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    BTW. If I put a video like the above one on Steam as a "coming in 2019" page. Do you think that is too soon? Or should I wait until I've got everything ironed out. Because on the one hand it would be useful to get feedback from the community on Steam but on the other hand, pretty much everything in the game might change including the title! (Yes, probably too soon.)
     
  17. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Yes I like the idea, but on some scales like galactic scale or atomic scale, I wonder what things you would collect? I guess you could start at a kind of human scale and then collect things like growth-potions and shrink-potions.
     
  18. BlankDeedxxAldenHilcrest

    BlankDeedxxAldenHilcrest

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    Too soon.
     
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  19. Antypodish

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    In space, is even easier, as more sci-fi free artistic touch you can apply.
    Collect asteroids.
    Look for planets with certain atmosphere, or none. or with supported life
    Look for gas giants.
    Look for dwarf planets
    Look for dying stars
    Look for red starts
    Look / avoid black holes
    Look for galaxies with certain starts / star systems types.
    Look for colliding galaxies
    Look for Binary system for example

    Check astronomical data, to get more ideas.

    Going opposite way
    Look for materials
    Look for chemical composites
    Look for biological structures, cells, organelle
    Then atoms
    quarks,
    you could go further as well

    Check this page, you may need firefox to run flash app. My opera and chrome failed to comply with old flash.
    http://htwins.net/scale/index.html

    This one works on chrome
    https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347
     
  20. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Did you know that Flash App is made by Cary H and his brother! He has a load of YouTube channels and he's only about 18. Smart guy.

    Good point that at larger and smaller scales there can be more artistic freedom. One thing I know people would love is a giant space-dragon. I guess you could treat space as kind of like the deep sea and have aliens "swimming" in it and eating planets!

    I'm kind of wary about making it too sciency. No Man's Sky kind of went down that route with their periodic table, and IMO that kind of too much like school work! It'd be nice to have a more fantasy style to set it apart. Well only magic could explain the shrinking mechanic anyway!

    So the idea so far... fly about in space [collecting magic/finding objects/killing dragons] to gain energy to be able to [shrink/grow] to the next level.

    Another problem might be, say you're in a forest, which tree is the one you should jump on and shrink down? Will it be any tree? Or will there be something marking out special trees? And then which leaf and so on. Perhaps some of the objects will glow once you have collected enough magic. Yes! I like it. :)
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
  21. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    My more point regarding being a bit more scientific, is familiarity, which makes game.more intuitive. I mean, you don't need to have right scale, or realistic DNA mechanics for example. But at leat you wouldn't.be putting.dna in galaxy scale. However, you could find some imaginary chemical materials, or.atom when visiting stars system etc.
     
  22. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Yes, I'd like it to be fairly accurate in terms of scale. Maybe take a little artistic license with the sizes of things because like if you look up at Mars in the night sky it just looks like a dot. Which might not make an interesting game. (But maybe it should be like that...) But then also layer a magical element on top. Yes, it might be fun to have certain chemical elements that are magical like "Magiciulum". (Chemical element 104?). Just like in Start Trek you have the Dilithium Crystals for warp drive.

    Yes, I like this idea of collecting things and that giving you power to shrink and/or show you the way. It's kind of like the mechanic of finding a key to unlock a door. I hope it's not too much like the slither.io game though. I think on human-scale there should be a slightly different game-play where you have to talk to aliens.

    In fact, on the galactic scale, I think maybe you could eat dark-matter or black holes. Something like that. I think eating a galaxy might seem a little cruel! And maybe if you don't eat the dying stars fast enough they could explode....

    One problem I need to avoid is the No Man's Sky problem of the Universe seeming a little empty....
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
  23. yoonitee

    yoonitee

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    Ooh I had another idea. Based on things said above. When you collect enough "magic" or something, then you could have a "vision" which might be of like a "binary star system with one red and one yellow star". And then that would be your clue to the next level.

    Lots of good ideas tonight! :) This is really helpful!

    BTW. At the moment I'm thinking the main character is going to be like a kind of djinn from the land of the Gods. And his mission is going to involve fixing the Universe which is collapsing from bad energy. He will have to do this by shrinking down and finding certain particles spread around the Universe. Maybe these particles have decayed into exotic matter and are causing the Universe to collapse! I'm envisioning him as a kind of blue glowing humanoid entity.

    On the other hand I kind of like my giraffe character.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
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  24. ClaudiaTheDev

    ClaudiaTheDev

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    I also think it's too soon.. But it looks really great and refreshing! The giraffe is so adorable when you make her in the polishing process a bit more iconic like crash bandicoot for example and polish the graphics a lot that game could actually be a great hit for consoles.
    Now I really get the shrinking. I think that actually you already have the feature to reach different places with different sizes. Maybe you have to find something and different sizes will help? What is the goal of the giraffe - perhaps world domination? Or perhaps saving her planet? I don't know but looks really nice!