Miscellaneous game ideas I will probably never have time to implement, deposited here.
This page has nothing to do with TASing.
These ideas mostly address adventure RPGs, my favourite genre.
Table of contents
Shopping
Point and click on shelves, the character walks there. "item, price, buy?"
Must pay on the counter.
Possibility of shoplifting.
Other people shop too.
I liked the scene in Star Ocean 2 when the player character's party
is talking to some clerk, and someone else comes and interrupts, also
addressing the clerk, totally ignoring the party.
Nonverbal communication
I liked the Prehistoric chapter of Live a Live.
In that, none of the characters speak a word. Instead, they emote a lot.
Speech bubbles exist, but they can only contain a single emoticon.
Can the same system work in sci-fi setting? Can you live and
function in a high-tech society, yet have no language based on words?
Technicians and coders who know their business, but they cannot talk; they use simple culture-independent gestures; they hear and smell perfectly.
Technicians and coders who know their business, but they cannot talk; they use simple culture-independent gestures; they hear and smell perfectly.
Volcano-rich world
Waterworlds are too common. Volcanoes are considerably rarer.
Okay, a short time after I had written this, coincidentally, a certain RPG that I frequented got implemented a lava and volcano filled continent.
Forest fires that travel continuously across the world, with vegetation
growing back before the fire comes again.
Origin of ancient ruins
Ancient ruins are a staple cliche of adventure games.
But who create ancient ruins?
Idea: In this game, you can design those dungeons.
Who create caverns?
- Pirates (maybe if the player becomes a pirate?)
- Crazy scientists and alchemists
- Normal people?
- Mole people (incl. dwarves)
- Dragons
- Divine people to test heros
- Nesting animals
why?
- Players create dungeons for other players for some competition purpose?
Books written in illegible language, providing hints for the dungeon's structure.
Intelligence gathered through the dungeon for understanding the books.
Talents
Star Ocean series has an extensive talents system. Extrapolating here.
- Observation: How deep level of details are perceived by default. Makes identifying stuff (including players) easier.
- Nutrition: For more powerful cooking
- Musical/rhythms?
Maximization of misery
Main article: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/story/rpg/design/#MaximizationOfMisery
The basic idea is to pull the rug off the players' feet every once in a while; just when you think it can't get worse, you get proven wrong.
The basic idea is to pull the rug off the players' feet every once in a while; just when you think it can't get worse, you get proven wrong.
Spirit world
This is actually based on a dream I had once.
Airplane or something like that is hijacked; the player character is there.
Then the airplane explodes.
The player character ends up in some kind of spiritual world.
In my vision the setting (place) was the (large) courtyard of a school I went to as a child.
There are lots of people in that area, still far from each others.
Graphical style is that of Final Fantasy IV.
A small halo surrounds each of them, as though a lantern in foggy weather.
Cannot reach anyone of them (they don't react or otherwise they cannot be contacted).
Or, when you become a spirit being yourself, you can contact them. The beings live in a timeless state; that is, when you are there, no actual human present there moves (it is a moment frozen in time). If you ask them why they live in that particular moment, the answer is that they do not; it is you who is in that particular moment. And then it is demonstrated how they view some other location in time. But you have to return to the same era; otherwise, returning to one's own body is impossible, because the "cord of life" is cut irrecovably.
Then the airplane explodes.
The player character ends up in some kind of spiritual world.
In my vision the setting (place) was the (large) courtyard of a school I went to as a child.
There are lots of people in that area, still far from each others.
Graphical style is that of Final Fantasy IV.
A small halo surrounds each of them, as though a lantern in foggy weather.
Cannot reach anyone of them (they don't react or otherwise they cannot be contacted).
Or, when you become a spirit being yourself, you can contact them. The beings live in a timeless state; that is, when you are there, no actual human present there moves (it is a moment frozen in time). If you ask them why they live in that particular moment, the answer is that they do not; it is you who is in that particular moment. And then it is demonstrated how they view some other location in time. But you have to return to the same era; otherwise, returning to one's own body is impossible, because the "cord of life" is cut irrecovably.
Protagonist, yet not a hero or a villain
The game tells some epic story, but the protagonist is an unimportant side character.
For example, a chef. The chef works in a restaurant. The "hero" and their party occasionally dines in that restaurant and chat with the chef.
The quality of the chef's service has a significant impact on the effect on the performance of the hero's party.
Idea: "We couldn't do it without the chef!"
Idea: "We couldn't do it without the chef!"
However, it must not concentrate too much on worshipping the hero: Otherwise, the clients leave,
and the heroes feel themselves embarrassed, and they leave too.
Multichoice type conversations with the hero.
The story of the game is revealed slowly through the discussions
between the chef and the hero's party.
Elemental cooking
The nutrition value of food is built on elements. Use elements in cooking?
- Fire: Boiling, torching
- Water: Soaking, solubion, dilution, thinning
- Earth: Burying
- Air: Wind-drying, smoke
- Thunder: Electrocuting
- Light: Illuminate
- Darkness: Sealing, preservation
Time travel
Oh yes.
An abundance of excess rooms
TASK: Solve puzzle
Item: Time travel machine
- You can travel to the past (not future)
- Into any room you have been to (not other rooms)
- Into any location you have been to (not other locations)
- These restrictions prevent one from abusing timetravel as a quick teleport to the puzzle's end
You must not do anything that conflicts with your past experiences
- If your former self sees you, game over
- If your former self notices a platform where there previous was none, or plants have been taken where there previously were plants, game over
Game over:
- Show the earlier self's conflict
- "?" in a thought bubble; Then the character just vanishes.
- If the conflict involves seeing a future self, he future one gets a "!" thought bubble.
- If the screen has middle selfs (after the earlier one but before the future one), then those vanish together with the earlier self, in a sequence. Followed by the next, and the next, and the next without the "?" bubble; Last, the current (future) one vanishes, and game over.
Always show a clock somewhere.
Timetravel of course changes the clock.
Timetravel of course changes the clock.
Loophole:
- Travel to a moment earlier than any former self's visit, and you may do changes that do not immediately cause a conflict. (Conflict occurs only if nobody will fix the timeline; predestination paradox)
- TODO: When to check whether the changes done were permanent?
Miscellaneous items
Sausage
Or some other item with no apparent use. And then you open doors with it.
A sausage shop where you can buy just one type of sausages and absolutely nothing else?
Or some other item with no apparent use. And then you open doors with it.
A sausage shop where you can buy just one type of sausages and absolutely nothing else?
Crodile named Julissi (I liked the Belgium entry to Eurovision song contest in 2008)
Lots and lots of items
Somehow, intentionally ruin the game for people who subscribe to the schools of Too Awesome To Use
- Diamonds of different tint
- Tint indicates chemical components present in the crystal
A plentitude of those diamonds
Some task for the diamonds to do - A shop where you can buy a raincloud
- You can ask what the cloud does.
You won't receive the cloud. Rather, it's a promise that a cloud will appear somewhere.
It will appear when you stand on an open field, and it will rain directly on top of the character, soaking him wet. And it will not go away. It will follow the character, even inside.
Gameplay
Technical note:
Point and click moving. The character walks to the spot. A light obstacle avoiding algorithm.
If the click is on an event activator, the activator is triggered when the character is at the
location, unless clicked elsewhere before that.
Activators can be view transitions, talking with characters, or accessing items.
Other
- If there is a girl NPC, her name must end with a .JPEG
- Because there are no girls in the Internet, except those whose name ends in .JPEG!
- Vegetation
- Nettles!