SubJeff on 15/4/2019 at 11:47

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Inspired by henke's September Games thread.

A "Reverse" Shoot-Em Up - to music

Remember the mothership in R-Type? You destroy it bit by bit. This was kind of inspired by that.

In this side scrolling game you control a Defender. Not a Fighter - a Defender; a ship with no guns but which has a shield that makes it indestructible. Your aim is to be a bullet sponge, intercepting all the shots fired from a mothership that is flying over Earth and trying to bomb, shoot, laser etc the planet - instead of avoiding them, you must block them.

Each type of weapon fired needs a slightly different approach to stop it e.g.:

* Bullets are neutralised but fire in streams so you have to stay under the stream until the magazine runs out.
* Bombs fall slowly and explode. Some can be bounced back at the mothership.
* Missiles are faster than bombs and have some evasion abilities.
* Lasers bounce off and can redirected at the mothership.


You cannot destroy the mothership, but you can damage some of it's weapons.

There are any number of takes on weapons to make neutralising different types interesting. Later on some anti Defender weapons come into play. Smaller missiles that drop below you and then try to hit you from below, thus bypassing your stronger upper shield. This cannot destroy you, only stun you.

You can get a drone so that you are controlling two "Defenders" and using them together unlocks some abilities; if you are close enough this extends your shield, if you are far away you can charge and fire an electric blast that links you to the drone. The further away the weaker the effect of the blast. You charge it by taking hits from certain types of weapon. I'm imagining using a thumbstick each on a PS4 controller with the charges on the triggers. You could charge one or the other, or both, for different effects.

As you cannot be destroyed how do you lose? By allowing the mothership to destroy X% of it's target on that level. So you've got buildings and farms and so on below you.

That's the basic concept.

Let's flesh it out a little.

Firstly, the mothership and it's weapons, and order of fire, are procedurally generated based on music. You select the track and the beats and rhythms generate the rhythm of the level. This is about timing in many ways as you have to block a bomb, then a laser, then a canon, then two machine guns, etc, and you as it gets harder more than one thing will fire at once. The music is your que though, so if you know a big drum solo is coming up you'll know the rhythm of the gameplay. The tracks in the game would be drum and bass, e.g. LM1, Nelver or even Black Sun Empire, and you could add your own tracks for analysis (though not all would be deemed suitable).

The idea is to get a rhythm going and riff on the music as you play.

Second, this can be a 2 player co-op game. 2 Defenders + 2 drones = 4 "ships" that can do things together. Charging in a diamond formation will do something new, as will all bunching up or being in straight line. Bouncing a bomb from Defender 1 to Defender 2 might charge it up, and so on.

I haven't seen this type of bullet sponge game before. Someone direct me if I'm wrong.

demagogue on 15/4/2019 at 12:41

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I thought you were going a different direction with a reverse shmup, as in you play the mothership and send your legions of fighters and level boss ships to take out the lone hero fighter as he sidescrolls (or upscrolls) his way to you, and for each successive level you face a more adept hero fighter.

More generally, I've always liked the idea of playing the aliens that invade earth, or even more generally, flipping any genre so you're the bad guy playing against the hero. The interactive fiction Lock & Key is a really funny take on this (creating a series of traps in a dungeon to keep a hero from breaking out ... done in a very funny way).

Another idea I liked is to have a 4x galaxy grand strat game except it's retro-futuristic WWII Axis vs Allies or Cold War Democratic West vs Communist East Cold War style.

I feel like I've posted a lot of my best ideas already though.

icemann on 15/4/2019 at 13:28

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I have a whole text file filled with ideas for games. I'll post the ones I'll likely never make, as their either way beyond my programming / skill level, or just ones I'm unlikely to ever try to make (some are more fleshed out than others):

Connect The Dots / Dot Harry
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Game in which the player must (via their finger on screen in the iphone version and via the mouse with the left button down) traverse a level from 1 dot to the next until they reach the end. Various obstacles will obstruct the players progress which under certain conditions (ie with the right powerup) they can break through for a quicker path. Player can only move in straight or diagonal lines from dot to dot. Player can not move backwards, only forwards.

