Metagame Reboot - YOUR PARTICIPATION IS REQUIRED!

Got a project? Want some help, ideas, advice, or just want to get the word out? This is your place.
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Postby Destiny » 2010.09.23 (11:20)

Weapon/Tool idea: Electric gun (needs a new name)

A very short range gun, that either gives or takes power from various equipment located through the game - e.g. electromagnets. In order to turn them on, shoot them with the gun. If one is already on, shooting it will turn it off. Can also be used on other devices like treadmills, turrets(?), computers(?), and elevators.

Will have no effect on other robots (or at least not on most). This is a utility gun which serves primarily as a means to solve puzzles, not a weapon.
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Postby el_devo. » 2010.09.23 (12:00)

I think that we should go ahead with the magnets idea.

I'm not really sure how I can help, but if somebody asks me to do something I'll see what I can do.

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Postby Ignate » 2010.09.26 (06:06)

Nice. The electric gun sounds pretty good, could be renamed... switch gun? Circuit (manipulator) gun? Something. EDIT: But it would defeat the purpose of exploring the level to find a switch. unless the gun runs on limited battery cells or whatever. I still think it can be implemented somehow though.

The morality thing does sound pretty solid, but simplifying it... could boil down to the weapons idea? And maybe a few cutscenes? Maybe when creating userlevels, the player can choose what items binbot starts with? I'm wondering how his actions affect the weapons he gets though, since we have variables of kill count, significance of enemy (boss or named NPC etc), enemy affiliation (neutral, bad etc) and maybe cured robots (though probably not the case if the cure is only found at the game's end, which is less sound gameplay-wise). In a userlevel, can he, through these factors, get more weapons, gets only a player-set inventory, or the weapons are scattered throughout the level?

I'll point out a game called Iji, which uses a similar system. The storyline of the game is affected by Iji's kill count, what items she picks up and how she uses them. Gameplay is also changed slightly. She can get an upgrade by killing a boss a certain way. Killing loads of guys causes her to be feared by the enemy government, and she goes a bit crazy. Killing few makes her a pacifist, but you still have to fight the endboss.

In the end, though, her weapons are not directly affected by her moral choices. However, having zero kills (thus only having very basic weapons and less puzzle-solving) allows an NPC to give her an insanely powerful weapon against the final boss. Though only on the final boss, but it's still quite satisfying, seeing the weapon is basically a screen-exploder.

Right, basically the morality weapons thing could work. I'm assuming the magnet's still the primary gadget for whatever moral path, so maybe... upgrades? Like more levitation power for good, while for bad he could have a railgun-mass driver sort of thing. I'm still wondering about the variables though.

Oh, and if magnets are in, I'd like to see binbot deflecting missiles kthnx.

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Postby Geti » 2010.10.04 (07:08)

I'm back, still busy but figured this could use a bump and some more input.

I think the switch gun is quite a neat idea, especially if it can be used for stunning some enemies (anything metallic perhaps).
Repelling/attracting/slingshotting grenades and rockets would be an awesome feature for the magnet, it'd make it an integral part of the game.
I think the binbot needs some sort of arm design. I might scribble something when I get back tonight, but I might just sleep. Actually, I've got to run, I'll muse more later.
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Postby Destiny » 2010.12.15 (17:13)

Since this has clearly died I have a slightly more managable idea in mind. The main inspiration for it actually came from N game. The core idea is running around in a 2D platforming environment, and using the mouse to aim and shoot. The objective is fairly simple - defend a specific spot of the map from oncoming enemies.

It's a lot more intuitive than it actually sounds when summed up in two sentences. The place you must defend could be somewhere totally inaccessible to the player - imagine having to shoot far above you between platforms to kill the enemies before they reach the far side of the screen, reverse space invaders style. The level design scope would be enourmous.

Then there are several innovations we could make to the game mechanics that would spice it up that little bit. Enemies could come in steadily tougher waves. The defence area (or for ease of this analogy i'll just refer to it as the 'zone' from now on) could change over time, or with each wave. On tougher levels, you could have two or three areas to defend at once. Powerups could be placed in maps - temporary ones that are close by and easy to pick up (think speed increase, power increase, rate of fire increase), through to permanant ones that are further away and require the player to put the zone at temporary risk (new guns, permanant speed increase (of a small amount), unlockable flavours?).

I think it would make some brilliant gameplay if done correctly. It goes without saying that there will be some variety in the enemies and what they do. Some may aim for the player rather than the zone, etc.

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Postby ℎalifax » 2010.12.16 (09:16)

Destiny wrote:Since this has clearly died
Blasphemy!


With regards to the meat of your post, I have to say I find the idea inherently unappealing. I for one have never found the 'defend the zone' aspect of most any video game enjoyable and have in fact audibly groaned whenever I anticipated such a situation arising. Did anyone actually enjoy that turret shootout in the prison in Half-Life 2, valiantly holding fort in a tiny featureless room while hordes of enemies continued undeterred on their campaigns to knock down your carefully arranged turrets? I know I didn't.

But my reasoning goes beyond mere personal preference. This type of gameplay decision not only creates a repetitive feel throughout (especially if it is used as the core mechanic), but it limits a key aspect of any type of game, player freedom, which is something I've always held should not be encroached upon. While such a concept can be undeniably effective, especially when plot-appropriate, there is no question that when you're forced to protect a specific area, your freedom of movement as well as of expression are severely hindered. This can be okay in the context of a longer and more varied game, as I've stated, but using it as the core mechanic leads to restrictions on both the developer and the player.

I'm of the belief that a player should have a free and self-motivated gaming experience, at least for this game we're working on, and this is the same reason I'm opposed to the notion of time limits - it detracts from the player's creative potential for innovating solutions to problems by adding an unnecessary distractor. The inclusion of set-objective-based gameplay is hardly conducive to this vision of creative freedom.


Incorporate your suggestion to mix up the pacing between other, differently structured levels? Be my guest.
Incorporate it as the sole mechanic for the entire game? Not so likely.
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Postby Destiny » 2010.12.16 (15:23)

Your argument is good, but I do believe that in fact does boil down to personal preferance. I've always said that the best part about Call of Duty: World at War was the nazi zombies mini-game. That still stands true in Black Ops (though admittedly only because they're both shit games made by treyarch). Defence games have been wildly popular on the internet online games categories, and I know a lot of people who enjoy defend-the-area style gameplay besides myself.

The problem metagame has always had is scope. We always write up these designs for huge games with complex physics, mechanics and/or concepts. This game that I have suggested is actually managable, and can still create some great gameplay (which is obviously subjective, but whatever). I feel if we try to make a game that gives the player 'freedom of movement', as you put it, then we will be aiming out of our scope once again. Although there is a lot of talent in this community, we need to realize that so far we have been posing ourselves as fully professional indie game developers, and we simply aren't. We need something simpler, and this is just my pitch. Take it or leave it.
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Postby Geti » 2010.12.17 (07:41)

http://1bardesign.steamwise.org/rvr/

Want me to grab bits of the engine for that, strip back the art assets and open up the source? It already supports mouse aiming, level loading from a string, multiple entities per team... Uh, yeah. It's currently incredibly fast paced but that's only due to to the content.

Don't know about you guys but I've been making games.
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