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Elementalism
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Game Idea:

Puzzle / Strategy game in which players begin with 4 pieces each and move about a tiled board seeking to defeat their opponents. New pieces are gained via placing a piece above and below (in vertical, horizontal or diagonal directions) 1 or more pieces, causing a conversion of all pieces inbetween to the attacking player. Each player moves all of their pieces then play moves to the next player and so on.

The elements to choose from are the primary elements of earth, fire, wind and water each of which comes with special abilities unique to that element that may only be used once per battle.

Singleplayer Campaign:

In singleplayer the player has no special abilities to begin with and accumulates "Elementalism" the currency of the game as they absorb/defeat individual element squares. This currency can then be used at the ingame shop to buy things. On starting a new game the player must pick the element that they would like to go.

Shop:

Here the player can buy:

* Increase initial starting amount of pieces
* Special Abilities

The upgrades and item choices available will be different from element to element. So for example if the player had chosen "Earth" then upgrades and options unique to that element would only be shown etc. All upgrades collected / bought will be unlocked on future play throughs of the game.

Special Abilities:

These can only be used once per battle and can only be used by the element that the ability is associated with and comes with risks attached in some cases. Level 3 abilities may only be used when 10 or more units are present on the board.

Earth:

Level 1:

Quick Sand - The ground around a single unit chosen temporarily turns to quick sand
converting 1-2 enemy units in the process. 25% chance of enemy unit
squares affected (those already chosen for conversion) being eliminated
entirely rather than being converted.

Level 2:

Rise - Raises 2-3 new earth units at the chosen location (squares chosen selected randomly
surrounding the chosen tile).

Level 3:

Earth Quake - All squares surrounding the chosen square are hit by an earthquake causing
a 65% chance of complete elimination to all units affected (including friendly
units). 25% chance per square of it (the square on the board) of being removed
and thus be unable to have any units placed on it for the remainder of the battle.

Wind:

Level 1:

Gust - Moves 2-3 units in the selected area in a random direction 1 square. 45% chance of
new units being placed in the enemies former squares.

Level 2:

Speed - Gain 1 extra turn once existing turn is completed.

Level 3:

Tornado - All units (including friendly units) are sucked into the air by a tornado with a 65%
of complete elimination. Those not eliminated appear back on the board at random
locations.

Water:

Level 1:

Rain - Rain hits all squares surrounding the square selected. 45% chance of 1-2 new units being
placed. 45% chance of fire element units being eliminated from the battle entirely.

Level 2:

Flood - A flood of water affects the selected area. 50% chance of each tile affected becoming
flooded with only water units being able to use the square for the remainder of the
battle. 25% chance of 1-3 new units being placed on flooded squares.

Level 3:

Wave - A wave of water sweeps across the area surrounding the square selected. 65% chance of
complete elimination to each unit affected. Those not eliminated are moved 3 squares
all in the same direction.

Fire:

Level 1:

Spark - Sparks of flame hit the area surrounding the square selected. 45% chance of complete
elimination to 1-2 units.

Level 2:

Blaze - A huge blaze engulfs the affected area. 45% chance of 2-3 new units being placed.
65% chance of conversion to 2-3 affected enemy units.

Level 3:

Explosion - 100% chance of all units (including friendly) being eliminated in a blaze of flame.
35% of each affected square being burned to a cinder and only being able to be used
by fire units for remainder of battle.

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Artificia:

Game in which you begin "life" as a computer virus and must take over a computer, then from there take over a building, then the city, then the country, then the planet, then onto galaxy wide conquest or peaceful diplomacy. All throughout the game the player is presented with choices which have knock on effects to later game play and later game choices (ie the choice be made available to assimilate / turn into a cyborg the owner of the first computer you take over, or befriend him to enhance your program which leads to an increase in research options and new abilities like diplomacy).

Each stage in the game from computer, to building etc should equal in play length and present multiple challenges and have their own element of risk vs reward as well as resource management required to complete tasks. For example in the computer stage perhaps the then virus might have a ticking down timer till they are caught/detected by the computers anti-virus software or (ICE software if we go down the cyberpunk route).

The game is set in alternate reality which follows far more of a cyberpunk slant than realistic and so players will need to think outside the square / creatively to solve problems of how to spread themselves across the given play area without being detected, and or how to best take on opposition when detected (opposition will be based on both time period, country and stage).

Country and time period are both randomized on play creation so players will need to think on their toes for every new game they play as just how they would take over the given area would greatly differ based on those factors.

Players can choose to play good or evil in tasks, which has knock on effects to later events, abilities and choices. The ultimate goal of the game depends on play choices, but if taking the "good" path be the settlement of a colony on a new planet free of Earth or the conquest of the galaxy (not the entire universe) in the evil path.

The game starts off very simple and gradually expands in both difficulty and complexity as the player proceeds from stage to stage.

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Lost without words:

Game in which you awaken in a room in a pool of your own blood with no memory of who you are, how you got there, or even of how to speak.

Your only tools are pieces of paper with individual words on them, which can be used to string together actions and sentences (for example say you have "push", "statue", "right" then if he player was next to statue they would attempt to push it to the right) to perform actions. Actions early on would be basic in nature, but as the player acquires more words would increase in complexity, as would the complexity of the puzzles.

Careful consideration would need to taken to work out all possible word combinations based on the players location.

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Pong-Tris

Think tetris and pong combined. Tetris pieces come from the 4 sides of the screen, it is the players job to bounce these away to the spots they are needed. The spots indicated are shown on screen for where the player is to bounce them to. If a tetris piece reaches the center, the player loses a life. If all lives are lost, game over.

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Sea Battle

Turn based sea battle in which players each place their 5 ships on a grid shaped board (each player has their own half of the board). Once both players place their ships, battle commences with all ships within range of each other firing once. Once each ship has shot once, players must then place their ships again and so forth. The winner is declared once the 5th turn is completed and who has done the most damage to their opponent wins, or if all ships from a team are defeated. In the event of a tie, the game continues until one side has done more damage to the other.

The 5 ships the players each get to choose from vary in attack range, damage and health.

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Mouse

Game where the players attempt to get their mouse to head through a maze in-order to reach the cheese which is at the center.

This game could be done 1 of 2 ways.

1 - Strategy game where players place items to get the mouse to move the way they want
OR
2 - Players control the mouse directly, and multiple amounts of cheese are throughout the maze.

This one with the right game elements could be good.



Of the above the one I could see succeeding the most (money wise) would EASILY be Artificia, as it has a very "Spore-ish" type take to it, and then goes in a more X-COM direction (except that your the invader), and has a strong "invasion of the body snatchers" vibe to it, if you go the evil path. That game is SO BEYOND my game making skills that I know I'd never get it done unless I worked on it for like 10 years. But if you can picture it starting off in a 2D scrolling shooter style with your ship being the last surviving bit of the virus, attacking the computers anti-virus software, which if you succeed then moves onto different genres (isometric city view, and isometric turn based battles etc etc) from then on, as the game progresses. I'd play the shit out of a game like that.

Lost Without Words I quite like as well, from a artistic standpoint.

Pyrian on 16/4/2019 at 06:52

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Bob Page Simulator

You start with a bunch of facilities and an evil plan that depends on a set of outputs from those facilities over time.

Turn sequence goes as follows:
A) A pesky Cyborg destroys one of your facilities at random.
B) Study the facility for clues as to what abilities the Cyborg has. "Lots of burned bodies here..."
C) Purchase equipment for your remaining facilities, trying to match equipment to known Cyborg abilities. "Let's get fire extinguishers!"
D) Try to reroute production to keep your plan going forward. "We need those containment plans from the sub base..."
E) The Cyborg gains a random ability. Repeat!

End game: When you run out of facilities, the Cyborg comes for you. Is your evil scheme ready? Do you have the right equipment to stop the Cyborg?